Australian of the year calls for dialogue
Updated
Aboriginal lawyer, academic and activist, Mick Dodson, has been named Australian of the Year for 2009, an award made every year on this day, Australia Day.
It is recognition of an Indigenous Australian with a long list of achievements, including as Australia's first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. Professor Dodson is a Yawuru man whose people's traditional lands and waters are in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Currently, he's the director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. Today, as well as being named Australian of the Year, Professor Dodson is attending Australia Day citizenship ceremonies in Sydney.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Mick Dodson, Australian of the Year and veteran Aboriginal activist
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DODSON: Aah, I'm not sure, a whole range of emotions is running through my mind and ... I feel sort of elated, I feel worried, I feel nervous, I feel pride, I'm really happy that my country's honoured me in this way.
LAM: How do indigenous Australians view Australia Day because making this award on Australia Day really does tie it to the celebration of white settlement does it not?
DODSON: Yeah well the 26th of January is the day on which the first fleet of British people landed on Australian shores and many indigenous Australians are a bit uncomfortable about that and I understand that, and I share that view as well... it's really.. some of our people call it Invasion Day. We're a bit uncomfortable about that, I'm sensitive to that. But I think we should have a conversation about changing that. I don't have a particular date in mind or anything like that, it may be that after we have a conversation we all agree that 26th of January's ok, you know. Indigenous people say well look we've moved along, we've shifted a bit, we're a more inclusive society now, we know that the 26th of January is significant to some Australians, not to others, but we see it as a day when we all come together and we can celebrate who we are.
LAM: Well one suggestion was to shift the date to May the 27th, the day that the Aboriginal Australians were given the vote?
DODSON: Well you know that's another argument about that then, well that just talks about Aboriginal people, not about the rest of Australia. I mean it's a difficult thing to talk about a date. What we need to have a conversation about is, are we comfortable with the present date, is it inclusive enough, can we make it inclusive if it's not?
LAM: So you think a national conversation is a good point to start?
DODSON: Yes well there's no problem with having a conversation about this, having a dialogue about this and we ought to, we ought to talk about these things because some Australians don't feel as included in Australia Day as they ought to, and we ought to address that. We've got an obligation to address that I think.
LAM: Do you think though that there are more pressing issues at play here rather than the actual day for Australia Day?
DODSON: Oh of course there, of course there are but we can't put things in compartments, we can deal with a multitude of things at the one time. We've got to have these conversations, you can't say well we can't do this because we haven't done that, that's not the way the world revolves around.
LAM: Indeed, and one of the more important issues I understand that you think should be on the table is compensation for the stolen generations. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
DODSON: Well the national inquiry into the removal of Aboriginal kids from their families in the past made a recommendation, have made lots of recommendations. Part of those recommendations was there be compensation paid to the stolen generations. I mean that was a long exhaustive inquiry, went over two years, it examined the whole business of that, and it put forward a comprehensive recommendation as to how this compensation should be structured and how it should be paid. And I'm just calling on the Australian government to implement the recommendations of that inquiry.
LAM: And finally Mick Dodson, it's nearly a year since the deeply emotional apology by the Rudd government to the stolen generations. Given your experience in the field, do you think that apology made any difference?
DODSON: I think it made an enormous difference to us and I congratulate the Prime Minister for his leadership on this, and I should say our Prime Minister is leading the way when it comes to indigenous issues. I know that some of us are getting impatient with him because we don't think things are happening fast enough. But I think he's in there leading the way and he's making sure to dot his I's and cross his t's and we've got to be patient. But I'm certain that the apology has made an enormous difference to us and how we feel about each other.
