Opening address at the Australia 2020 Summit

[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 3, No. 2  12 May - 9 June 2008 ]

by Indigenous University of Melbourne Law student Sana Nakata

Canberra 19-20 April 2008

I grew up between two Australia’s: one belonged to my father, the other to my mother. One was a story of dispossession; the other was a story of the dispossessors. One is a Torres Strait Islander history, the other a white Australian history. On the one hand, I was born to a privileged, middle-class family. On the other hand, I was born to an under-class: to a family that had not always been citizens in their own land, who had been denied their rights and too often, their dignity. To favour one history has often denied the other. So when I am asked to talk about my experience of Australia, it can be difficult to articulate. My experience of Australia has told me, over and over again, that it belongs to other people. That it only belongs to me if I choose one history over the other, and tell it as my own.

For too long, I believed that the multiple histories of Australia: histories of dispossession, settlement, war and migration just to name a few – have had to fight it out: not to win or be right, but simply to stay in the game – to stay relevant, to be heard and taken seriously. We’ve had to fight for our particular histories so that we can be sure that we’re entitled to call this place home. In an effort to have one history triumph over the other, we are sometimes compelled to deny those with stories different from our own. And that has never made any sense to me.

Because I grew up, like many Australians, pulled – without really knowing why – between different histories, between history and geography, between the past and future. But Australia exists in all these places. It exists in the geographies of where we are and where we came from. It exists in the stories of those who have always known this land to be theirs, and the stories of those who arrived seeking a place to call their own. Yes, this country exists around the BBQ and the sense of a fair-go. But it also exists beyond the BBQ and it exists for those who haven’t been given a fair go.

I believe the challenge is not to make any one experience of Australia the only experience – it is to make it but one story among many: to acknowledge that we all live among and between these different stories – and that is our common ground. I believe our challenge is to develop new conversations that weave these differences into a broader national narrative.

And so, we are here today, with a challenge from our Prime Minister to think in new ways about our country and ideas for its future. For me, it is difference and disagreement that can provide fertile ground for new kinds of thinking. Because we know that consensus is not always possible, that not everyone can be accommodated for, not every position reconciled. But I also believe that everyone’s views, informed as they are by different experiences of Australia, must be treated with respect, taken seriously and used productively. And I believe that we must be prepared to be challenged; that we should know when to hold our ground and when to change our mind. Difference and disagreement can help us find creative solutions, and develop innovative approaches and re-energise our commitments to this country, all it’s peoples and all their futures. It has been the lack of this kind of thinking that has shaped the first twenty-five years of my life. I do not want it to shape the next twenty-five.

So the Australia I imagine for 2020 is one that allows all our stories to be heard in a different kind of conversation. It is a conversation that needs to be present not only in our national debates and policy-making, but in our sense of humour, in our theatre and films and literature, in our schools and university halls, and around our BBQs. I hope that it can be a conversation that will facilitate new histories and new stories that will, slowly, begin belong to all of us. But most importantly, I believe it must be a conversation robust enough to expect difference, handle disagreement, and then keep moving forward.

Ladies and gentlemen, over the next two days we have the opportunity for this very conversation: it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Australia 2020 Summit.