Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today as member for Barton and Minister for Indigenous Australians. Queen Elizabeth II's service and contribution to public life is rightly being remembered with appreciation across the world and, indeed, in this place today. Heir to the throne at 10; Queen at 25.

I was born four years after Elizabeth II was crowned. I grew up in a home where the Queen's picture was cut out of papers and kept. In the sixties and seventies, images of the royal family were everywhere. As a primary school student, we saluted the flag and sang 'God Save the Queen.' I also grew up not being counted as an Australian and not enjoying the same citizenship rights as others did. The monarchy was deeply embedded in the fabric of our popular culture and our identity as a nation.

No matter what your personal views, the collective outpouring of emotion in the days since the Queen's passing has been nothing short of remarkable. It clearly reflects the love and respect she inspired and the strong connections she built with people throughout the Commonwealth—indeed, the world.

In Aboriginal culture, sorry business is deeply important. Just this week, I have been to two funerals of women of Elizabeth II's generation: Aunty Esther Carol in Sydney on Monday and Aunty Neita Scott in Narromine on Tuesday, two extraordinary women born at a time in this country where they were subject to the horrors of a New South Wales welfare board, which rendered every Aboriginal person a ward of the state. It had total control. Both women grew up on Aboriginal reserves and experienced the yoke of the Welfare Board. But they were women of great determination and courage and, like the Queen, full of grace and dedicated to service.

For many Indigenous Australians, the legacy of the monarchy is fraught, a complex, difficult and painful reminder of the impact of colonisation. This week has seen many wrestling with the swirling emotions, as Stan Grant has said. But, equally, there are many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have respect for the Queen, especially as a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

The Queen's relationship with Indigenous Australians reflects both how far we have come and how far we still have to go. In 1954 she visited Shepparton in central Victoria. The Yorta Yorta people had taken up occupation across what was known as the Flats. It was considered too unsightly for the Queen's eyes, and the people were hidden away. Telling this story now is shocking, but at the time it is what it was.

But we have come a long way: the '67 referendum, the Mabo decision, land rights, the apology. And we have still much more work to do—more steps to be taken on the long road to reconciliation, more steps on the road to truth-telling and treaty. Because with each generation we make progress, it is my great hope that the years ahead bring us closer to fulfilling Australia's greatest promise. As the Uluru Statement from the Heart so eloquently states:

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs.

With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia's nationhood. Perhaps because of our relative powerlessness of the past 200 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people knew the implicit power of the Crown, when William Cooper in the 1930s circulated a petition and had it sent to King George VI.

The hallmark of Queen Elizabeth is a life of service. She worked to leave the world a better place than she found it through fostering unity and common purpose and by acknowledging those less powerful and less fortunate. In this way, she was so similar to the women like Esther and Neita who lived lives of service that should inspire us all. I believe deeply that Her Majesty understood in a very real way the concept of sovereignty never ceded.

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