Dr Evelyn Scott Memorial Lecture 2024
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 129 No 7, 27 September 2024, page 12.
The 2024 Dr Evelyn Scott Memorial Lecture, which is hosted annually by the QTU to bring people together in pursuit of justice for First Nations Peoples, has been delivered by Dr Janine Gertz, Research Fellow at University of Queensland’s Centre for Indigenous Futures.
The lecture, which is named in honour of Dr Evelyn Scott, an activist and campaigner for First Nations rights and social justice, was held at Parliament House in Brisbane with the support of Lance McCallum, Queensland’s Minister for Employment and Small Business and Minister for Training and Skills Development.
Dr Gertz (pictured) outlined her experience of campaigning for the Yes 23 Voice referendum in Townsville. She observed that First Nations people and non-Indigenous people wanted to understand the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the referendum proposal, and the referendum process, but this was offset by low levels of understanding of civics. Notwithstanding the racism that Yes 23 campaigners experienced and the result of the referendum, she provided a vision for a pathway forward.
In Townsville, the Yes 23 campaign drew together sectors of the community that usually confine their civic participation to their associated areas of political demarcation, but they became allies on this issue of structural reform. These included members of the Liberal-National, Labor, and Greens parties, together with small business owners, unions, conservation groups, Indigenous community organisations, and faith-based and multicultural support groups. Moreover, 6.2 million people voted to support constitutional change, and this represents a large group of allies for future reconciliation projects.
Dr Gertz went on to propose a shift in the politics of reconciliation that works towards inclusion, harmony, and unification, with programs of reconciliation that are less about becoming one and more about becoming many. After all, a liberal democracy should incorporate difference, plurality, and even conflict reconciliation. Dr Gertz proposed reconciliation that was about honouring and incorporating political difference in a manner that enacts honesty, respect, and justice.
Dr Gertz called for self-determining spaces that are not facilitated by government processes, in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can freely and creatively set about the work of determining priorities for First Nations peoples’ social, cultural, economic, and political development. Such spaces could be negotiated through treaties, agreement making, or other constructive arrangements that facilitate self-determination through terms of Indigenous self-governance.
Dr Gertz recognised that normalising Indigenous self-determination within and outside government requires exceptionally strong leadership from elected governments, and political leadership that does not reactively develop public policy in response to the latest polls. Such leadership must rise above the political power plays of minority partners or the scare mongering of the media.
Dr Gertz also called for political leadership within our education system to deliver curriculum reform. Political change in the future is dependent upon the citizens of this country truly understanding colonial history and the impacts of its historical legacy on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Moreover, there has to be greater emphasis on civics education at primary and secondary school level in order to build the political literacy and understanding of the political processes required.
Political literacy is more than merely understanding how the political parties work or how to vote − it requires the education curriculum to include some level of conceptual understanding of Indigenous self-determination and to shift the narrative about Indigenous peoples from the deficit-based discourse that so often describes them as the problem. Such thinking must be redressed through new approaches that highlight positive case studies and examples stemming from the exercise of Indigenous agency.
Dr Gertz also reaffirmed that reconciliation requires allyship from non-Indigenous people and broader understanding that reconciliation is a strategic and long-term game of setbacks and political gains.
The Dr Evelyn Scott Memorial Lectures, including the 2024 lecture, are available to view here: QTU Education Researchers :: QTU .
Craig Wood
Research Officer