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Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s radical take on history · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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  Speaker 1: every morning.
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  Speaker 2: To hear the latest episode, just say play the News
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  Speaker 2: from the Australian. From The Australian, I'm Claire Harvey. A
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  Speaker 2: special bonus episode of The Front for you today. It's
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  Speaker 2: the first in a series of episodes we're rolling out
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  Speaker 2: over the next six weekends. As part of The Australian's
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  Speaker 2: sixtieth anniversary celebrations, We've asked a handful of the nation's
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  Speaker 2: most eminent thinkers, commentators and experts to reflect on the
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  Speaker 2: past six decades. Their observations about everything from power and
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  Speaker 2: politics to science and identity have been published in a
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  Speaker 2: special edition Glossy Magazine out today. First up is political
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  Speaker 2: firebrand Senator Jacinta Numbi imp Price, the opposition spokesperson for
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  Speaker 2: Indigenous Australians, was the secret weapon of the No camp
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  Speaker 2: during last year's referendum on a Voice to Parliament. She
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  Speaker 2: felt the proposed advisory body wouldn't be effective in addressing
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  Speaker 2: the practical challenges faced by Aboriginal people in rural and
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  Speaker 2: remote communities. The voice was resoundingly voted down on October fourteen,
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  Speaker 2: with just over sixty percent of Australians voting against the
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  Speaker 2: constitutional change. Jacinta number MP Price has written today on
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  Speaker 2: the theme of history. She says, we need to be
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  Speaker 2: honest with ourselves about the good and bad aspects of
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  Speaker 2: our national story if we want to move forward together.
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  Speaker 2: That's today's episode.
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  Speaker 1: Our Australian story is not perfect. There are shameful chapters,
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  Speaker 1: but the arc of our history has been overwhelmingly positive.
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  Speaker 1: It's a story that has few historical parallels.
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  Speaker 2: That Senator Jacinta Numbi impro Price, reading an excerpt from
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  Speaker 2: her essay for The Australian.
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  Speaker 1: The ends don't always justify the means, but honesty is
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  Speaker 1: required if we're to move forward and reconcile as a nation.
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  Speaker 2: Her father, David, was a history teacher and a white man.
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  Speaker 2: He hails from Newcastle in the New South Wales Hunter
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  Speaker 2: although he has Irish heritage. He married Jacinta's mum, Woolbury
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  Speaker 2: woman and former Northern Territory minister, Bess Nomurai Price, more
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  Speaker 2: than forty years ago. They met in the town of
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  Speaker 2: Yondermu and later relocated to Alice Springs, where they raised
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  Speaker 2: Jacinta and her brother, Leonard. Jacinta's big brother died of
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  Speaker 2: cancer when he was just ten. She was three years
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  Speaker 2: old at the time. The Price has traveled widely, and
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  Speaker 2: young Jacinta had been around the world and seen every
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  Speaker 2: Australian state before her thirteenth birthday, but it was growing
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  Speaker 2: up on Walpury Country, her mom's country as part of
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  Speaker 2: a mixed race family with a history teacher dad that
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  Speaker 2: had a huge impact on how Price thinks about our
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  Speaker 2: collective past.
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  Speaker 1: I'm biased because my father was a history teacher, so
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  Speaker 1: I had no choice but to appreciate and value what
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  Speaker 1: history means.
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  Speaker 2: Just Into Numbing for Prise got her start, not in politics,
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  Speaker 2: but in showbiz.
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  Speaker 1: Ah.
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  Speaker 2: She worked as a singer songwriter throughout her twenties, releasing
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  Speaker 2: her first album in twenty thirteen. She describes her sound
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  Speaker 2: as a little bit country, a little bit folk, and
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  Speaker 2: a little bit soul, and the album was a tribute
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  Speaker 2: to her early life in the territory. Two years later,
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  Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, her mum, Bess officiated just Into, swearing
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  Speaker 2: in as a counselor on the Alice Springs Town Council,
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  Speaker 2: where she served until twenty twenty one. She ran in
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  Speaker 2: the twenty nineteen federal election but lost to incumbent Warren Snowden.
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  Speaker 2: The next time round, she got up, winning a Senate
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  Speaker 2: seat as a member of the Country Liberal Party, and
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  Speaker 2: her views on indigenous issues, domestic violence and colonization have
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  Speaker 2: been ruffling feathers ever since.
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  Speaker 1: The hard fact is that once modernity emerged across the globe,
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  Speaker 1: the hunter gatherer life was not going to last long.
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  Speaker 1: There is no alternative possible version of Australian history where
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  Speaker 1: Indigenous Isustralians would have been left alone to continue their
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  Speaker 1: way of life. The only question was about colonization by
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  Speaker 1: who and when, rather than if we're fortunate it was
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  Speaker 1: the British who arrived and not many of the other alternatives.
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  Speaker 2: In her essay for the Australian and in her recent
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  Speaker 2: political life, just Into not being proprised says, we have
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  Speaker 2: to talk frankly about the horrors some colonizers inflicted, like
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  Speaker 2: the massacres of Aboriginal men, women and children on the frontiers.
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  Speaker 1: We need to understand the atrocities that occurred so that
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  Speaker 1: we don't repeat history. But we also need to understand
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  Speaker 1: the good that occurred within our history, the way in
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  Speaker 1: which we forged a way of life together and created
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  Speaker 1: a unique shared Australian culture. I think we need to
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  Speaker 1: be able to instill pride within our children, within the
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  Speaker 1: generations to come, because if you don't have that sense
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  Speaker 1: of pride in who you are and where you come from,
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  Speaker 1: then we can't progress forward in a positive way, in
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  Speaker 1: a constructive way.
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  Speaker 2: Indigenous leaders have spent decades pushing for treaty, but in
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  Speaker 2: the twenty tens this morphed into a vision for something
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  Speaker 2: much more specific, a three phase process beginning with a
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  Speaker 2: voice to Parliament than a Macarata Commission, and then a
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  Speaker 2: treaty with First Nations people. Here's voice proponent and Cobble
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  Speaker 2: Cobble Woman, Professor Meghan Davis.
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  Speaker 3: Macarata is the culmination of our gender. It captures our
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  Speaker 3: aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people
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  Speaker 3: of Australia and a better future for our children based
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  Speaker 3: on justice and self determination.
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  Speaker 2: This became Anthony Albanesi's first pledge as Prime Minister.
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  Speaker 3: Present and emerging and on behalf of the Australian Labor Party.
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  Speaker 2: I commit to the ularu's statement from the heart and cold.
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  Speaker 2: Macarata is a Yong word that translates loosely to coming
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  Speaker 2: together after a struggle. The Macarata Commission, proposed in the
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  Speaker 2: Ularu Statement, was to focus on truth telling about Australia's
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  Speaker 2: recent history. But as a significant player in the thumping
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  Speaker 2: defeat of the Voice, Senator Price isn't a fan of
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  Speaker 2: Macarata either.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think we need truth telling. I think the
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  Speaker 1: concept of truth telling in the framework of Indigenous policy
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  Speaker 1: Indigenous Australians is more driven by this notion that somehow
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  Speaker 1: modern non Indigenous Australians have to compensate for what occurred
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  Speaker 1: to Aboriginal people in our country's history. I wouldn't suggest
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  Speaker 1: the idea of truth telling is a way forward because
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  Speaker 1: I feel it's more of a reinvention of history, a
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  Speaker 1: rewrite of history, if you like, we need to add
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  Speaker 1: to our history. Certainly there's a broader picture that's not
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  Speaker 1: being told that needs to complement what we've already been
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  Speaker 1: told about our nation's history, and I think that's what
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  Speaker 1: needs to be done through the education system, through our historians,
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  Speaker 1: but working together Indigenous and non Indigenous Australia in that
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  Speaker 1: way to fill that.
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  Speaker 2: Gap instead just enterprise backs a different kind of movement.
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  Speaker 1: I think the advancement movement is about taking a positive
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  Speaker 1: view of ourselves as a nation and in order to
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  Speaker 1: solve our problems, we need to get on board with
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  Speaker 1: one another. No more separatism. How can we push for
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  Speaker 1: separatism when many of us our DNA won't allow it,
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  Speaker 1: our family circumstances, our community circumstances doesn't allow for it.
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  Speaker 1: It's ludicrous, you know. The advancement movement, to me is
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  Speaker 1: about treating everybody equally, is about you know, I guess
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  Speaker 1: for me politically also is serving astronomer on the basis
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  Speaker 1: of need instead of race. It's about looking forward in
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  Speaker 1: practical ways and applying practicality to our everyday lives.
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  Speaker 2: Coming up, what just internompim for Price says about guilt
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  Speaker 2: and responsibility. It's The Australian's sixtieth birthday on Monday July fifteen,
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  Speaker 2: and we're diving into our own history. Join ours subscribers
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  Speaker 2: at the Australian dot com dot au and we'll be
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  Speaker 2: back after this break. Senator just inter Numpian for Price
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  Speaker 2: met her husband, Scottish Australian singer Colin and Lily, when
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  Speaker 2: they were both working in the music business. They married
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  Speaker 2: in a traditional ceremony and live in Alice Springs with
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  Speaker 2: their blended family. It's a busy household with Justinto's three
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  Speaker 2: sons and Collins one all growing up together. At last
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  Speaker 2: year's Great Voice Debate hosted by The Australian in the
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  Speaker 2: run up to last year's Voice referendum, she described her
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  Speaker 2: family's mixed heritage like.
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  Speaker 1: This, We've got a blended family. Boys that've got different
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  Speaker 1: backgrounds and heritage within them. You know, Marisian, French, Creole, Malay, Indian,
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  Speaker 1: you know, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, German, English. I think it's Chinese.
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  Speaker 1: A great great grandfather from Odam, Big Walbury. They're Australian
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  Speaker 1: kids and ultimately this is personal for US.
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  Speaker 2: Senator Price sees her own extended family dynamic reflected all
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  Speaker 2: around the country.
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  Speaker 1: We've got that shared unity. I grew up in a
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  Speaker 1: place like Gallas Springs. Everyone was of mixed heritage and
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  Speaker 1: you know, there was into marrying going on. And that's
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  Speaker 1: the case right across Australia. I mean in the cities,
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  Speaker 1: I think somewhere like eighty percent of those who identify
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  Speaker 1: as Indigenous and married to non Indigenous Australians. So we're
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  Speaker 1: mixing it up. You know, we are the Australian story.
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  Speaker 2: She says, the idea that modern Australians should bear the
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  Speaker 2: responsibility and the guilt for the sins of the past
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  Speaker 2: is holding us all back.
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  Speaker 1: I've spoken previously. I've written about the Connaistant massacre which
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  Speaker 1: occurred in my family's country, the last sanction massacre occurred
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty eight, and the fact that many of
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  Speaker 1: my Woppery family were murdered as a result of that.
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  Speaker 1: But that seventy five years after it occurred, we had
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  Speaker 1: a commemorative ceremony and invited those descendants of those who
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  Speaker 1: killed our family to say to them, look, we don't
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  Speaker 1: blame you for what happened in our country's history. We
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  Speaker 1: want to recognize these were hard times, but we are
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  Speaker 1: now together as Australia and as moving forward. And I
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  Speaker 1: think that was one of the greatest acts of reconciliation
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  Speaker 1: that I've ever been a part of. And it was
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  Speaker 1: just a natural process for my family. And so I've
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  Speaker 1: spoken about history and that context, but I think it
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  Speaker 1: was important that day to talk about positive effects elements
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  Speaker 1: of colonization, modernization, if you like, because it's rarely ever
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  Speaker 1: really highlighted or discussed. It's always within the lens of
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  Speaker 1: the horrors, the atrocities, and that everyone now has to
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  Speaker 1: compensate for what happened in our nation's history, and talk
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  Speaker 1: of reparations and all of those sorts of things, and
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  Speaker 1: we've got to move forward from that.
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  Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Christen Amiot with the support
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  Speaker 2: of Bianco far Marcus. You can read the full essay
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  Speaker 2: by Senator Gacinta NumPy Enterprise in the special edition Glossymag
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  Speaker 2: out today or online at the Australian dot com dot
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  Speaker 2: ju