AceNewsDesk – When Milton Savage looks out on the turquoise waters of the Torres Strait, he sees a path for his people to take greater control over their futures.

Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Oct.18: 2023: ABC Voice News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe

The Kaurareg nation includes Possession Island, where Captain Cook claimed the Australian east coast for the British crown in 1770.

Since then, the nations of the Torres Strait have been locked in a battle for greater self-determination and regional autonomy, of which Saturday’s referendum on a Voice to Parliament was merely the latest chapter.

This is a black country, you know,” Mr Savage says.

Localised results from the referendum reveal just how differently Torres Strait Islanders saw their future compared with many other voters in Queensland, the state their homelands became annexed to in 1879.

Two polling booths on the archipelago’s largest settlement of Waiben, or Thursday Island, recorded Yes votes above 72 per cent, a near-reverse image of the statewide figure.

Two remote mobile polling teams that covered the outer Torres Strait Islands collected even higher percentage figures for Yes.

“The Voice to me was a stepping stone for addressing many other issues relating to the struggles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country,” Mr Savage says.

Not the first rejection

With the Voice defeated, Mr Savage and other Torres Strait Islanders will look elsewhere for the greater self-governance they desire.

Perina Drummond, whose ancestors hail from Mer Island, returned to her birthplace of Waiben during the pandemic, and took on the job of leading the Yes campaign locally.

Torres Strait Islanders, she says, showed they “definitely want change”.

“We still have the same issues we had to address from yesterday,” Ms Drummond says.

A shortage of suitable housing for families to live in and young people to move back to limited access to healthcare, and a bureaucracy stifling people’s ability to control their own land are chief among the concerns of people here.

“ It’s not the first time we’ve been said ‘no’ to before,” Ms Drummond says.

“It’s not the first time we’ve been in this position where we have to keep fighting for our communities, our families, our home.”

“We’ll come up with something else.”

A voice from the deep

What that something else looks like depends on who you ask.

Many leaders in the Torres Strait, including the heads of the two local councils, have championed the Masig Statement.

A four-point plan also titled Malungu yangu wakay, or the “voice from the deep”, the statement aims to secure regional sovereignty for the Torres Strait by 2037 — a century after the first conference of regional island councillors.

“ By virtue of our sovereign right,” it states, “we have the right to freely determine our political status and to freely pursue our economic, social, and cultural development.”

Robert Sagigi, a Wakaid elder whose clan is one of three on Badu Island, voted no to the Voice to Parliament, which he saw as “somebody talking on our behalf without consent”.

“Don’t set up an organisation to manage us because the organisation that you’re going to create is a monster that will absorb all the goodness,” he says.

His vision, which he has also championed for decades, is of the Torres Strait as an autonomous territory in free association with Australia — a model similar to some island nations in the Pacific.

In 2004, he was part of a group of Torres Strait Islander leaders who asked then-Queensland premier Peter Beattie to table a request for greater autonomy at a meeting of the Commonwealth of Australian Governments.

“We’re isolated and we want to run our affairs,” Mr Sagigi says.

“We’re tribal people. Now, we’ve got to action things based on the needs of our people, and if you can’t assist that need — if the kitchen is hot — get out.”

A Kaurareg traditional owner, Mr Savage says individual island communities in the Torres Strait are “crying out to establish their own economy” but he is open to a different approach.

“I am thinking I should just focus on my people and my own kingdom because it’s a waste of time for me to try and stand up, include, address and support issues that are being rejected by lower-minded people,” he says.

The Kaurareg people are setting up a prescribed body corporate to manage sea country in accordance with lore and custom.

“ We’ve got all these beautiful islands that we can do positive things, establishing our economic freedom to give our people their own right to engage in businesses,” Mr Savage says.

“We have got our sacred reefs and sacred rocks throughout this region and to protect that, we need some sort of income.”Loading…

Time for healing

Ms Drummond says “different agendas for self-determination in the Torres Strait”, coupled with Queensland’s own treaty process, did confuse some members of the island communities during the Voice debate.

Some Torres Strait leaders are observing a week of silence, and are yet to speak publicly about the referendum result.

Artist Rosie Ware, who has roots on Moa and Mabuiag islands, says Yes and No campaigners now have to present another vision for her people.

She supported the Voice and is “all for” the Masig Statement as well.

They have to find another way for us Torres Strait Islanders to go forward,” Ms Ware says.

“The money coming from Canberra is not filtering to my grassroots people … to the villages and communities.”

Meriam woman Betty Mabo, whose father Eddie’s High Court challenge led to the recognition of native title in 1992, says the fight for a greater say will continue.

“I am saying now, as a First Nations [person], as a Torres Strait Islander, we are not going to give up because we need our voice to be said in the parliament,” she says.

Despite the disappointment, there is a sense of calm on Waiben.

“Each and every one of us will go into their healing place because life goes on,” Ms Ware says.

“And we’ve got to get up, we’ve got families to tend to, households to tend to, work, and we’ve just got to go forward.”

AceNewsDesk – While the referendum on the Voice to Parliament suffered a resounding defeat on the weekend, states are pushing ahead with their own plans to implement one of the other main pillars of the Uluru Statement from the Heart — treaty.

Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Oct.17: 2023: ABC Voice News: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe

But while New South Wales has the biggest Indigenous population, it’s the only state or territory not to have already started the treaty process.

Treaties have been negotiated with Indigenous people in other former colonies around the world, including Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Norway, Finland, Greenland and Japan.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has said he remained committed to kickstarting treaty discussions with Indigenous people in the state.

So what might a treaty look like in NSW and what happens from here?

What is a treaty?

A treaty is a binding agreement between two or more parties that is used to resolve differences and set out the responsibilities and duties of each party.

In the colonial era, European powers often used treaties to strike agreements with Indigenous people about a wide range of issues, including trade and military alliances and how land would be shared.

But that never happened in Australia because the British never recognised First Nations people as the owners of the land, instead claiming it belonged to no one.

That’s the idea of “Terra Nullius”, which was overturned by the High Court in 1992 in the landmark Mabo ruling.

As well as historical treaties, countries like Canada also have “modern treaties” with Indigenous people, which aim to address historical injustices as well as set out a way forward in the future.

It’s that modern form of treaty that will be discussed in NSW.

University of NSW constitutional law expert George Williams described these sorts of treaties as “more akin to marriages than divorces”.

“They are actually about agreeing on mutual co-existence so everyone in the state has a sense of how we can move forward together with our First Peoples in a way that will lead to economic and social prosperity,” he said.

So what might be included in a state-based treaty?

After the weekend’s result, Mr Minns was keen to emphasise that a treaty in and of itself was a “blank document” — with the content entirely determined by what’s negotiated and agreed between the government and First Nations people.

That sentiment is backed up by Professor Williams.

“Treaties are a negotiated outcome, so there is no definite answer to what is in or out, it’s a matter of what’s agreed between governments and Indigenous peoples,” he said.

“What you commonly find in treaties is you do find issues relating to land, waters, you also find cultural heritage protections.

“And sometimes you do find references to reparations, whereby there is compensation for past wrongs. But these are all things that need to be agreed through a treaty process with all parties involved.”

But Euahlayi elder and Aboriginal tent embassy founder Ghillar Michael Anderson said without a federal treaty there were limitations on what state treaties can achieve.

“New South Wales cannot go beyond and negotiate outside of what’s in their (state) constitution,” he said.

“So whatever the constitutional powers over the New South Wales, that’s all they can talk about.”

Mr Anderson helped work on a treaty framework for the National Aboriginal Conference that was set up under the Whitlam government and believes there are key issues that can only be tackled at a federal level.

But he wants to see a state treaty address cultural water access to the Murray Darling Basin and coastal rivers, fishing arrangements, ownership and management of national parks, and access to sacred sites.

“Aboriginal people are saying we’re not going to take your land off you, but we want access to sacred sites, we want access and we want to protect them,” he said.

And he said mining royalties should also be on the table.

“We want royalties of course, if we agree with any type of mining or gas, there’s got to be royalties and they have to go to those nations where they’re getting it from, not to every Aboriginal person.”

Why is NSW behind other states on the issue of treaty?

In 1988 the then-prime minister Bob Hawke promised to make a treaty with First Nations people within two years, but that pledge was never delivered.

In the absence of federal action, over the past decade, other states forged ahead with beginning the process of reaching state-based treaties.

But in NSW, the Coalition government never proposed putting the issue on the agenda — and it was in power for 12 years.

Before it was elected in March, Labor pledged to spend $5 million on a year-long consultation process on treaty.

The state with the most advanced treaty process is Victoria.

What happens next and how long will the process take?

Mr Minns has so far been unwilling to put a timeline of the treaty process in NSW, warning there are “no easy answers” in the wake of the referendum result.

“ It’s important to note that in reality in New South Wales will require a treaty with 150 different nations in this state,” Mr Minns said.

“So it’s not a straightforward process.”

He pointed out that some other states had started the treaty process up to nine years earlier and still not reached an agreement.

“Now I’m starting the process in the full knowledge that it’s going to be complex and difficult.

“As difficult and long as that discussion will be, it’s not tolerable that it’s not begun in New South Wales when every other state has started it.”