Calling geoscientists to act for reconciliation
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which our research infrastructure and community operate across the Australian continent, and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We recognise the connection they have with land, sea, sky and waterways for tens of thousands of years. Artwork: artist Jessica Johnson of Nungala Creative
Today marks the beginning of National Reconciliation Week. In its twentieth year, First Nations people call out tokenistic responses to reconciliation and ask all Australians to take action. We heed the call, and ask all geoscientists to, too.
Reconciliation, more than a word
Reconciliation Australia (RA) explains that the goal of the reconciliation movement is for a just, equitable and reconciled country. This will only be achieved when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First Peoples of this land, are able to equally contribute to daily life of the nation. Organisers ask people to speak up, ask the hard questions and take action during and beyond National Reconciliation Week.
To help us, they have compiled twenty actions for reconciliation, offering actions that are both safer and braver moves for each action — please visit the RA website (link above) for more detail on every action.
1 — Move from ally to accomplice
“Being only three per cent of the Australian population, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can’t raise the profile of important issues without allies. But what does a good ally look like?
Know how to be a better ally to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Step up, show up, be an accomplice. Disruption of the status quo is often necessary to achieve real change.”
2. — Call Out Racism
3 — It's all our history
4 — Know your local history
5 — Create culturally safe places
6 — Make reconciliation everyone's business
‘Make reconciliation part of the business of your workplace culture and decision-making. Practical, reportable actions will drive an organisation’s contribution to reconciliation internally and in the communities in which it operates. Start a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) for your workplace. If you already have a RAP? Join your RAP Working Group.’
7 — Drive reconciliation in education
8 — Aim higher in higher education
“Voices, systems of knowledge, ways of being, and the specific expertise of First Nations professionals and students are still fighting to be heard in universities and colleges.
Connect and work with First Peoples to improve the teaching of First Nations history, current affairs, and cultures in your college or university. Encourage your educational institution to fund research into frontier wars, massacres, and other areas of under-explored Australian history.
9 — Support self-determination
10 — Get your facts first-hand
11 — Act to protect First Nations cultures
12 — Support economic development
“Discrimination in employment, education and housing contribute to poverty today, but its roots go deep into generations of stolen wages, stolen land, historic exclusion, and discrimination.
Understand the historical causes of poverty and economic disempowerment through stolen wages dispossession, discrimination and exclusion. Find out ways you can support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander economic development and businesses via Supply Nation when searching for contractors, suppliers and products.”
13 — Understand political representation
14 — Challenge our leaders to take action on justice
15 — Buy from First Nations businesses
16 — Defend Land Rights and Native Title
“Australia’s First Peoples have defended their lands and waters, and asserted their rights to their homelands since the beginning of colonisation. Land justice is hard fought for and must be vigilantly guarded.
Educate yourself about the details and history of First Nations Land Rights and Native Title in Australia. Find out about Land Justice efforts and advocacy in your local area. Appropriately leverage your skills and sphere of influence in support.”
17 — Acknowledging Country
“Acknowledging Country shows you accept and understand that no matter where you are across this nation, you are on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands. It is a cultural practice, and also a political act.
Know whose Country you are on – resources like the AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia are a useful starting point, but go further. Know the difference between and Acknowledgement of Country and a Welcome to Country. Including the name of Country when posting letters and parcels. Encourage businesses you buy from to add an address section for this on ordering forms.”
18 — Care for Country
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have stewarded, nurtured and cared for Australia’s diverse environment and waterways for over 80,000 years. Environmental knowledge and activism must prioritise First Nations right to manage and self-determine their own Country.
Support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives systems of knowledge on our natural environment, including Seed Mob, the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation, Firesticks Alliance, and Yerrabingin. Learn about how climate change is going to directly affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Stand up in support for those it’s already affecting.”
19 — Speak up for languages
20 — Get involved beyond NRW2021
Help us create more inclusive geoscience in Australia
We are currently working to deliver our Strategy 2020 – 2030, in which we aim to ‘exchange knowledge and enable an inclusive and sustainable future for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians’ (Page 19).
READ: AuScope’s Strategy 2020 – 2030 to learn about our steps towards inclusive geoscience in Australia.
Together with our partners, we are starting to build a sense of how we can build capacity for the scientific community to enact inclusive geoscience through meaningful engagement with First Nations people at every stage of an Australian geoscience (research / research infrastructure) program, from design to delivery. For example in September 2021, we hope to run a co-designed and First Nations led or endorsed workshop at the Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference (AEGC), COVID-19 restrictions pending.
If you have ideas about how to make Australian geoscience more inclusive of First Nations people, please let us know. It will take all of us to make significant changes in our science, as we see taking place in places like New Zealand, and in other domains such as archaeology.
ACKOWLEDGING COUNTRY