Around 40 people gathered at the Greek Cultural Centre in Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, on Monday night to hear Victorian Labor politician Sheena Watt speak on the “Importance of The Voice in Australian Reconciliation.”
Watt was the first Aboriginal woman to serve as a Labor Member of Victoria’s Legislative Council. Before becoming a politician, she worked for Aboriginal health organisations and as a Constitutional Change campaign manager for the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples.
Jeana Vithoulkas, a board member of the Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM) who hosted the event, introduced Ms Watt, saying that we Greeks know “the importance of expressing our culture.”
“Yet, when we talk about our community, it’s not often that we have knowledge that the lives that we have built here as migrants and children of migrants have been done on stolen land,” Ms Vithoulkas said.
She relayed her story about how she first “learned about the Stolen Generation” through a woman called Lisa Belair, “who passed away some time ago.”
Ms Vithoulkas said that she met “Lisa at Melbourne University, as Christine Stewart” working as the Student Representative Council’s education and welfare officer.
A year later, Christine Stewart told her that her “real name was Lisa Bellear” and that she had found out that she was one of the Stolen Generation, taken as a baby from her Indigenous mother, and given to a white family.
“This is somebody of my generation,” Ms Vithoulkas said.
She said that in many conversations he has had with non-Indigenous Australians on issues about Indigenous people, two themes regularly come up: “Why can’t they just get over it? This happened long ago, and it’s no longer relevant.”
“This was not a long time ago; it was in our generation; the trauma of colonisation and the dispossession of indigenous peoples is still within our community and the aftereffects of it.
Sheena Watt then took to the podium and talked about her connection to the country and how her mother was also one of the Stolen Generation.
Ms. Watt called on the Greek community to vote Yes in the Referendum, saying that the event will be historic.
“The Referendum will be talked about for generations to come. Not just now and tomorrow but for generations to come.
“Changing the constitution is about all of us writing a new chapter in Australia’s national story, also a chapter in your family story.”
“Future generations of your family will write school assignments about this, and they will ask, ‘What did you do at the Referendum, and what did our family do? Did we stand up for justice? Did we stand up for equality?” Ms Watt said.
In a tilt to Greeks’ passion for keeping Greek alive and educating the next generations, Ms Watt said that Indigenous Australians are about “keeping languages strong, educating our children, keeping our community healthy, and living as long as we can.”
“As everyone around us lives on, our old people do not see a long and healthy life.”
“We are asking for a say in everything that matters to us,” Ms Watt said.
She warned of the danger of “misinformation” creating “hyped-up fear”.
“Don’t be scared by misinformation and hyped-up fear; this is a humble, humble ask: Is our culture and connection to this land worth respecting and being represented in the constitution?”
The parliamentarian spoke about the high level of disadvantage in many remote Indigenous communities, the lack of adequate health, and poor living conditions, which are unacceptable in a nation such as Australia.
She talked about when she was an advocate for Aboriginal health, something as simple as translated medicine labels were not available to people in remote communities.
Ms Watt stated that while mining lobbies can secure billions in tax concessions from the government, simple health measures that could save lives in Aboriginal communities that suffer high rates of kidney failure and diabetes could not be helped, and that a Voice to Parliament would represent Indigenous communities on issues such as health, that impact on them.
Neos Kosmos asked why the Yes campaign was not engaging with multicultural media, and why the messaging appears to mostly be targeting inner-city middle-class Australians, while large sections of immigrant communities seem misinformed or unaware.
Ms Watt said that she recently spoke at a multicultural event and that “many multicultural outlets were there, some from smaller communities as well as SBS.”
She did concede that “more needs to be done” and that what she was doing at the Greek Community was part of that engagement.
Lee Tarlamis MP and Kat Theophanous MP were also in attendance. Ms Watt thanked Mr Tarlamis for his support in engaging with diverse communities.
