For nearly four decades,
Professor Tom Calma has put his voice and himself at the gates
confronting Indigenous Australians. He worked with others to establish the
Aboriginal Task Force at the Darwin Community College,
which provided second-chance education programs for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people. His leadership would translate onto the world
stage, improving our relations with some of our closest neighbours.
He then became a senior advisor to Australian government ministers, a role that
would see him sit alongside Australians from all walks of life.
We, as Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people, will be able to,
you know,
be active participants in our own future instead of being passive
recipients of government policies and programs,
as has happened too much into the past.
Tom became Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner, and
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. His work
through this period saw him guide Australia through pivotal conversations
about our identity, such as the racism that followed the Cronulla
riots and the Bali bombings. Most importantly,
the initiation of the Social Justice Report, which was the catalyst
for the Close the Gap campaign.
By 2030, we wanted to have health equality,
where Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people enjoyed the same
outcomes as non-Indigenous people. And our challenge is really
for the rest of the nation to come with us and understand who we are. Understand
that,
not only are we the first people, we're the longest surviving continuing culture
in the world.
It was his voice that was selected to be the voice of Indigenous Australia
from across the country on the National Apology.
Through one direct act,
the parliament has acknowledged the existence and the impacts of past policies
and practices of forcibly removing Indigenous children from their families.
His passion for this country and for the marginalised peoples of this country
is unwavering to this day. These issues consume his mind,
like few other Australians. He has now lent his voice to the campaign
for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
What I try to do is just to,
keep people informed, to help develop their knowledge
and let people make their own decisions. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people in the nation recognise that is one form
of getting a voice.
A man of Tom Calma's calibre must be celebrated
by all Australians for his service to improve the lives of many people around
this country.