Darren Dick
Darren Dick is a legal and policy advisor specialising in human rights. He has spent the past decade working at the Australian Law Reform Commission as a Legal Policy Officer (1996 - 1998) and at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) as an advisor on Indigenous rights issues and native title (1998 - current).
Since 1999, he has been the Director of the Office of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at HREOC. In this role he manages the operations of the Commissioner's Office, as well as overseeing the research and production of the annual Social Justice Report to the federal Parliament (which reports on the status of enjoyment of human rights by Indigenous peoples in Australia) as well as the Native Title Report to federal Parliament (which reports on the impact of native title legislation on Indigenous human rights).
He has also attended a range of United Nations forums as a technical adviser for the Commission. These include the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; UN Working Group on the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; UN human rights treaty committees and human rights workshops; UN World Conference Against Racism, as well as technical assistance programs with Indonesia, including running training in Jakarta on investigating gross violations of human rights.
In February 2006 he participated in the Australian Future Directions Forum. Darren has published in a range of legal and policy journals including the Australian Journal of Human Rights; Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences; Indigenous Law Bulletin; Alternative Law Journal; as well as numerous speeches, submissions and chapters in publications by the Social Justice Commissioner and HREOC.
What a reconciled Australia look like to me.
A reconciled Australia is a place that celebrates our Indigenous cultures, their survival and their ongoing contribution to the fabric of our nation. It is a country that has faced the demons of the past and has moved forward together as a united people, in all of our diversity.
A reconciled Australia is a place where actions match the rhetoric and where our commitment to achieving equality is measured both in the process of engagement and the outcomes achieved. It is a place where we are realistic about what this requires and committed and determined to achieve it in the longer term. And it is a place where mutual respect and good faith underpin the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
As a human rights practitioner who has had the privilege of working with Indigenous peoples over the past decade, I have observed a number of major challenges that must be faced if we are to achieve a reconciled Australia. We must:
- Understand that the past is a heavy burden for all Australians to carry. The ghosts of the past continue into the present, and threaten our futures. The past manifests in systemic barriers to participation in mainstream society for Indigenous peoples, and is often reflected in inter-generational poverty. And the past is a source of guilt for non-Indigenous people that is often misdirected as anger and blame towards Indigenous peoples. It can manifest as an inability to see Indigenous peoples as valuable members of Australian society - Indigenous peoples are not 'problems to be solved'.
- Accept that we still don't have a level playing field, for all our talk of the 'fair go'. As a society, we have never truly grappled with the sheer depth of inequality that has resulted from our history. For example, there is clear evidence that in 21st century Australia Indigenous peoples do not enjoy equality of opportunity to be as healthy as other Australians. If we are to create a level playing field, we must be honest about the scope of the challenge that we face and how to address it.
- Have a vision for a united future and stop accepting the status quo. At present, our government cannot tell us its vision for the timeframe within which an Aboriginal child born today will have the same chance at life as a non-Indigenous child. Successive governments have done no more than pay the cost for the severe disadvantage experienced by Indigenous peoples rather than fund programs so that they are capable of overcoming this disadvantage and creating a better future. The costs of a better future may be higher in the short term, but will be cost effective into the long term. And the alternative? An ever-expanding record expenditure on Indigenous affairs that does nothing more than feed despair and disadvantage.
- Acknowledge that improving the current circumstances of Indigenous peoples is integrally tied to respect for Indigenous cultures. Indigenous peoples are not merely 'disadvantaged Australians'. An explicit or implicit program to assimilate Indigenous peoples into the broader society will fail. We must embrace Indigenous cultures as the foundation for overcoming Indigenous disadvantage and as a key element of the social capital to make our communities cohesive. Creating distinctions between disadvantage and recognition of rights is artificial: they are fundamentally entwined. This also requires ensuring that Indigenous peoples are able to be active participants in their own futures by having a real say in decision making processes, rather than being treated as passive recipients of government policy (as is the case at present).
A reconciled Australia is a place that could exist in the not too distant future.
We have already come a long way. Governments have in existence the most detailed policies imaginable and have made the strongest commitments they could possibly make to address the situation. But they have not acted in good faith to implement these or to work with Indigenous peoples as partners in a united Australia.
Darren Dick
