Why can't we talk about things that are important? A conversation with Professor Mick Dodson

Finding a moment in Professor Dodson's very busy schedule is a challenge. This recorded conversation took place in a cab from Sydney Airport and in the NSW Judicial Commission meeting rooms in Sydney so pardon some shifting sound levels. Over the course of an hour we talked about subjects varying from Reconciliation Australia to the Victorian Bushfires to the implications of President Obama's new emphasis on supporting the Native American Nations of the United States.

I hope that the quiet, thoughtful presence of Professor Dodson comes through. He is indeed "the most fitting Australian of the Year". See Professor Dodson's Biography Below I would recommend this conversation to young people and high school classes and anyone interested in the next phase of Indigenous development in Australia.

When you download the file below it will come to you as a 19MB .mp3 file.  Be sure you have a fast speed connection when logging on to listen to the conversation.

Here are some edited highlights of what Professor Dodson had to say.

On the Nation, The Media and The Big Changes

"Why can't we talk about things that are important. Why don't we have discussions, conversations I call them, about these things. Surely we're a nation of greater maturity and we are capable of doing this... It will make us think about who we are more deeply, about what it means to be an Australian. Much of what we base our horse and buggy constitutional institutions on needs to be updated."

Reconciliation Australia’s new barometer of Indigenous/Non-Indigenous Issues

On Being Australian of the Year

“You think well what have I done. I haven’t done anything without the help of others. Nobody achieves anything on their own. There are other people involved. You get singled out for no good reason when others should be getting the accolades.” See Professor Dodson's Biography below!

On the Implications of the Obama Presidency for Aboriginal Nations Worldwide

“What you see in the United States is a situation where the Federal government has a relationship with the native nations that are government to government. And President Obama says well I’m going to shift that a little further. I’m going to talk about nation to nation. The official policy is self determination, introduced by President Nixon and followed by every subsequent President. Obama says he is going to beef it up again and he has a Senior Native Elder in his Cabinet who is highly respected and who will help to create a generous, serious national conversation."

On Being a Persistent Bugger

“I’m a beacon for the persistent buggers now….

On Government and Bureaucracy

“I think that the emphasis should be on getting the bureaucratic administration more accountable .. There should be more flexibility for community leaders to spend their budgets as they see fit."

On Economic Development

“The not so startling finding of the 25 year old definitive Harvard study of Aboriginal Economic Development is that the more control people have over their lives the more successful they are.”

The Northern Territory Intervention

“ Why do we do this to our own people when our Overseas Aid Agency wouldn’t  dare do this. They have a rights based economic development model. We seem to repeat our mistakes from generation to generation or from political life cycle to political cycle.

On the new thirst to understand Aboriginal culture

“It’s like most societies… As you get older, you tend to be able to understand things better, grasp things a little more clearly, you get wise I guess. The complexities of life and being are different in any culture let alone cultures as ancient as the cultures in this country”.

On the Victorian bushfires

“ Mosaic burning occurs across much of Northern Australia. Perhaps there are some lessons to be learned about how we manage the landscape in places that are really vulnerable to catastrophic events like Victoria”.

On Education

“There’s absolutely no doubt I wouldn’t be where I am without an education. But its not just an education you need. You need education that’s appropriate to your cultural circumstances that gives you your pride and a respect for who you are and where you are from. Who your people are.”

On Boarding School

“Don’t be mistaken boarding school is not for everybody. It can be a bloody tough place. I went to boarding schools with lads who were absolutely shattered by the experience and it scarred them for life. They couldn’t get out soon enough. So boarding school shouldn’t be trumped up as the answer to our educational challenges. Its suitable for some, not for others. First you’ve got to fix the schools and create the schools where Aboriginal kids live.

On Teachers

“Part of it is we don’t honour or respect the role of teachers in our society. We don’t pay them enough money. They perform an enormously important role in society and we don’t seem to recognise that as a country and that troubles me.”

The Emerging Aboriginal Leadership

“I get no greater joy in what I do that getting out bush to talk to countrymen about they are doing and seeing how people, despite a whole lot of obstacles, still manage to succeed. What we should be doing is taking a close look at those success stories and trying to replicate them across the country. I think we’ve got wonderful, wonderful leadership particularly among our young, emerging leadership… There are some fantastic leaders who are already making their mark and they’re going to continue to do that. They need our support. We need to free them up so they can lead us to a better future”.

Biography

Professor Mick Dodson is a member of the Yawuru peoples the traditional Aboriginal owners of land and waters in the Broome area of the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia. He is currently Director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the Australian National University. He is a Professor of law at the ANU College of Law.

Professor Dodson is also currently a Director of Dodson, Bauman & Associates Pty Ltd – Legal & Anthropological Consultants. He is formerly the Director of the Indigenous Law Centre at the University ofNew South Wales, Kensington.

Mick Dodson was Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity. He served as Commissioner from April 1993 to January 1998.

Born in Katherine, Northern Territory , Mick was educated in Katherine, Darwin and Victoria. He completed a Bachelor of Jurisprudence and a Bachelor of Laws at Monash University. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Technology Sydney in 1998. He also holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of NSW. He worked with the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service from 1976 to 1981, when he became a barrister at the Victorian Bar. He joined the Northern Land Council as Senior Legal Adviser in 1984 and became Director of the Council in 1990.

From August 1988 to October 1990 Mick was Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. He has been a member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Advisory Council and secretary of the North Australian Legal Aid Service. He is a member and the current Chairman of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. He is the former Chairman of the National Aboriginal Youth Law Centre Advisory Board. He is a former member of the National Children’s & Youth Centre Board and is a former member of the Advisory panels of the Rob Riley and Koowarta Scholarships. Mick is presently a member of the Publications Committee for the University of New South Wales Indigenous Law Reporter. He is a member of the New South Wales Judicial Commission and a former special commissioner with the Western Australian Law Reform Commission. He is a board member and Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia and a board member of the Lingiari Foundation. He was a founding member and chairman of the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre.

Mick Dodson has been a prominent advocate on land rights and other issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Mick Dodson is a vigorous advocate of the rights and interests of the Indigenous Peoples of the world. He was the Co-Deputy Chair of the Technical Committee for the 1993 International Year of the World’s Indigenous People. He was also chairman of the United Nations Advisory Group for the Voluntary Fund for the Decade of Indigenous Peoples. He served for 5 years as a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Indigenous Voluntary Fund. In January 2005 Prof Dodson took up a 3 year appointment as a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He was recently reappointed for a further 3 years to December 2010.

Mick participated in the crafting of the text of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the United Nation Working Group on Indigenous Populations and the Inter-sessional Working Group of the Human Rights Commission adopted overwhelmingly in 2007 by the United Nations General Assembly.