Kenny Duke
Working in the community sector, mainly in the Settlement space for 20+ years, you meet remarkable people who are selfless and serving community everyday.
Through this time I have met many First Nations people, one in particular was Aunty Coral who made a huge impact in my life by sharing her story and why she worked for Child Protection. I learnt through her and so many others the dark past of Australia.
As someone who arrived from another country, I knew little of this story. I learnt of displacement in your own home land, have culture beaten out of you including languagr and ripped from your family and to never be reunited with your family. I understood the trauma as it related to our own and I know what it is to lose hope.
Aunty Coral died having hope that it would happen in this generation.
Hope in a system that would start to listen and change it's ways of working, knowing it hasn't worked.
It is through this understanding and us working close to Government, I know there is only one response and it's yes.
Yes to a voice, yes to inclusion and recognition of our First nation's people. ONLY through yes can we truly heal and move forward and ignite solutions that work for our future generations.
And for the first time, the decision sits with us, the people and not Government. Our Aboriginal elders believed that we would make the right decision for them. Let's show them we heard the call.