Sunday, June 5, 2011

The National Congress

For just over twelve months I’ve been involved with the National Congress. I am a member of the National Congress and then I became a delegate and now I am a Director nominee.

I signed up to the Congress  this time last year, Winter, 2010. I remember trekking from Kelvin Grove over to the Jagera Arts Centre after a day of writing on campus. It was cold and I know I was tired at the time and I wasn't relishing the idea of the 1 hour train commute back to Caboolture later that night.

At Jagera I got to yarn with other Murries and Torres Strait mob and to listen to Co-Chairs Kerry Arabena and Sam Jeffries. I was impressed.

Kerry and Sam's way of talking also encouraged me. This didn't feel like a closed shop. This felt like it was a genuine attempt to bring in sisters and brothers, aunties and uncles; not just build something up for the benefit of a few.

Congress seemed to be a new opportunity for us to have our say, to name the things we know are important to us, to seek the change we want and need. In short to represent our voices and try to put forward a strong and unified voice on the big picture issues.

For me though the big picture is never far from the everyday, and that was the other thing that struck me. The structure of Congress made me feel like I could get involved.

It made me feel that I, as an Aboriginal woman and mother, could have a say and that my say could be heard. And that I could encourage others to be involved, not with a view to Congress solving everyone's problems but as an opportunity to work together amongst ourselves so that we could show others, including government, what we really do need to solve our own problems.

When the call-out was made for Members to nominate as Delegates. I thought, "why not?". So, I did and was selected. Then, when the call-out came for Delegates to nominate as Directors, this time I thought much, much longer and harder, did I really want to step that far into the front-end?! After talking with a number of family and friends, I decided, that yes, I did.

I decided I wanted to step up, I wanted to use my voice and I wanted to listen to what our people were saying was important. And most of all I wanted to use my strengths: my strong Aboriginal background and my formal education and professional skills, to be part of this new opportunity to bring our voices and hopefully our collective voice into the public domain, up to government and out into the broader society. And always back and forth between ourselves, between Members and other members of our communities around Australia.

Thus, here I am today a Nominee for a Director of the Board of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples


Thanks for visiting, Sandra


No comments:

Post a Comment