Terry Farrell
RE: Co-Design Submission
To whom it may concern.
At age 64 there is a very valuable lesson I have learnt from life.
The lesson is this: When we truly do not understand another human’s personal experience of life and the story and culture of meaning they create from it then we default to interpreting and judging their experience and story from our own belief and value system.
When we internalise and keep such judgements to ourselves yet still need to relate to such people the
outcome is often a poor and awkward relationship but when have a position of authority, decision making
and/or power over such people the outcomes can be far more severe and abusive often leading to the
subjugation and disenfranchisement of people and their culture We have seen the tragic outcomes of such
behaviour throughout human history.
It is my belief that the Australian Constitution and its political system has, since its inception, created such a
misguided, severe and abusive approach to the understanding, recognition and treatment of Australia’s first
peoples. I believe it is us, the non-indigenous population, who have the wrong understanding of Aboriginal
peoples and we enact our constitution, laws and regulations upon Aboriginal people from this wrong and
hurtful perspective. We only need remember the historic and ongoing suffering caused to the Stolen
Generation by the implementation of colonial laws imposed by those in power who dictated to Australia’s first
nation people their idea of justice.
To help correct this fundamental flaw in our approach to our Indigenous people we need to fully adopt and
implement the Uluru Statement of the Heart which has three foundational requirements, they are:
1. A constitutionally enshrined Voice in Parliament.
2. A Treaty based on the recognition of Australia’s first peoples.
3. A Truth commission, so as all Australians can begin to reconcile our history.
We need to do this in the order outlined in the Statement, so let’s be clear the first step is a constitutionally
enshrined Voice in Parliament.
We need to do as urgently as we need to draw our next breath.
Endless excuses to not do this now are more manifestations of the flawed view that created our painful history
asserting its will over our first nation’s people yet again.
I ask you to consider what I have outlined and I ask you to act and act now.
I look forward to receiving your considered response.
Regards
Terry Farrell
Architect January 2021
