What is being a Voice For Generations?

Be a Voice for Generations: A Personal Reflection by Charmaine Douglas, a proud Whadjuk-Njarki Njarki-Ballardong woman and a member of the VenuesWest venue operations team at HBF Stadium.

For nearly 30 years, Australia has been working towards reconciliation between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians. One thing I have realised during my own experience with reconciliation is that this journey is not a sprint; it's a marathon. My name is Charmaine Douglas. I come from the Nelson family, and I am a proud Whadjuk-Njarki Njarki-Ballardong woman.

The theme for this year's Reconciliation Week was "Be A Voice For Generations." But what does being a voice mean? To me, being a voice means having the ability to vocalise your opinions, experiences, and differences to bring about change.

So why is it important to Be A Voice?

Over the last 200 years since colonisation, it was my ancestors who used their voices through storytelling and song to keep our culture alive. For over 200 years, the voices of my ancestors were stripped from them, and my culture remained in silence for a long time. But there were some who showed tremendous courage, such as Eddie Mabo, who became a voice for our people to gain the rights to our traditional lands, Adam Goodes and Nicky Winmar, who became voices to speak out against racism in the AFL, and Neville Bonner, who became the first voice for our culture by becoming the very first Indigenous politician in 1971, to name a few.

It is these significant moments in our history that inspire this generation to use our voices to emphasise the beauty of our Indigenous culture, to share the stories told by our ancestors, to educate people and correct any misconceptions they may have, to share our experiences, and most importantly, to use our voices to heal.

Why is Being a Voice For Generations important?

Being a voice for generations is important to me because the generation before me laid down the foundations for today's generation to walk the path towards healing. That generation survived the Stolen Generation, secured a place in parliament, led the referendum, fought for land rights, and kept our culture alive. This is something I want to continue. So when I speak up, I'm not just speaking for myself. I'm speaking for my ancestors who never got the chance to be heard, I'm speaking for my family who has faced setbacks, I'm speaking for my brothers and sisters, and I'm speaking so that I too can lay down the foundations for my future children and grandchildren, so that they can continue on the right track of preserving our culture and promoting healing.

Australia is on the right path to healing the wounds that run deep, and one of the best ways society can contribute to that healing is by being a voice for generations.

#NRW2023 #BeAVoiceForGenerations