TRANSCRIPT
Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara woman Melissa Thompson explains why she want to represent her community on the South Australian Voice to Parliament.
She says she’s been training to be a leader since she was a young girl.
Her late father - land rights activist Mr Thompson - signed the document that returned ten per cent of South Australia to the Anangu people in the far north west.
It was an unprecedented achievement for self-determination.
And four decades on, his daughter hopes to represent the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara communities in another national first – South Australia’s inaugural voice to parliament.
"Back then my father was a person who was a role model for the people in the lands. He spoke about people through government and fight for his people. Now that I am as a daughter willing to stand my authority to become a role model for my generation. With my kind heart and with what I’ve rolled (role modelled) so many things in my life and my walk in this life was being a leader and looking after people.”
She hopes the voice will make communities strong again.
“It’s like a net that is broken underneath and the fishes are swimming out. As a leader we need to make the net strong so we can keep our people inside our net. So that we can build and more services, more happiness that we rolling to make a better bridge, a fresh bridge that we can walk on."
She is one of 113 candidates declared earlier this week.
Under the SA Voice model, communities will be represented by a Local Voice made up of representatives from six regions.
Regional divisions will elect seven people, while the more heavily populated Central region will elect 11.
Each local region will choose a male and a female delegate to make up the State Voice.
The Voice will have a direct line to state parliament, cabinet and government agencies about policy and matters of concern to their communities,
It will also establish committees to hear from young people, elders, the stolen generation, and native title.
“I think the whole country will be looking at this and that’s why it’s so important for us to continue and go ahead and demonstrate to the rest of the country why this is so important.”
That’s Kimberley Wanganeen, a Narrunga, Kaurna and Kokatha woman from the state’s south east who now lives in Adelaide and is a candidate for the Central region.
She runs a consultancy business that trains government and business how to create culturally safe work spaces.
She hopes to use her experience in how the levers of policy and legislation create change to make the first voice a success.
“I think the inaugural voice will be integral to listening to the voices of community first to see what they would like to see achieved in the first two years. Personally I’m involved in the prevention of violence against Aboriginal women and children and I imagine that that will be quite a key focus for community as well because Aboriginal women are dis proportionally affected by violence.”
Here’s another candidate, Kerri Coulthard, who hopes to represent her community in the Flinders Rangers.
“I’m an Adnyamathanha woman from Hawker in the Flinders Rangers, I’m excited to nominate for SA Voice to Parliament because we know what our community want, we know our community needs, as each community is different. So I’m excited if we can work together it means a healthy country, healthy families and a healthy future.”
Elections will be held every two years. Only Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders are eligible to vote on March 16.
