One of Wollongong’s top citizens will vote YES "because history and justice are calling us".
At the official launch of the YES campaign in July, Wollongong’s 2023 Citizen of the Year, Sally Stevenson AM, challenged our city to strive for the highest ‘yes’ vote in the country.
A trailblazer for women’s support programs and social issues in this region, Sally believes the vote in the upcoming referendum should be personal “for all of us”.
“I’m voting Yes for the extraordinary Aboriginal women I know and work with in the Illawarra,” she said. “I’m voting Yes for me, and for my children. I’m voting Yes to make true the words I say at every Acknowledgement of Country – to respect Elders, past and present and all Aboriginal people in our presence.”
Shaped by experience
At the YES campaign launch, Sally called on her personal experience working in the small Western Desert community of Nyirripi more than 30 years ago and her subsequent employment by the Arnhem Land Program Association to support the establishment of a credit union in Arnhem Land.
“In 1991, the era of privatisation in Australia had started in earnest, with the sale of the first tranche of the Commonwealth Bank. This meant ‘unprofitable’ branches were being closed, including and especially in remote Aboriginal communities. Access to a bank was not considered a right, nor a community service,” Sally said.
“People were left with no structure with which to manage or protect their money. There were no institutions to support financial planning, saving, or offer loans or credit. People would receive their income via cheque which would be cashed in the local store.
“Two weeks of cash in your pocket – to put food on the table consistently for two weeks, to pay expenses, and to manage pressures to share. It is impossible for anyone. One consequence of this situation was the well documented ‘feast or famine’ cycles that existed in communities.”
Sally explained how the local progress association, an organisation handed over to community control in the 1970s, decided to address the problem by establishing the first Aboriginal owned and governed financial institution in Australia.
Persistence paid off
“The stonewalling, overt racism and unabashed resistance from those in power to support this project was evident on a daily basis,” Sally said. “Because of course, Aboriginal people ‘can’t manage their own money’. However, the sheer persistence and belief in the project by the board and the communities led to the opening of the first branch of Traditional Credit Union in Milingimbi in 1994.”
Sally said it was hoped one of the positive health outcomes arising from the creation and support of a locally run financial institution would be an improvement in the consumption of fresh food.
“Within the first three months, fresh fruit and vegetable sales had increased 30% and remained consistent across the pay fortnight.
“Within 12 months, the first loan based on kinship relationships between women was made for a washing machine – so they could wash blankets and reduce scabies. The loan was paid back ahead of time, and white goods constituted the majority of small loans. The rate of loan defaults was close to zero.”
A voice can change, save lives
Sally describes this story as just one example of how communities with a voice and access to resources “can change and save lives”.
“They can close the gap,” Sally said. “To have self determination you must have control over your resources. And there is no greater resource than your voice.’
Sally said despite countless atrocities, massacres, the destruction of sacred sites, the Stolen Generation, and ‘an endless infliction of colonialism and systemic racism on First Nations people’ all Australians have been presented with an extraordinarily generous invitation.
‘Not revenge, not retribution. An invitation. To walk alongside them, together, on the path of healing – and a better future. We are graciously being asked to enshrine their voice in the constitution, so they may always have a say in their own destiny,’ Sally said.
The answer is YES
‘It’s a simple request, long promised and until now ignored, delayed, postponed. It’s a simple request and demands a simple answer, yes.
‘Yes, or course!’
As the referendum vote approaches, our Citizen of the Year is calling on every ‘fair minded’ Illawarra resident to consider just how important this issue is, for all of us. That’s one reason Sally Stevenson has taken on a leadership role in support of the local YES campaign.
‘Our responsibility – our privilege now is to do everything in our power to ensure the YES vote wins – not just say yes, not just vote yes,’ Sally said. ‘We must talk to those who are wavering, we must engage with those who say no, we must work for this vote. Let us cast our vote knowing we did everything we could to make our history turn towards the arc of justice.’
It’s about respect
Sally says there are many reasons she’ll be voting YES, including out of respect for all Aboriginal people in this region.
‘I’m voting YES to their generosity and resistance, and to their custodianship of this extraordinary land.
‘I am voting YES because I have the privilege to live here, under the watch of Mt Keira, and when I look out from the escarpment, I’m able to behold the breathtaking beauty of this land, and saltwater.
‘I’m voting YES because history and justice are calling us.’
Every Friday, we publish a local's perspective on the upcoming referendum. To read more, search for "View on the Voice"