“Your son’s legs need to be amputated if you want him to walk,” the medical specialist said to me.
At 23 years of age, I looked down at my firstborn son, sleeping peacefully in my arms. He was only two weeks old and yet had travelled hundreds of thousands of kilometres to the nearest specialist to diagnose his condition. Such a long way from the lands of the Yanyuwa people in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
My son had fibular limb deficiency. I’d never heard of it. It meant his limbs had not formed properly. One in 15,000 babies were born that way, for reasons unknown to medical experts.
“But my son has his legs, and feet and toes,” I replied. “They may not look like yours or mine, but he still may be able to walk with them. We have to let my son be included in this decision, too. How can you be so sure he will not walk?” I asked.
“Ahh,” he responded. “A mother’s guilt.”
I felt shamed for even asking.
As the specialist talked, my heart was hurting. With teary eyes, I kept looking at my baby boy. The pains of the emergency caesarean to bring him into the world were still raw wounds to my body.
I looked around the room, the walls filled with medical certificates and achievements. Instead of comforting, I found them conflicting. He was not listening to me or my hopes for my son.
As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, we are stalked by diseases that have been eradicated from most of the planet. They take away the years of life that many non-Indigenous Australians can take for granted.
Did you know we still have cases of leprosy disease in this country? Or that our children are dying from rheumatic heart disease, an illness more commonly associated with Third World countries? Tuberculosis and crusted scabies remain endemic diseases in remote communities in central and northern Australia. Trachoma, which causes blindness, is still common. Read the Closing the Gapreport and the medical data, and you will be shocked.
Australians living in the nation’s capital cities could be forgiven for not knowing the depth and breadth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage. In a “lucky country” like Australia, it’s hard to imagine a family of 10 living in a two-bedroom house, or a school where the teacher is only present once a fortnight. This is the reality for many remote communities.
What’s especially heartbreaking is that among those preventative diseases, suicide is once again taking our young men and women. They are telling us in the most brutal way possible that they are powerless, and the torment of their powerlessness leads them to the gravest act of all.
That is the status quo in Australia. A First World country with a Third World hidden in its shadows.
Recognition and a Voice to parliament is what the people who experience this reality have so eloquently and patiently asked for. To be able to give advice to the Australian parliament and executive on matters of policy and legislation affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
For 97 per cent of Australians, it will not have an impact on your daily life. But a Yes vote will signal that it’s time to recognise and listen to First Nations people in our country.
To vote No would be to say that it’s okay to keep things the way they are for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Yes empowers our communities and gives hope where there is none.
The Yolngu people of Arnhem Land have shown the impact a Voice can make through decades of tireless advocacy and grassroots effort. They’ve shown it when they’ve been able to speak up and show – through experience and local knowledge – what is best for their community. When they take control of schooling, working in genuine consultation with local families, attendance levels jumped. When they have the power to develop their own land, economic development thrives.
Recently, young students from Northeast Arnhem Land travelled to the United States to take part in the VEX World Robotics championships, showing us a brighter future, where hopes and dreams can be fulfilled. It is a reminder of the truth of what is written in the Uluru Statement from the Heart: “When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.”
My eldest son is now 30 years old. He walks with his own legs, not like you or me, but in his own way, and decided as a teenager that he did not want his legs amputated. He loves playing wheelchair basketball, has gone on to play wheelchair basketball for Australia, and mentors young kids in schools and youth detention.
My heart yearns for our next generation of Australians to flourish and strive for their hopes and dreams also.
On October 14, we can simply say Yes. Listen to your heart. Vote with love. Give dignity to those who just ask to be listened to. Vote like you’re voting for your own child’s future - and for the future of all our children.
Malarndirri McCarthy is a Yanyuwa and Garrawa woman and a senator for the Northern Territory. This opinion piece was first published in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald on Friday 13 October.