Subjects: Camp Sovereignty, truth telling.
BRIDGET BRENNAN, HOST: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been gathering at Camp Sovereignty in Melbourne after a violent attack sent shockwaves through the First Nations community. Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy has also paid a visit to the site, and she joins me now from Melbourne. A very good morning to you, Minister.
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Good morning, Bridget. And good morning to all your viewers across the country. It's lovely to be here on Wurundjeri Country.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Yeah, it's beautiful country. And you paid a visit to Camp Sovereignty across the weekend. How emotional was that for you because people still there are so troubled and hurt by what's happened.
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Absolutely. It was really a time for people to come together and I am very thankful to have been able to join them. It was difficult for so many of us watching from Parliament last week in particular and listening to people from a distance and the first opportunity I had was to be able to join everyone on Sunday and just to spend time with them Bridget. There was a lot of deep emotion and continues to be, but it was important to get a sense of the spiritual peacefulness that people were really looking for in amidst what has been an absolutely horrific time for those people who were part of that whole event last week.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: And you were able to address the crowds who gathered there from really across the country. What was your message to them, Minister, about what happened there and what the federal government's sort of plan is really to counter this very violent extremism we're seeing in the community.
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Well, I said it in the Senate last week, Bridget, that our country is not that country where we allow hate and division to really take over to the point where there is such extreme attacks on Australians. That is not the Australia we want. And we have said that on numerous occasions at very different times with different events. And I certainly said that many times last week in relation to Camp Sovereignty. It was incredibly disturbing. It was reprehensible, the vision that we saw of what was going on. And speaking to people yesterday, listening to them yesterday at Camp Sovereignty, you could hear still the emotion, the deep emotion that's still resonating, because we know that unless people do come together and stand against this form of hatred, then you allow that hatred to fester.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: One of the things that Uncle Robbie Thorpe said to us when he was on the show just a day after this awful attack was that it seems to be that people don't understand our history and don't understand the history of persecution of First Nations people where in colonial times, camps were attacked, people were violently attacked. And he really said there needs to be a focus on better truth telling in this country. Do you agree, Minister?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: It's interesting, the response from First Nations people around the country Bridget. It is true that many, many stories have happened across Australia around whether they're massacres, whether they're direct attacks on First Nations people and their families. So, many of us can tell our stories. I can tell the story from the Gulf region and what happened to the Yanyuwa and Garrwa people, the Garrwa people in particular. So, those stories are very real. They live on in the memories of our elders and they're passed on to the next generation. And we know those stories are there. And Uncle Robbie Thorpe, when I met with him yesterday, we had a really good chance to talk about things. Truth telling is part of our country's story and it needs to be told.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Should there be a revival of that discussion around whether there needs to be a national truth telling commission?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Well, one of the things that I'm obviously looking at here this week is what's going on in the Victorian Parliament with the Treaty bill that's been worked on for so long with the First Peoples’ Assembly, with the Yoorrook Commission and with the Victorian Government. And it is good to be able to listen to people here in Victoria as to what that process has been like. But there's also others who think the process has to be even more national in regards to that truth telling, Bridget. So, the conversation I had with Uncle Robbie Thorpe really touches on that. And I certainly believe that these are important steps for our country. And I'm also mindful that we've got to take the country with us. And right now, I think people just need to have time together and stay strong against hatred and division.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: What would be your message to our First Nations viewers? And we've got a lot of them Minister watching who just feel really down at this moment. We know 13Yarn is there if you need it, but what's your message to them?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Well, absolutely, 13Yarn is a really important service. It's a very good service. And I’d encourage First Nations individuals and families to reach out if you do need to talk. It is important to talk about how you're feeling, but it's also important to reach out to one another as all Australians, because we are not alone in the sense that we have these emotions. And I think that was one of the things I wanted to reiterate at Camp Sovereignty yesterday, that they were not alone. Australia was with them. First Nations people are with them. And the goodness of this country is far greater than the hate that we saw last week.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Minister, thanks always for your time on the show.
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Thank you.