Daniel James

Well, it's the only time in the history of the entire country that a treaty has been introduced into a state or federal parliament.

It's been on the back of decades of work, but in a formal sense, in terms of the actual process of getting this treaty to this point, it's been at least six years.

It has survived two elections.

It has gone through a pandemic.

It has gone through a very divisive referendum.

But despite all that, the First People's Assembly in its two iterations have gotten us to this point, and it was a remarkable day for everyone that has either paid close interest to this or been involved in it.

Yeah, it's sadly predictable because it's pretty much all they've really got in their kit in terms of being able to attack processes like this.

They are ostensibly a bunch of one-trick ponies.

When it comes to the idea of the First Nations people here being a minority, yes, we are a minority.

But we are a minority that were here for 60,000 years.

And when colonialism came here,

were a minority that had our land stolen, our waterways desecrated.

We were the result of policies of eradication, both formal and informal.

We were the victims of massacres, we were the victims of disease and alcohol that was brought here.

The tremendous wealth that was created in this place through things like the gold rush,

Aboriginal people never saw, even though it was the plundering of their land that resulted in that.

The billions of dollars that have been generated through our waterways and land and skies, we've never seen a cent of.

We were deprived of our rights.

And so, yes, we are a minority, but we also are the first peoples of this place.

And this treaty and the truth-telling process you looked before it is a reckoning of that, and it shows a state that is mature enough and bold enough to be able to