“I was born at a time when the Australian government knew how many sheep there were, but not how many Aboriginal people.. I was 10 years old before the 1967 referendum fixed that. The first 10 years of my life were spent as a non-citizen.”

Linda Burney is the first indigenous woman to be elected to the federal House of Representatives. She’s the member for Barton, and has previously been deputy leader of the NSW opposition. Here’s her maiden speech to the Australian federal parliament.

Lynette Riley, who made the cloak, sings from the gallery around the 8 minute mark.

A few people have posted an extract, so i went looking for the full speech

Also transcript and audio here http://goo.gl/A5iPB2

#SovereigntyNeverCeded

I love the work that Roundangle does. Their multi-sensory adventures are challenging and fun. This one was at the Melbourne museum, and made for the under-five crowd. So i invited Isabella and Lynne to join me and we had a lovely day.

At the beginning of the show, we were invited to crawl past the cardboard city, through the plastic-filled tent into the forest of the senses. Most adults thought this was a children-only affair, but Ilan and i agreed that we were definitely going to join in this adventure.

Plus the stage manager insisted that i “Crawl Through the Tent Michael!!”

(i paid my $2 and i’m not missing a single moment!)

They taught us the Indigenous phrase for ‘welcome to country’ – WoMinJaika – and as each group called out their part of the word, we were called to our part of the journey.

A forest fairy made us all into seeds, growing us with sun and water and love, sharing the treasures of native Quandong and Lemon Myrtle. An old woman of the mountains showed us how to make soup with Mountain pepper leaves and Old Man’s Weed.

A delightful honey bee took us into the flower forest and showed us how to sprinkle our pollen on the flowers. This was really fun.. huge flowers that opened up and produced fruit as we showered our pollen.

And then the spirit of the rocks, who brought his very small puppet mate along to share wattle seeds. (Really yum seeds and great puppet work!)

Afterwards Lynne said one thing she liked was that they weren’t doing that hyper-energetic, super-lively “children’s theatre” thing, but rather playing to a crowd of all ages, and telling warm engaging stories with a sense of kindness and humour. i think by the end of it, most of the adults had learned to join in as well.

i wish it was on again soon: i’d tell you to go and see it. Especially if you can take children along with you. Great work Roundangle people!

Bunjilaka: WhatsOn Display Page.