As Australia’s embarrassing leadership merry-go-round shows no sign of stopping, one has to ask, how can it be stopped?

The world has witnessed almost a decade of Australia’s leadership merry-go-round. The world laughs, while everyday Australian people feel powerless and confused as to how the mess can be stopped. It doesn’t matter which major party is elected and it seems impossible for any new party to gain power.

For Indigenous people in Australia, the government is something that is widely resented. This resentment goes both ways, with the government being notorious for treating Indigenous issues without any real continued (positive) effort. They are also notorious for dictating what policies should be implemented towards our people without seeking any kind of guidance from us. The only long lasting policies are negative ones.

One term that you may have heard before is “self determination”. It gets thrown around very lightly these days. A true form of “self determination” however would not only allow our people to have a say on policies, but also allow us to distance ourselves from the government all together. I say the term is thrown around lightly because self determination is actually a human right for Indigenous people. It isn’t something that national governments should be allowed to influence.

Amongst our people there are differing views (just as there are in every society). There are those who see no other way than becoming completely independent from the government and there are those who you see working with the government today. The majority of our people find ourselves somewhere between these two paths.

One vision that is becoming increasingly popular is to literally start over again. We sit down and do what should have been done in 1788. Indigenous people sitting down and having an equal say in what direction the country will take in the future. This doesn’t mean getting recognition in the constitution either, we are talking about creating a completely new constitution.

Burning the old constitution and calls to burn down Parliament House don’t have to happen but those actions would definitely be a powerful form of symbolism that would drive a message to all the people in Australia and around the world that Indigenous people in Australia are now being treated with the respect that we deserve as the original sovereign people of this land. It would also be in standing with the law of the land in the sense that fire will bring new growth. (Something that Australia still struggles to understand).

So what do you think of this idea? Let us know in the comments below. If you think it’s way out of reach, why don’t you help us out by sharing this article to spread the word. Will you let this small flame burn out, or let it spread?

If you’re feeling powerless, then stand with us, help us stand up and actually excercise our human rights to make this really happen.

Welcome to Country is an independent Indigenous news/media website. We publish news and views that are rarely seen or even ignored by Australia’s mainstream media.