The Redfern Park Speech, also known as the Redfern speech or Redfern address, was made on 10 December 1992 by the then
Australian Prime Minister
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the federal government of Australia and is also accountable to federal parliament under the principl ...
,
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He previously serv ...
, at Redfern Park, which is in
Redfern, New South Wales, an inner city suburb of
Sydney. The speech dealt with the challenges faced by
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
, both
Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...
and
Torres Strait Islander
Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often groupe ...
peoples. It is still remembered as one of the most powerful speeches in Australian history, both for its rhetorical eloquence and for its ground-breaking admission of the negative impact of
white settlement in Australia on its Indigenous peoples,
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
and society, in the first acknowledgement by the
Australian Government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...
of the dispossession of its First Peoples. It has been described as "a defining moment in the nation's
reconciliation with its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people".
The spirit and name of Keating's Redfern speech was invoked by the Redfern Statement, a policy statement from a large group of Indigenous bodies issued on 9 June 2016, shortly before the
2016 Australian federal election. Among other things, the Statement called for the creation of a new dedicated department to deliver programs for Indigenous advancement.
Background and description
The speech was delivered by Keating on 10 December 1992, just over a year into his term as
Prime Minister of Australia, to a crowd of predominantly Indigenous people gathered at Redfern Park, in Redfern, Sydney.
[ It was given to launch the International Year for the World's Indigenous People (1993).]
Keating's choice of location was significant; Redfern had been the centre of Aboriginal (or more specifically, Koori
Koori (also spelt koorie, goori or goorie) is a demonym for Aboriginal Australians from a region that approximately corresponds to southern New South Wales and Victoria. The word derives from the Indigenous language Awabakal. For some people ...
) culture and activism in Sydney for decades. The speech came only six months after the Australian High Court's historic Mabo decision, which had overturned the legal fiction of ''terra nullius
''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land".
It was a principle sometimes used in international law to justify claims that territory may be acquired by a state's occupation of it.
:
:
...
'', and recognised native title in Australia for the first time. The speech reflected this shift in thinking, and used words reflecting partnership and reconciliation; ultimately it reflected a changing official interpretation of Australia's history.[
Keating was the first Australian prime minister to publicly acknowledge to Indigenous Australians that European settlers were responsible for the difficulties Australian Aboriginal communities continued to face: "It was we who did the dispossessing", he said. "We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases and the alcohol." He went on: "We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine that these things could be done to us".]
The speech became known as the "Redfern speech", and is now regarded by many as one of the greatest Australian speeches.[
]Don Watson
Don Watson (born 1949) is an Australian author, screenwriter, former political adviser, and speechwriter.
Early life
Watson was born in 1949 at Warragul in the Gippsland region of Victoria, and grew up on a farm in nearby Korumburra.
Academi ...
, then Keating's principal speechwriter, later claimed authorship of the speech, although Keating has disputed this. Watson wrote about the creation of the speech in his 2002 memoir, '' Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM''.
Legacy
Keating's speech has been described as "a defining moment in the nation's reconciliation with its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people", being the first ever public acknowledgement by the Commonwealth Government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...
of the dispossession of the country's First Nations peoples.[
In 2007, ABC Radio National listeners voted the speech as their third most unforgettable speech, behind ]Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
's 1963 speech " I Have a Dream" (number one) and Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
' Sermon on the Mount (number two).
Keating's speech was the first stepping stone for a later Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the la ...
Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and again from June 2013 to September 2013, holding office as the leader of the ...
, to offer a formal apology to Indigenous Australians for past government practices and policies, delivered in Canberra in February 2008.[ ]
Text is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence.
The Redfern Address was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia
The Sounds of Australia, formerly the National Registry of Recorded Sound, is the National Film and Sound Archive's selection of sound recordings which are deemed to have cultural, historical and aesthetic significance and relevance for Australi ...
registry in 2010.[
In 2019, the Australian electronic musician ]Paul Mac
Paul Francis McDermott (born 17 September 1965), who performs as Paul Mac, is an Australian electropop musician, singer-songwriter, producer and music re-mixer. He was classically trained at Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Mac has formed variou ...
sampled the speech in the track "Redfern Address (In Memory of Vision)" on his album ''Mesmerism''.
Redfern Statement
Referencing Keating's Redfern Speech, a policy statement from a large group of Indigenous bodies was issued on 9 June 2016, in the run-up to the 2016 Australian election, was dubbed the Redfern Statement. It represented growing calls for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander autonomy, and policy informed by grassroots organisations. The manifesto was authored by 18 organisations, including the Lowitja Institute and the Healing Foundation
The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...
. It was supported by the Close the Gap committee, Amnesty International Australia
Amnesty International Australia is a section of the Amnesty International network, and is part of the global movement promoting and defending human rights and dignity.
Concerns and campaigns
Human rights in the Asia-Pacific region is a key con ...
, the Australian Medical Association, the Law Council of Australia, Reconciliation Australia
Reconciliation Australia is a non-government, not-for-profit foundation established in January 2001 to promote a continuing national focus for reconciliation between Indigenous (i.e. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) and non-Indig ...
, Save the Children Australia
Save the Children Australia is an aid and development agency dedicated to helping children in Australia and overseas. It is an independent, not-for-profit and secular organisation.
Save the Children Australia is a member of the Save the Childre ...
, the Fred Hollows Foundation, ANTaR
Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) is an independent, national non-government, not-for-profit, community-based organisation founded in 1997 which advocates for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in A ...
and many other large and smaller organisations. The group called for the creation of a new dedicated department to deliver programs for Indigenous advancement.[
The Redfern Statement united leading members of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples from across key sectors, and had helped to grow an alliance of supporters. In September 2016, coinciding with the start of the 45th ]Australian Parliament
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the governor-g ...
, a gathering of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, including all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander MPs and Senators, outside Parliament House, Canberra
Parliament House, also referred to as Capital Hill or simply Parliament, is the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia, and the seat of the legislative branch of the Australian Government. Located in Canberra, the Parliament building is ...
, highlighted the importance of supporting the Redfern Statement. On 14 February 2017, Dr Jackie Huggins
Jacqueline Gail "Jackie" Huggins (born 19 August 1956) is an Aboriginal Australian author, historian, academic and advocate for the rights of Indigenous Australians. She is a Bidjara/Pitjara, Birri Gubba and Juru woman from Queensland.
she ...
, who chairs the Close the Gap campaign, gave the statement to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Turnbull grad ...
, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten
William Richard Shorten (born 12 May 1967) is an Australian politician currently serving as Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme since 2022. He previously served as leader of the opposition ...
, and the leader of the Australian Greens, Richard Di Natale
Richard Luigi Di Natale (born 6 June 1970) is a former Australian politician who was a senator for Victoria. He was also the leader of the Australian Greens from 2015 to 2020. Di Natale was elected to the Senate in the 2010 federal election. ...
, ahead of the 9th Closing the Gap
The Closing the Gap framework is an Australian government strategy that aims to reduce disadvantage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, based on seven targets. From adoption in 2008, after meetings with the Close the Gap social ...
Report to Parliament.
See also
*Closing the gap
The Closing the Gap framework is an Australian government strategy that aims to reduce disadvantage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, based on seven targets. From adoption in 2008, after meetings with the Close the Gap social ...
* List of speeches
This list of speeches includes those that have gained notability in English or in English translation. The earliest listings may be approximate dates.
Before the 1st century
*c.570 BC : Gautama Buddha gives his first sermon at Sarnath
*43 ...
* National Sorry Day
National Sorry Day, or the National Day of Healing, is an annual event that has been held in Australia on 26 May since 1998. The event remembers and commemorates the mistreatment of the country's Indigenous peoples as part of an ongoing process ...
*Reconciliation Australia
Reconciliation Australia is a non-government, not-for-profit foundation established in January 2001 to promote a continuing national focus for reconciliation between Indigenous (i.e. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) and non-Indig ...
* Minister for Indigenous Australians
References
External links
*
* (Delivered 10 December 1992)
* {{cite video, url=http://aso.gov.au/titles/spoken-word/keating-speech-redfern-address/, title=Keating Speech: The Redfern Address (1992), website=Australian Screen, series=National Registry of Recorded Sound
1992 speeches
December 1992 events in Australia
Speeches by heads of state
1992 in Australia