Please join Charles Sturt University and Professor Stan Grant, Professor of Indigenous Belonging, in signing the Yindyamarra Pledge for Democracy.
Australia stands poised on the brink of history. Within the next three years the nation will vote in a referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. This invites us to imagine our nation anew. Can our democracy stand in our land, in the truth of where we are? Public discourse has turned toxic. Democracy everywhere is staggering under the weight of tribalism and populism. We confront a post-truth, post-liberal age with a polarised and partisan media.
In response, Professor Grant invites us to take the Yindyamarra Pledge for Democracy. A gift from the Wiradjuri people to all people. An invitation to all Australians to set aside their historic prejudices, adopt Gulbali values of respect, kindness, quiet reflection and justice and in the spirit of Yindyamarra engage in respectful conversation and debate on the future of Australian democracy.
The Yindyamarra Pledge for DemocracyThe first people touched this land as our continent was being formed.
Their birthright has never been ceded.
Those people live still in their descendants.
With their grace and generosity, we enter into their heritage and respect their traditions.
We honour too those who have come from other lands and carry with them their cultures and faiths.
Though our bonds may strain, we seek to live together in harmony. Though we may disagree, we find no enemy among us.
We cherish the foundations of our nation, and our rule of law and democracy.
In so doing we commit to fulfilling our democracy’s promise.
It cannot speak to us all while ever it does not speak to all of us.
We abide by the democratic will of the majority but defend the rights of the minority.
We are all equal in dignity.
Opportunity is for all.
Worth should be measured not in privilege.
By our efforts we should prosper. In a land of plenty, we must care for those without.
From the first footsteps to the most recent arrival, this land is our home.
There can be no other.
Here, today, we come together as a people formed by our history yet not bound by history’s chains but committed to forge a just union.
In this spirit we offer the Yindyamarra pledge for democracy. A gift from the Wiradjuri people to all people.
Yindyamarra: respect. Kindness. Quiet. Justice.
Yindyamarra Winhanganha: to live with respect in a world worth living in.
Source: Adapted from Professor Stan Grant’s “Australia Day” (Harper Collins, 2019).
