Ngunnawal Goulburn woman Jennie Gordon advocates Voice to Parliament

The proud Ngunnawal Goulburn woman and health worker was a signatory to the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart. The landmark statement set the stage for the current Voice to Parliament push, giving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a stronger say in issues that affect them.

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Mrs Gordon has worked in the health and aged care sectors, in corrections and Aboriginal advocacy for almost 50 years. She is a former a former board director of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives Association and is currently public officer for the Mulwaree Aboriginal Community Inc. This year, she also starts a three-year term on the Southern NSW Local Health District board.

Her career and interests have been shaped by personal experience.

In 1935, her grandmother was involved in a car accident at Oallen, near her birth place. She was injured but couldn't receive treatment at Goulburn Base Hospital because Aboriginal people were not allowed entry. Instead, she was accepted into a private birthing hospital in Belmore Street, Goulburn. Her grandmother later died from her injuries, aged twenty-seven.

"Intergenerational trauma like that impacts on all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia," Mrs Gordon said.

But as a teenager at Mulwaree High School, Jennie was invited by the principal to give sports houses Aboriginal names. They remain today.

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Today, she's buoyed by how welcoming the hospital is of First Nations people, through mission statements, practical approach and artwork.

However Mrs Gordon sees inequities in health, education and corrections and says people get upset when these are raised as issues.

"There has been government strategy for a long time in closing the gap but there really hasn't been a lot of success," she said.

"...The reality is that Aboriginal people across Australia have sent numerous reports to government and almost all are sitting on shelves like museum pieces."

But a referendum for a Voice to Parliament, pledged by federal Labor, has given her hope.

In 2017, Mrs Gordon was part of an ACT and region delegation at Uluru, a gathering of 250 people which reinforced Australia's 60,0000-year Aboriginal history.

The resulting statement was also a gift to the Australian people to walk in a spirit of reconciliation and endorse an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.

"In 1967 we were counted (in the census), in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and trek across the country. We invite you to walk with us in the movement of Australian people for a better future," it stated.

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Several MPs rejected the statement but Mrs Gordon said she was enthused by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's promise on election night that he'd work to implement the Statement.

"It was very exciting for me and many other founding members of the Statement because it meant the issue was no longer on the backburner," she said.

"In the same space, it's very disappointing to see some of the current responses, particularly from the National Party. We didn't give the Statement to any party to reject. It was given to the people of Australia and it was up to the government of the day to take to the people to either support or not."

Mrs Gordon also rejected federal opposition leader Peter Dutton's arguments that there was insufficient detail on how the Voice would work. She pointed out that members of the former Morrison government participated in a select committee on constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Nor would the Voice be a "third chamber of government" but rather an advisory body.

As a "passionate" advocate for a Voice and "truth telling" about Australia's history, Mrs Gordon said she was pleased to see changes to the education curriculum from preschool to tertiary level since the Statement.

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Now she has strong hopes that a referendum for a Voice to Parliament, promised for this term of government, will succeed.

"My hope is that the people of Australia will see this as a personal invitation to walk with us in true reconciliation and recognise from the Statement that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are entitled to be recognised as equals in this society," Mrs Gordon said.

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