How do other countries include Indigenous people?

Australia isn’t the only place with Indigenous people who need political representation. Let’s take a look at how other places around the world are managing this issue.

All the other Commonwealth countries (meaning: places that got invaded and colonised by Britain) have some type of treaty with their Indigenous peoples. Australia is the only one that doesn’t. So we’re behind the game on that.

However, the Waitangi Treaty with the Maori in New Zealand has been broken regularly, although there is a big effort now to do it properly. And treaties with Indigenous tribes in the USA and Canada have had varying degrees of success.

So when the Dialogues were happening, Indigenous people from Australia looked at other ideas from around the world too. Bolivia and Chile are working on constitutional recognition as well as treaties at the moment.

But the one that stands out to me is the Sami parliaments in Sweden, Norway and Finland. This clip from SBS News below shows what they look like.

@sbsnews_au

Could these Nordic parliaments give a glimpse of what to expect from the Voice? Read more @sbsnews_au (link in bio) #news #auspol

♬ original sound – SBS News – SBS News

I think this is amazing and such a good idea. The first one began in 1989, so they’ve had time to work out the tricky bits. I think using that as a model for the Voice would be very cool.