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Change happens one step at a time Do you ever feel as if you are walking along and doing your best and yet nothing is ever changing? Then there are other times when you see just how much can be achieved when people pull together for something real and true. Most times change happens slowly, and it always happens with the hard work of one step at a time. Sometimes it is tiring and difficult to look up and around, but when we summon the energy to look about us, to see the change, it is energising. In the lead up to the November 4 US election there was a lot of debate about whether, in a nation with such poor voter turn out, voters would actually get Barack Obama over the line. As I watched the final days of the election campaign and saw the numbers fall Barack Obama’s way in every pre-election poll, and heard the reports of increasing numbers of new enrolments, I was energised by the power that comes from people who join together for change. November 4 was an historic day in America, Americans joined together, not only to elect the first African-American to the White House, but also in record numbers to vote. Americans realised what we all must understand – change starts with each one of us. After Obama was elected Nelson Mandela was said to have written in a message to Obama: "Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.” As I read this I asked myself, ‘So what of Australia’s Indigenous population, how great are the opportunities for them to dream this dream?’ Australians must treat, as a national priority, the aim to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage and on the non-indigenous communities’ lack of understanding of Indigenous culture. We must work together to give all Australians, Indigenous and non Indigenous alike, the opportunity to dream large into the future. We must walk together, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, just as we saw Americans walk together and help to move Australia to a place of true equality. In solidarity |
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