I’ve walked 12 million steps to deliver a message to the Australian government

I set off a year ago carrying three message sticks as an invitation and a challenge. You are part of us and this land now

From its inception the Australian government has been in denial about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s political existence. Prior to colonisation our people were organised into over 500 nations, each with distinct languages and systems of law that prevailed for over 4,000 generations and 100,000 years. Terra nullius is a fiction.

No treaty has ever been signed. Why, when the colonists arrived, could they not see the intricate web of political organisation and law, the historical wisdom or the deep knowledge that was the culture of our people? Instead they looked upon us and they saw an earlier version of themselves – an uncivilised people lacking capacity and culture. They believed that we would not survive their cultural and industrial colonisation.

The Australian colonialist mentality has been about the exploitation of nature and the dominance over Indigenous people. This dominance has made our land and its people sick. It is time to wake up. We are a part of nature. We must protect it.

I grew up on the Woorabinda Mission, in central Queensland. Woorabinda was one of three large-scale missions established in 1927 to contain Aboriginal culture and replace it with a Christian-dominated Westminster value system. Although on traditional Gangulu nation and the Wadja nation country, the mission housed 52 different nations, an indication of how many families and nations had been decimated, stolen or misplaced.

The mission establishment did not encourage or even recognise traditional Aboriginal culture.

Growing up, it appeared to me that many of our people were caught in a cultural void. They were unable to identify with the white man’s ideals, but neither could they reconnect to their traditional culture. I experienced what I can only describe as a spiritual build-up. I felt manipulated by a whitewash of cultural values. Displaced from my traditional ways of being I felt caught in a no-win cycle of being expected to join a white man’s world that was stacked against me.

Growing up, it appeared to me that many of our people were caught in a cultural void. They were unable to identify with the white man’s ideals, but neither could they reconnect to their traditional culture. I experienced what I can only describe as a spiritual build-up. I felt manipulated by a whitewash of cultural values. Displaced from my traditional ways of being I felt caught in a no-win cycle of being expected to join a white man’s world that was stacked against me.

Determined to overcome this feeling I made the decision to reconnect with my country and the traditional Aboriginal lore of this land.

I decided to utilise an ancient custom of Aboriginal law, carrying message sticks as a communication tool. I learned through the teachings of my elders that in traditional culture certain individuals would be given the task of delivering message sticks to other tribes relating to trading, sorry business or creating partnerships. I decided that the way forward for me was to embark on a long walk on country, reconnecting with the songlines of my people and carrying this declaration of healing to the Australia government.

To this day, I have walked over 8,500km, 12 million steps, through five states and territories, and 50 First Nations.

I set off, roughly a year ago, from Bamaga in Cape York, the most northern tip of Queensland, carrying the three message sticks that represent the three stages of Australia’s story – creation, colonisation and healing.

I plan to present the message sticks to the newly sworn Australian government in Canberra.

I hope that the message sticks will provide an opportunity for Aboriginal people to come together and establish a national alliance – to create structural foundations for our own sovereign governance. It’s time our First Nations People resumed their roles as caretakers of country and custodians of the land. We want to restore and heal our homelands, to secure a future for our children. All of humanity must recognise the interconnected systems of life to survive.

The message sticks are both an invitation and a challenge to embrace the ancient sovereignty that has long been denied us and which is the irrefutable bedrock of our nation’s identity. They refer directly to discussions about constitutional change that we will establish in the years ahead, acknowledging recognition, the republic and truth-telling.

We don’t want the likes of Tony Abbott, Bill Shorten, Scott Morrison, Nigel Scullion or any part of the British commonwealth establishment representing First Nations people. We need to paint the picture for ourselves, in our own communities, in our own way.

Walking this country I have felt not only a connection with my own ancestors, but I have also felt the presence of ancient ancestors from different nations as I walk through their land. I feel them and I know that I’m not alone. I have learnt that my connection to this land and our people can never be overpowered. It is a part of me, I only need to be present to it. Non-Indigenous people can experience that too.

The message sticks are a gift of incalculable generosity after all that has happened to my people since 1770.

Because you are a part of us now. You are a part of this land.

Australians, please stand with us in solidarity – as the First Nations people, the oldest living culture on this planet, come together to ignite the flame in the heart of this land and creation that has always been here, since the first sunrise.