Future leaders are the bridge

In the latest episode of the ARLF podcast, Rural Leadership Unearthed, we are joined by a veteran of Indigenous affairs and graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Program (ARLP) Course 3, Dr John Paterson. Raised in the Darwin region, John’s roots stem from the Ngalakan people of the Roper River region in south-east Arnhem Land.

We sat down with John on the eve of National Reconciliation Week, and this conversation takes us on quite a journey. From leaving high school and taking up a tough but honest job as a ‘garbologist’ to working his way up through the NT public service, John has seen big changes happen throughout his career working as an advocate for First Nations land rights and health outcomes.

John is currently a member of the Coalition of Peaks on the Joint Council for Closing the Gap. He is also the current Chair of the Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the NT. He has represented the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) at the United Nations Working Group of Indigenous Populations in Geneva, and at Indigenous economic conferences in Canada. John was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Arts from Charles Darwin University in recognition of his exemplary work over the last decades in various Aboriginal organisations and, more recently, in the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector and advocating for Aboriginal Territorians during COVID-19. He understands what’s at stake for all Australians when division and disconnection stand in the way of progress. bridge from now to next, in John’s eyes, is one where truths are told and stories shared without blame, so that all Australians can better know their past, understand their present, and of course, support emerging leaders from all sectors to strive for a better future.

Claire Delahunty: Before we start, I would like to acknowledge that I’m joining the conversation today from Dja Dja Wurrung country in central Victoria. And that’s land that has been cared for by the Jarrah people for tens of thousands of years. John, do you want to tell our listeners where you are and tell us a bit about your family and community ties as well?

John Paterson: I’m coming to you all from the beautiful lands of the Larrakia people in Darwin. However, I see myself as a visitor. My roots stem from Roper River or Ngukurr in south-east Arnhem Land. So it’s the Ngalakan language group and clan that we originate from. That’s my grandmother’s language group, and she was a very influential and powerful lady from what we understand from traditional owners that she was related to.

CD: It sounds like your childhood was really the original grounds for those values that have driven you to always be connecting and reaching out. Would that be right?

JP: Absolutely. My upbringing was nothing flash. We lived mostly off a five-acre block in Howard Springs and it was almost like living off the grid. No main power, no main water. And we had to improvise and do a lot of things by fire, by gas, by kerosene, for example.

It was a pretty tough upbringing. You know, my mum always pushed us to make sure we attended school on a regular basis. That’s why I believe education is so, so important for our Indigenous kids – particularly even prior to them entering the primary school grades and then hopefully secondary and tertiary. But that early childhood learning, from three to five, that’s a really critical age group if we’re going to provide an opportunity and a career pathway for Indigenous kids and give them a chance to be competitive in the workforce as they get older. It’s something that I preach and convey every year with the grandkids at Christmas. And the other values we had were to be respectful, to care for one another. You know, we all have to live in this beautiful country of ours and let’s support one another and provide the best opportunities for all Australians, regardless of race, creed or colour. We’ve got a big population now. Migrants have come to escape issues they faced in their home countries. We’ve got to embrace them as well – learn from them, teach them our values, what’s important to us. Hopefully, we can build this country and make it better and brighter.

CD: And growing up in the Darwin region, Darwin’s got very strong multicultural roots. What’s your memory as a kid of the social environment that surrounded you? How much did those values of your family carry over and how much did you encounter the less positive sides of life in Australia?

JP: I don’t recall a lot of angst or animosity in the community. Darwin was very multicultural back when I was growing up; a lot of Chinese, Malay, Greeks, Italians. Obviously, English, Scottish – all sorts of people. Darwin was emerging as a capital city, and they needed a diverse range of skill sets: builders, entrepreneurs, accountants – you name it. Those different diverse groups brought people who were experienced and qualified. I can recall festivals celebrating all the different cultures. And if your neighbour or your mate or another family needed help, it was provided without too much fuss – embraced and respected.

It was a really nice place to grow up. And those values – respecting elders, not stealing, caring for community – they made a community cohesive. One that everyone wanted to live in.

CD: You had almost finished high school, I understand, and then duty called and family-building called for you. And that led you to take on some roles, including garbage collection and hospital laundry, until the late seventies, when you sat an exam. And that was for the NT public service. Tell me about that and how that tipped you into a whole new landscape.

JP: Sure. This is something I also share at Christmas with the grandkids – some of the non-traditional jobs I had to do. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to do them – it was because I had to. I was becoming a father at 17. I had to provide for the new daughter that was coming along. We sat around the dinner table and said, what are the options? We agreed I’d leave school after year 11.

My first job was a garbologist. Back in the day, there weren’t trucks with electronic arms. It was all manual. You had to lift the bins, get the rubbish in, put them back on the kerb. I’d run up to the next set of bins. It was a great job. I was starting out in my football career, so it kept me fit for training. The hours were brilliant. I started at five in the morning and by 10 o’clock the day was done. That gave me time to help with the new bub, my oldest daughter.

Then I got a phone call from the Northern Territory Government. They said there was a laundry man position going at the Royal Darwin Hospital. I said that’s a little bit easier and paid more. I took it. Then I was encouraged by mates to sit for the public service exam. I did, and about a month later I got a phone call from the Chief Minister’s Department. They asked if I’d interview for a job in the Office of Aboriginal Liaison. I said, absolutely. I rocked up for the interview and a week later they asked when I could start. So it was the 1st of January 1979. Base-grade clerk – filing, answering phones, all the receptionist tasks. That was my entry into the public service. We were then able to save enough to buy our first family home.

I was working with old-school public servants – men and women. I learned a lot from their experience. Their stories encouraged me to study. I started a Diploma in Public Administration at the Institute of Technology while working part-time in government – a couple of units per semester.

CD: What sort of insights did you start to gain from being within the public service? Had you had a good idea about how the cogs of the machine worked?

JP: No, I didn’t, but you’re right. It was an opportunity, because I was writing to ministers in Cabinet, and that was the lead agency – the government agency on behalf of the rest of the government. A lot of parliamentary business came across my desk, and I had to make referrals to speak to senior executives about courses of action and who we should refer them to. All these parliamentary systems and processes were a good learning ground for understanding that and its relevance in society and the way government operates.

CD: You’ve walked a long path as an advocate and an activist sometimes. When did that kindle in you? Was that always there or was it through being involved more in the systems and observing policies and decisions affecting Indigenous Australians that you had your own awakenings?

JP: In 1987, I had a phone call. Around that era, one of the big issues facing the Northern Territory Government was the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, which was a piece of federal legislation that enabled traditional owners to put a claim to the federal government, the Aboriginal Land Commission. The Commission would come to the Northern Territory, go out to the area being claimed, and hear all the evidence from traditional owners and land councils.

They were looking for an Aboriginal Liaison Officer at the Northern Land Council. I had a call from the director at the time, the late Dr John R. Kitt. He rang and said, “Patto, do you want a bit of a change in your working career? It’s about getting out and about with Aboriginal communities and assisting with their land council meetings.” That was the point when I began my advocacy – when I really became aware of how important it was for Aboriginal people to get some sort of right to Country.

And the following year – I think it was the bicentennial year, 1988 – I was handpicked to lead a big convoy from Darwin to Sydney. The Land Council did the planning. I had a number of 12-seater buses, trucks, Toyotas. We left Darwin in mid-January to arrive by 26 January in Sydney.

Some came from the Kimberley, joined us in Katherine, then we went down to Tennant Creek and picked up another couple of busloads. Then it was Alice Springs, down to Port Augusta, and through remote New South Wales. By the time we reached Mittagong, we definitely needed a police escort into La Perouse. It was a journey and an experience that will stay with me for life.

I wasn’t a mover and shaker back then. I was a support worker – making sure people were looked after, cared for, and provided with meals. Then we did the big march from Hyde Park to, I think, Bicentennial Park. There were hundreds of thousands of people. It was a peaceful demonstration and protest, but it really put the issue on the map and on the agenda for government.

This is where a little bit of truth-telling needs to happen. Hopefully we can redress that. Because when I went to school, we were only taught about Captain Cook’s role – nothing about Indigenous history. That event really highlighted the importance of Terra Nullius and that First Nations people were here when Cook and others arrived.

CD: How do you balance both the difficulties and pain of the past and go forward with your life and what you want to achieve in your time?

JP: I want all of us as Australians, regardless of race, creed or colour, to be able to embrace one another, to live in peace, to respect our cultural ways and to share those experiences and cultures with everyone. To get there, we need to respect and acknowledge – and I think this is where the truth-telling initiative could play a significant role – the atrocities that have happened in the past, and the different stories that have been told. We need to hear those stories. We need to consider the evidence constructively and positively – without blame.

It’s about recognising and acknowledging the past and what has happened, and then asking: how do we move into the future? We’ve seen how nasty some sectors have been recently. It will take leadership – from governments, from corporate Australia, from Aboriginal organisations. We need leaders to step up, negotiate constructively and positively, and put in place a foundation for a future all of us can enjoy.

We call on governments to provide the wrap-around support programs and assistance needed so that parents can raise their kids well – to give them a good start in life and help them enjoy their later years too.

CD: One of your current roles is as a member of the Coalition of Peaks on the Joint Council for Closing the Gap. Again, I’m interested in what keeps you going on a really difficult issue that is proving there are no quick fixes. What is your approach and your leadership there when you know it’s a long road and it’s one where you might be passing the baton to those behind you to just keep going and keep working on this?

JP: The last few years I’ve been setting priorities – addressing the four key areas of Closing the Gap. It’s about enabling and ensuring that we have First Nations leaders sitting at the decision-making table. It’s about encouraging governments at all levels to make the necessary reforms and reduce red tape. It’s about culturally safe policies. It’s about governments creating First Nations committees or advisory groups to gather input. It’s about collecting the right data – and I always say at these meetings, I want to be able to set up my computer and, at the push of a button, access that information.

This is about the future – building Australia, building rural Australia, building regional Australia.

I can recall my brother Stanley Nangala and I being on Course Three of the Australian Rural Leadership Program (ARLP), travelling through the Carr Boyd Ranges near Lake Argyle. The hot topic back then was Native Title. We split into small groups. He was in a different one, but every night on the six-day trek, my fellow graduates and I would lie under the stars in our swags, around a campfire, and they’d ask me – “John, what does Native Title mean? What does it mean for my cattle or sheep farm?”

And I’d say, look, there’s a lot of fear-mongering going on out there. It’s not about taking away people’s backyards or farms. It’s about acknowledgement – that Aboriginal people have a presence and connection to land, that there may be sacred sites on pastoral properties. It’s about negotiation and ensuring regular visitation can happen for cultural purposes.

CD: What has stayed with you from that ARLP experience?

JP: I was a bit narrow-minded before I did the course – blinkered, I suppose. But it gave me the knowledge and understanding of how this nation works and what makes it tick. The big corporates, the peak associations – finance, farmers, wheat growers, sheep breeders, ports, the stock exchange.

It took those blinkers off. I realised I was only in one little silo. That course taught me to knock down silos and to look across the whole spectrum – at all the industries, groups and stakeholders that play a role in meeting the challenges ahead.

CD: Do you have any advice or insight into what non-Indigenous Australians can do in that allyship role – in that supportive role?

JP: I’ve thought about this. We’ve got former graduates who are now politicians – at the national, state and territory levels. I believe we all share responsibility.

I often think this nation is now in a position to come together. Because if you don’t understand the history, the knowledge or the background, people will fall into difference. I’ve been thinking about community consultations and how we could run town hall forums with groups of graduates. There are heaps of us now – all across the country – who could lead that.

I wouldn’t mind putting it out there and saying, hey, the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF) could host a gathering of interested community members – from any sector – to share their insights and their vision for rural Australia. That’s where the biggest challenges are right now.

CD: Coming back to National Reconciliation Week and this year’s theme of ‘bridging now to next’. What is that bridge to you? Is it the next generation? Is it sharing knowledge and stories? What do you conceptualise that bridge as?

JP: I think the bridging really connects with this truth-telling initiative. I’ve been thinking – not just about telling the truth, but about how we plan for the future.

I’m always thinking about the future leaders – the mob coming through behind us. We’ve had terrific leaders in my era and the one before. They’ve done the hard yards. They got First Nations issues on the agenda – right up into the top five.

So how do we now support the next generation of leaders to start building that bridge? This is another opportunity for the ARLF – to host community forums where the younger mob come together with the oldies. The older ones can provide context and background. The younger ones can bring fresh thinking.

What does the bridge look like? What are the issues on the other side? Do we need systemic reform? Do we need to change the way we do business?

That’s the exciting part. I don’t have all the answers. I can share history and background. But I’d never advocate for something that should be decided by the generations coming through. They’ve got to do it.