As Black Lives Matter protests spread across the world, we sat down with a coffee and had a yarn with musician and former Mayor of Noosa and the Sunshine Coast Bob Abbot to hear his stories relating to Indigenous matters in our part of the world.
Bob believes he was fortunate to have two mentors who taught him from the get-go not to get into disputes between groups. Instead, he focused his efforts on assisting in practical ways.
In 2016, Bob was appointed as mentor to the 13 Mayors of Indigenous Councils – a role which he thoroughly enjoyed and which gave him much satisfaction.
“It was like they thought I was one of them, and looks-wise I could pass! I could blend in and felt a strong connection. At events, the sound of the Didgeridoo would always make me feel emotional. I used to refer to the didgeridoo as “The sound of the nation”, it’s so unique to Australia.”
Bob was the second Mayor in Queensland to say sorry to the Indigenous custodians of the land at an emotional NAIDOC week event at The Woods.
When the Council wouldn’t support his intention to offer an apology, he went ahead and did it anyway.
“I worded it so as to include as many people in the community as possible who thought as I did but not to offend anyone either. I didn’t want it to just come from me, I really did want to be the one who delivered the message that most people wanted to say to our indigenous nation.
It was an extremely emotional moment – everything went deadly quiet, the birds, the waves, it felt like everyone stopped breathing until the words had been spoken.
I hope that my apology raised the level of consciousness about the great work being done by Indigenous people in our region.”
At another event Bob recalls Yothu Yindi singing their song “Treaty” – seeing so many white people he knew to be racist claim the song as theirs made him feel extremely angry.
During the early years of Bob’s Mayoralty he was fortunate to work with a number of Indigenous women as the Matriarchs of the Kabi Kabi / Gubbi Gubbi / Undumbi people. People like Dr Eve Fesl and Beverly Hand had earned a great deal of respect and events like Bunya Dreaming have become a drawcard for the region.
By the time Bob won the Sunshine Coast mayoralty he instigated the first regional reconciliation strategy and through that pushed for change and recognition.
“I believe the secret of my success was to surround myself with people smarter than I was. My job was to provide and protect the space they worked in, provide support they need to do good work and give them the credit for our success. It was never about me, it was always about we, about us.
To me, the definition of leadership is the creation and maintenance of safe spaces for people to make good decisions. That’s what I did and that’s why we succeeded.”
And what about Native Title?
While all Crown Land is under Native Title claims, it’s a far cry from the freehold system introduced by European settlers. First Nations people don’t believe in owning land – to them, we are all part of the land and maintaining it is an essential part of living on it. A successful Native Title application under the current legislation basically offers a seat at the table when deciding how the land would be used, managed and cared for in the future.
Take for example the old TAFE site in Tewantin which consists of the current structure with the road, building and native vegetation with a protective planning consent covering the land and its use.
It is Crown land which means it has no private freehold tenure so Indigenous people could use the land for planting, education, cultural burning, cultural activities etc, but would never own the land or the infrastructure as such.
Bob acknowledged that not all Indigenous people wanted to live in the traditional ways either – many have embraced modern Australia, and whether they believe in the system or not, they need to make a living in our modern Australia to survive. Even so, their connections to the land through their culture are still very strong.
When Bob decided not to run again, it was based on advice from his old and generous mentor the late Tom Burns who had been Deputy Premier in the Goss Government.
“That advice was that it was always wiser to go when the people wanted him to stay rather than staying till they wanted him to go.”
