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'IN JULY 2019, the Queensland Government launched a series of community consultations as part of its Path to Treaty initiative. The then Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships explained that ‘when Queensland was settled, there was no treaty agreement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first custodians’. ‘First Nations peoples,’ continued the government statement, ‘were displaced from their land without any negotiation, resulting in political, economic and social inequalities that continue to this day.’ On 11 November 2019, one of twenty-four public consultations around the state was held in Birdsville in the Channel Country of south-western Queensland. At the Birdsville meeting to discuss Treaty, Mithaka Elder Betty Gorringe said just one thing from the back of the room: We already had a treaty: the Debney Peace. It’s in Alice’s books.' (Introduction)
Notes
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Author's note:
Author’s note: I would like to thank the Gorringe family, the Duncan-Kemp family, the Debney family and the Mithaka Aboriginal Corporation for their strong support for this research. I also thank the Bundanon Trust for their award of a writer’s residency in 2020. I am grateful to Josh Gorringe, Michael Westaway, Trish FitzSimons, Grace Karskens, Tim Rowse, Ian Andrews, Libby Robin, Ray Kerkhove, David Nash, Mike Smith, Billy Griffiths, Paul Gorecki and David Trigger for their generous assistance. I pay tribute to Dawn Duncan-Kemp (1932–2021) for her dedication in preserving the archive of her mother-in-law, Alice, and to Mandy Martin (1952–2021), a gifted artist and passionate conservationist who, together with her husband, Guy Fitzhardinge, introduced me to the Channel Country.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
- Queensland,
- Birdsville, Birdsville - Boulia area, South West Queensland, Queensland,
