Indigenous woman Paula Murphy speaks at Wagga Vote No forum | The Daily Advertiser - video Dailymotion

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Aboriginal woman Paul Murphy speaks to the crowd assembled at the Wagga Vote No forum held at the city’s Civic Theatre on September 27. Footage: Wagga Civic Theatre livestream, Youtube

Transcript

00:00 Firstly, my name is Paula Murphy. I am an Indigenous descendant, also Irish side as

00:08 well. That's where we get our name from, Murphy. I just want to point out that the

00:15 voice that they are pushing for, I believe, with what I did a bit of research

00:23 for, is dividing. It's more to come to divide us from whites to black. I want to

00:37 point out also that I too come from that remote area where there were violence,

00:43 drugs, alcohol, and I too was a victim in that. But I come to Wagga and I met a lot

00:54 of beautiful Christians. Family, I call them. They stood beside me, they walked

01:01 beside me. I couldn't read or write, yet they helped and lift me up and taught me

01:06 everything that I needed to know today. And that is the Christian community of

01:13 Wagga Wagga. And most of your views are here today. One thing, another thing I'd

01:22 like to point out about Noel Pearson said that it is advisory body that

01:31 hand-picked to speak for all Indigenous people. Well, my question is to him. I

01:46 don't want him to speak for me. I don't need him to speak for me or my

01:53 grandchildren. That's on the Indigenous side of it. I believe that we need to

02:04 come together as one, as the Lord.

02:09 You know, I hear a lot of this reconciliation, reconciling. My family, my

02:21 church, Christian family of Wagga Wagga taught me reconciling is about

02:26 forgiveness, working together, overcoming your mistakes and learning from them. And

02:37 forgiveness is the freedom through the Lord Jesus Christ. I can tell you now, I

02:44 come from an Indigenous mission that's called Gingi Reserve in the outback of

02:49 Wagga. I tell you now, the God that is standing over the Indigenous people is

02:58 not a God. That's my belief. The one who come and visit me in a prison cell was

03:06 Jesus Christ. He was the one said, "Do not fear for I am with you." I reached to the

03:16 point where I had no family, no mother, no sister, no brother. I was a victim of

03:21 rape. But yet, I do not take that and utilise it as a weapon. Instead, I rise

03:31 above it and I say, "No more. No more."

03:45 I encourage my Aboriginal Indigenous sisters and brothers and non-Indigenous

03:52 as well that stand for this Yes campaign to go out and educate themselves. Because

04:01 that advisory body they want to plant in our Constitution is to divide us and

04:07 it's there for good. And when I did find out, I found out that once it's in there,

04:13 it's a footprint that cannot be removed.

04:17 I encourage my brothers and sisters, look at the words they speak. And honey is

04:27 sweet as the Bible tells us. But look at the words they are speaking. I just need a

04:34 drink of water. Words are cheap, but the Lord said, "Words bring life and bring it

04:45 abundantly." I don't know how many times I heard Alvin Easy, Prime Minister Alvin

04:51 Easy, sorry, say, "We are here for the disadvantage." Which disadvantage is he

05:00 talking about? Because as far as I'm concerned, I got where I am just like any

05:05 other one, any other person. You know, I am not a victim. I do not need an advisory

05:13 body to speak for me or my grandchildren. I tell you now, as the Lord is our

05:21 witness, this Yes vote cannot pass. If it does, we are going to be in deep trouble.

05:30 We are going to be in deep trouble.

05:35 The racist, division, divisive, these are the words they are educating our

05:48 young children today. When they go training, my niece, she works for a great

05:56 organisation in Wagga, I won't name it. She went and did training. The words they

06:01 asked her, "Go and learn about the word race, diversity." Why? What happened to

06:12 common sense? What happened to standing side by side each other and encouraging

06:17 each other just as my church family in Wagga Wagga did? I tell you now, if I

06:25 did not come to Wagga and find my white, I'm going to say it, white family, I would

06:34 not be here today. One thing I am installing into my grandchildren, the

06:44 colour of our skin, as the word tells us as well, the colour of our skin does not

06:50 define us who we are. It does not define us who we are. And if you ever come across

06:57 people who want to shut you down and pull you down and make you feel

07:02 uncomfortable because of you sharing your voice, which is no, we don't want the

07:07 Yes campaign, then they are the ones with the problems, not us. They are the ones

07:15 with the problems, not us. The lack of education in this Yes voice is

07:26 dangerous, but I encourage people to speak up. If someone comes and strips you

07:32 down, just ask them the question, "Why?" Why do you think this Yes campaign is

07:41 good for our body? What is it going to do for you? Because we have the equal rights

07:47 since 1967, as this lady pointed out. My ancestors, I asked my auntie today,

07:54 "Do you believe we are better off now? We are worse off now than my great

08:01 grandmother was on my Indigenous side, or my great-grandfather on my Irish side,

08:07 who was a Combie, and she said, "No, we have the same rights today as a white man

08:15 today." And I encourage everyone to vote no. I want to thank Julie for that

08:28 information because I got educated as well, which is a great thing, and I'm

08:34 happy to answer any questions at the end. But thank you, Uncle Paul, for inviting me.

08:38 I didn't go off my notes, by the way. Sorry, Pa. But I'd just like to thank

08:44 Philip Riggs. I could not read 10 years ago, or 9 years ago, 5 years ago. He

08:51 pushed it into me because he believed in me, not because he's white and I'm black.

08:55 He goes, "Yeah, you can do this." You got Diane Shield over here, who really, really

09:01 instilled in me the love that we are all equal in this society. So thank you to

09:10 all my Christian family in Wagga Wagga to teach me not to stand and play victim,

09:16 but to rise up as a lovely, equal woman as anyone else in this country. So thank

09:23 you.

09:29 I'd like to also add, I'd like to also add, I remember my first stand-up in the

09:40 park as a Christian, only Diane Shield started it. I met Uncle Paul then. I was inspired by

09:46 him because he doesn't see race, he doesn't see colour. He's seeing me as a

09:53 young Australian girl who we can encourage and who can we help. We give him

10:00 information, he takes it to the council, I don't think he's in the council now, but

10:04 but he heard our voice, you know what I mean, and he played a part in that and we

10:09 want to, I want to thank Uncle Paul.

10:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Indigenous woman Paula Murphy speaks at Wagga Vote No forum | The Daily Advertiser

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