Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise with my colleagues to pay my respects to Dr G Yunupingu in this very important condolence motion in this chamber. Before I do that, can I recognise country, and also the country of Dr G Yunupingu. The member for Lingiari has painted a picture of Galiwinku and the Gumatj clan, from which Dr G Yunupingu came. Just prior to having this opportunity to pay my respects I had a meeting with Amnesty International, and they asked me to pass on their regards. In fact, one of the young men in that delegation was Dylan Voller, and he particularly wanted me to mention that at the beginning of this discussion.

I had the pleasure, as many of you did, of meeting Dr G Yunupingu and of seeing his performances live. The last time that that took place was in 2015 in Canada, of all places, in Vancouver. I was at an international Indigenous peoples conference on housing. The person that organised that was a Canadian First Nations man called Andrew Lee. Andrew had spent some time in Australia and had heard, I think on radio or he had a tape, of Dr G Yunupingu's work, and he made it his life mission to make sure that Dr G sang, along with his band, at that event in Canada. There were about 500 or 600 Indigenous peoples from all over the world. That is where I actually met Dr G Yunupingu and his family. He was a very quiet man, a very humble man, and was steeped deeply in his Yolngu culture, but when he sang you could hear a pin drop in the room. No-one in that room knew who he was, except the Australian delegation, I think, but it was just the most magical evening. I think many people have spoken of the quality of his music and of his voice. It was from another world. Whether you were religious or not, you could picture angels when he sang, because it was very much the voice of angels. He captivated the audience that night with his voice and his stories. He captivated it not just with the quality of his voice and his music but with the fact that he communicated so beautifully with all of us—no matter who we were or who we are—in his language. That was just the magic of that music: you could just listen and the sound seeped into you. He brought a first-Australian language to mainstream Australia. Of course, as others have said, it wasn't just to mainstream Australia: he sang for the world.

This was a man who was probably one of the most remarkable musicians this country has ever seen and will ever see, and yet he died at the age of 46 from a largely preventable disease. That is the irony of why this condolence motion is so important. It seemed remarkable, didn't it? He could sing for presidents, for queens, for leaders of country and yet meet with an end that is not an unusual end. That is the point of this story, that the death of a young Aboriginal man from end-stage renal failure is not an unusual story. It brought to me a very personal story of one of my dearest friends—exactly the same story. His name was Michael Riley of the Wiradjuri people. He was recognised worldwide as one of the most creative and best photographers in the world. Yet despite the fact that he lived in Glebe, despite the fact that he lived two or three kilometres from the hospital in Camperdown, he met with the same fate. In fact, Lynette Riley and I sat with Michael in the intensive care ward until the early hours of the morning, when he passed away. Dr Yunupingu of course was born blind and had to deal with liver and kidney complications for years. As the member for Lingiari said, in the end he practised the greatest act of self-determination, by making a decision that he'd had enough.

It leaves us with the challenge of how this can happen in a first-world nation. We have spoken about this, I know, and everyone is well intentioned, but—political leaders, activists, whoever we are—we have to face up to this living and painful truth and the painful reality. The health gap between first nations peoples and non-Indigenous Australians is not closing. It is not closing. The warnings of the tsunami coming down the track, which we heard up in Arnhem Land on the weekend and we have heard in the press this week, of Aboriginal people and kidney disease are a reality. In fact, I don't think it's a tsunami coming down the track; I think it's a tsunami that we are swirling around in and is pulling us out into the ocean right now.

We know that the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found that about 40 per cent of diseases in Indigenous Australians are preventable. As I said, the member for Lingiari and many of us were up in Gama on the weekend, and we heard from Dr Yunupingu's specialist, Dr Paul Lawton, who spoke of the challenge that many Indigenous Australians with kidney disease face—that is, the need to travel many hundreds of kilometres for treatment, away from community, away from family, away from culture and away from everything that sustains you. And this is not just a story in the NT; it is a story right across this country. People living in Bourke, people living in many more regional and remote communities, have to travel to places like Alice Springs, like Darwin, like Dubbo, like Tamworth and like, I am sure, many other places in Queensland and South Australia, often with a broken heart, because to leave culture, to leave family, to leave kinship structures, to leave ceremonies is to leave part of you behind. With Dr G Yunupingu's death and his story may we all reflect on and remember the work that we here in this parliament still have to do to close that gap.

As I said, when you are involved with the Aboriginal community, as we all are, you go to lots of funerals. In many ways, it is just incredible. People say, 'The only time I ever see you anymore is at funerals.' I think this is a reality that we have to face up to. I have seen school children and young people ashamed of their Aboriginality and be made to feel ashamed of their Aboriginality because of what has been put forward in the media, but because of people like Dr G Yunupingu young people are proud of culture, proud of story and proud of history and see themselves as a future. They aspire to participate, to achieve and to contribute, and that is because of the inspiration of people like Dr G Yunupingu.

Can I just finish up by saying that whilst at Gama last week, during the opening ceremony, there was the most emotional and remarkable tribute by the Yunupingu family and the Gumatj clan to Dr G. It was just a privilege to be there and be part of it. At the end of it, part of what happened was that we all stood with each other and held each other's hands and held them up while a song was being sung. Of course, the wailing of the women that were close to him put into all of our hearts that wail and that sadness. We have seen the passing of a remarkable young man who should not have died. It is within our grasp to do something about that. For heaven's sake, let's do something about it.

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