By Peter Douglas
Yarra Ranges Council’s 2017 Citizen of the Year, Doseena Fergie, has called on council to consider changing the date of its Australia Day festivities.
Ms Fergie had been in Rome when the initial awards were announced, so she was invited to Yarra Ranges Council’s Tuesday 28 March meeting to formally accept her award.
While she said it was great to be recognised not just for her own feats, but for the wider Indigenous community, Ms Fergie said it took time before she accepted the award, due to her stance on Australia Day being held on 26 January.
Ms Fergie would like the present council to “think about very seriously” following Fremantle Council’s lead and changing festivities to another date.
In addressing council, Ms Fergie said the award represented much more than her own work with the Healesville Indigenous Community Service Association (HICSA).
“I just want to say a sincere thankyou for this award; I really don’t think you realise just how significant it is,” she said.
“To have this award go to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person is really significant.
“When Noel rang me up that night, I was reluctant to say yes … because 26th of January is a day I consider to be invasion day, a day of survival for our people, not a day of celebration.
“But I thought about it … and I thought of this, what you have done, you are making a people who are invisible, visible … and I want to thank you.
“Thankyou from the bottom of my heart, not because I got the award, but because I see sincere staff working with us and I look around this table and I see sincere people.”
Ms Fergie said just years ago, an award such as this wouldn’t have been well accepted by the broader community.
“I know (this) because we live with racism and discrimination every day … although it be covert,” she said.
“I don’t like being in the public as such, but if it allows our people to be visible … so be it.
“We want to overcome those barriers that are not enabling us to close that gap sufficiently.”
In welcoming Ms Fergie to council, Mayor Noel Cliff described her as an “active, respected elder who has nurtured many young and emerging Indigenous leaders”.
“Her role in establishing HICSA has had a considerable impact on the local and wider Yarra Ranges community,” he said.
“Doseena’s leadership has provided the Healesville Aboriginal community with a welcoming, cultural-affirming place that provides a central point of contact for community members, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
“She has transformed the way council works with the Indigenous community … she has left a lasting legacy.”
Cr Cliff went on to ask Ms Fergie what more the present council could do to help her achieve her ambitions.
“I would love council to be the first council on this east coast to have Australia Day celebrations at another time,” she said.
“Because 26 January did happen and we can’t change that.
“For us, it’s suffering; it’s grieving … every time, we cannot celebrate.
“And we want to celebrate Australia all together as well, but not on 26th of January; that’s what I’d like this council to think about very seriously.”
