For our first episode, we gathered leaders in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission to discuss their reflections on the journey of the Commission and their insights on how the representative function of ATSIC can be drawn on to inform the development of the Voice to Parliament today.

This conversation was recorded on Jagera Country in Queensland and produced on Wurundjeri Country, in Naarm, Victoria. We pay our respects to the elders, past and present, of these Countries, to our guests who share their cultural knowledge and experience as Aboriginal men resisting a settler-state in this conversation, and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people listening to this conversation. We are privileged to witness this conversation about First Nations justice on unceded Aboriginal lands.

The White Noise podcast is a production of the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub at the University of Melbourne. You can find out more about us on our website, or by following us on Instagram.

The White Noise podcast is hosted by Jaynaya Dwyer, Research Fellow at the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub.

The soundtrack, White Noise, is written and performed by John Wayne Parsons (Yuggerabul Meriam Le). We are grateful to John Wayne for lending his voice to this program.

We are honoured to be joined by our guests, who generously shared their wisdom:

·  Mick Gooda (Gangulu, Yiman)

·  Geoff Scott (Wiradjuri)

·  Eddie Cubillo (Larrakia, Wadjigan and Central Arrente) – the ILJH Director.

Our sincere to the staff of the MLS digital studio for the production of this podcast:

·  Greta Robenstone – production and editing

·  Ben Chandler – sound mixing

A full transcript of this episode is available on our website.

You can learn more about the themes discussed in this episode through the following resources:

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission

·  A compilation of senior Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices on the closure of ATSIC - National Museum of Australia, Reflections on ATSIC  (Youtube, 13 October 2011)

·  The Parliamentary Inquiry at the conclusion of ATSIC, considering transition to mainstreaming of ATSIC’s functions, contains analysis of the body from the perspective of the committee membership, particularly in Chapter 2.

Select Committee on the Administration of Indigenous Affairs ‘After ATSIC – life in the mainstream’(Parliament of Australia, 8 March 2005)

The 1967 Referendum and First Nations representative bodies

·  This blog post provides a history of Aboriginal representative structures at the federal and state level, putting ATSIC in a broader context of administrative arrangements