A Sweeter Truth

'What is my vision of a Blak future? What is my First Nations utopia?' - Sky Cusack

In this special edition of STAUNCH, we are honoured to feature Skye Cusack’s evocative piece, “A Sweeter Truth.”

This piece was commissioned as part of Awesome Black’s curatorial collaboration with the 2024 Emerging Writers Festival.

I put forward the prompt for writers to put forward their vision of what a future Blak continent would look like. Drawing from any source material they want, from fiction to political manifesto. What do you think the ideal version of a future 'so-called-Australia' would be?

What does your utopia look like?

How would governance, justice, and societal structures function? What would education, healthcare, and community life look like?

How would cultural practices, traditions, and languages be preserved and celebrated?

How would relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples be transformed?

Skye offers a deeply personal and imaginative vision of what a future Blak continent could look like, grounded in both realism and aspiration. Drawing from her own experiences and insights, Skye challenges us to think beyond the constraints of the present, envisioning a society where governance, education, and cultural practices are led by First Nations principles of care, respect, and justice. - Travis De Vries, STAUNCH. Founder

This work is part of a broader project inviting writers to put forward their ideal vision for a First Nations utopia in whatever form that may take for them. If you would like contribute to this project please reach out to us via email.

What is my vision of a Blak future? What is my First Nations utopia?

My initial response to this prompt was, my opinion on this doesn’t matter. And it wasn’t because I’m not Indigenous enough or woke enough or anything like that. 

My honest thought on the matter is that my ideal Blak continent would be run by people much smarter than me. Those that are far more educated in governance, academia, and traditional practices. 

I’m not so good with all that. But what I can do is spin a yarn. 

A few years ago, my father fell into a diabetic coma. If you wanted to understand how the coma occurred through the colonial lens, you would say it was due to ‘neglect’. My father didn’t go to the doctor. I barely go myself. Fear disguised as pride. 

I was in the pristine white hospital when he regained consciousness. He looked over at me and said, these whitefullas aren’t so bad. 

I thought, who do you think gave you diabetes? 

But I didn’t say that. I was just happy he was alive. 

7.9% of First Nations Peoples in Australia have self-reported living with diabetes¹, but it is expected the percentage is much higher. 

Diabetes is often described as a silent killer, a condition that can deteriorate your vitality over time if not properly addressed. Similarly, the colonisation of Country has eroded our cultural health, through the targeted erasure of our traditions, languages and social structures. 

Just as First Nations Peoples struggle with diabetes, we too battle with the symptoms of a system that has historically worked against our well-being. We are suffering from the chronic disease of brutalisation. 

This is a fact: the only Peoples who have sustainably lived in so-called Australia are First Nations Peoples. My ancestors lived on Country for tens of thousands of years without the mass destruction of nature or nurture that we have seen proliferate in not even 250 years.

If I follow this train of thought, my first instinct is a naive wish for a Dr Stone-esque period of time for our homeland to heal while we wait, frozen, until it can accommodate a choice few. My gut-reaction utopia was built on a period where all of us just shut the fuck up for a little while. 

But this isn’t realistic. This is not a situation for a choice few. This is not a situation with time to heal. This is not a situation for naivety. 

Would I get rid of all the non-Indigenous people? I’ll admit that my answer wasn’t an immediate no. But there is benefit to the way our colonisers can mass contemporarily communicate and in some circumstances, educate. 

In my First Nations-led continent, education is key for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Knowledge is a power that those in Blak leadership can harness, and those with other roles in the community can use to give informed consent when supporting practices and policies. 

With all of this in mind, welcome to my Blak utopia. I hope you enjoy.

Currency 

Communities work together to assess individual strengths and weaknesses, and then use a collective decision-making process on a regular basis to continually decide how various residents will contribute as new situations arise. 

Of course, this has flaws. For example, most people think that healthcare workers should be paid more than McDonalds trainees, but I argue that getting a wound salved can feel equally as fulfilling as a 6 pack of nuggets if you’re drunk enough at 3am. 

This is why my utopia focuses on equitable wealth (alternative wealth, not money!) redistribution, not accumulation for those in leadership². Which brings us to…

Governance 

Mob in leadership draw upon traditional knowledge and cultural practices, integrating them with contemporary choice-making flows. First Nations governance models guide deliberations, prioritising environmental and justice systems rooted in restorative practices. 

The top priority is Country. It will always be Country. The land is seen not just as a resource to be exploited, but as a spiritual entity to be respected and cared for. 

Education and Cultural Preservation 

The current Australian Curriculum is no stranger to scrutiny, with educators and parents alike feeling it is “prescribed”³ and does not account for the needs of individual communities. This is not the vibe of my Blak continent. 

Instead, each mob can decide individually what they feel their community needs. A national holistic curriculum is developed by educational leaders from each mob, covering standard topics like arts, sciences, (accurate!) history and sports. However, it is understood that these simply act as a quality-assessed guide and can be localised to honour the diverse needs and interests of each community. 

Established cultural centers and community hubs across the continent serve as spaces for cultural activities, gatherings, and education. They particularly encourage intergenerational projects that bring together Elders and young people to share knowledge and skills. This includes storytelling sessions, craft workshops, and collaborative art projects that celebrate and preserve cultural practices. 

Digital archives have also been established to accurately document languages, stories, songs, and cultural practice. This makes learning accessible to people of all ages, regardless of their location. 

Racism 

Historically, so-called Australia has not responded well to the idea that Aboriginal Peoples may want to have input on the laws and initiatives that affect them. 

In my utopia, an additional curriculum is established that centers on cultural celebration and exchange, fostering mutual respect and understanding between all Australians. This is distributed both to those in compulsory education, as well as those recognised as exhibiting culturally hateful behaviour.

Security 

There is a variable that seems in some ways the most important to address: the prevention of repeated colonisation. It doesn’t matter how deeply we can re-entrench our traditional practices, or establish equity and inclusivity, because human beings are doomed to repeat themselves. History is forever a world serpent eating itself. 

To prevent these threats from re-emerging, First Nations-led systems safeguarding sovereignty have been established. International advocacy is a strong focus, to promote and protect Indigenous rights on a global scale. 

This is tough, because our continent has been designed to benefit localised communities through means other than money and harmful aggravated resource collecting. But there are non-monetary ways to give and receive value. 

We have found like-minded governmental alliances, who we build solid relationships with through public diplomacy. Strategic knowledge and skill sharing, particularly with environmental, cultural and societal design, are the foundation for increased global goodwill. 

Arts 

This is undeniably my favourite aspect to consider. Art is beneficial to societies, and I don’t just mean Saturday afternoon crafts. Farming is art, healing is art, fire is art. In my Blak continent everyone is considered an artist. 

When compared with general history, Australian art history was much slower to include Aboriginal antecedent⁴. To celebrate legacy and foster an ongoing sense of self-determination, art with sustainable materials is the basis of wellness. 

Healthcare 

Healthcare systems embrace holistic approaches, integrating traditional knowledge with modern medicine to support the physical, mental, and spiritual health of all communities. 

Research is continued, for the betterment of us all instead of money, to ensure practices continue to be culturally safe and relevant as the rest of the world advances and new medical issues and threats arise.

This continent and its leaders understand that the health of a nation is only as good as the health of its individuals. 

In my future, my father does not have diabetes. 

References

1 The state of the nation 2024 | Diabetes Australia. Available at: 

https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/State-of-the-Nation-2024- Diabetes-Australia.pdf (Accessed: 26 July 2024). 

2 Primitive communism and the origin of social inequality. Available at: https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/18020/1/TSpace0052.pdf (Accessed: 26 July 2024). 

3 The Australian Curriculum is copping fresh criticism – what is it supposed to do? Available at: 

https://theconversation.com/the-australian-curriculum-is-copping-fresh-criticism-wha t-is-it-supposed-to-do-218914 (Accessed: 16 August 2024). 

4 Australian Art and its Aboriginal Histories. Available at: 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/1031461X.2023.2261166?needAccess =true (Accessed: 26 July 2024).