It is a real honour for me to be here on your island, on Mer Island. It is an honour for me to be here on an island which now resonates right around Australia as the place where native title was first acknowledged.
Many Indigenous Australians yearn for justice, but it was one of yours whose grave I will soon visit who first found justice at the hands of a country and a court system which had long been unsympathetic to the claims of the Indigenous people.
The fact that your brother was able to sustain the search for justice, the fact that – eventually – our country had it in its heart to accord justice reflects well on Indigenous people and, in the long run, on all Australian people.
So, it is an honour to be here on this island which has been so significant for Indigenous people and is now so significant for all Australians.
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