Miller Boomerang Petition

I wanted to paint my journey in campaigning for constitutional recognition of Indigenous people and the removal of racism from the constitution. Many hands have signed my Miller Boomerang Petition with me presenting over 5,000 signatures to Federal Parliament in two lots – December 2013 and February 2016 as recorded in Hansard. I also presented a giant boomerang with “No Racism in the Constitution” on the front and about 360 signatures on the back to then speaker Hon. Bronwyn Bishop MP who received it on behalf of the House in November 2013. The current speaker Hon. Tony Smith MP received the petition in 2016.

It has been a grassroots effort with me getting signatures from Indigenous and non-Indigenous people all over Australia and it is self-funded. I began at Reconciliation Week 2012. The petition is based on the recommendations of the Expert Panel on the Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians. It is the next step after the 1967 referendum and there are hopes a referendum will be held on this issue on its 50^th anniversary. My wife Barbara Miller wrote the biography of one of the Aboriginal pioneers who worked for the 1967 referendum but didn’t live to see it, William Cooper, the father of NAIDOC.

Indigenous aspirations for a treaty like the Maoris or the North American Indians are signposted in my art. Aspirations for sovereignty and recognizing that there were hundreds of Aboriginal nations in Australia before British settlement is still floating around for discussion and was not dealt with by the ground-breaking Mabo decision.