The year 2020 marks 250 years since James Cook’s first voyage to Australia, yet today Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still aren’t acknowledged in our constitution.
The time is now for recognition and reform, as called for in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
This month, marie claire joins forces with some of Australia’s biggest and brightest names to unite for change. Here, sisters and founders of Tiddas 4 Tiddas, Marlee and Keely Silva, share the love…
Keely Silva: “I’m a Kamilaroi woman and I know you can’t solve blackfella problems with whitefella solutions. That’s why it’s so important to have an Indigenous voice in the constitution. To get there, we need Indigenous people to be at the forefront, with white allies supporting us. We need to be in charge of our communities and be the ones making decisions for us because we know what’s best. It’s common sense.”
Marlee Silva: “When me and my sister Keely were growing up, we looked up to Cathy Freeman and wanted to be her. Neither of us are runners, but we wanted to be successful like her because she was the only Aboriginal role model we saw. We launched our Instagram page and podcast Tiddas 4 Tiddas to celebrate and share the stories of Indigenous women. We are the founding culture and that should be celebrated. We are in the fabric of every part of the continent and there’s so much we can learn from our history. I want Indigenous women to remember they are the product of 80,000 years of resilience. We have the power of that running through our veins; we can overcome anything. And we have thousands of women behind us.”
This article originally appeared in the February issue of marie claire.
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