Friday, 15 November 2024
Four Seasons Hotel, The Rocks
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Bujari gamarruwa

Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

I greet you in the language of the Gadigal, whose land and elders we have acknowledged and whom we honour as this country’s first nations.

I recognise the dignitaries^[1], all of whom have been formally acknowledged and all guests for being part of this wonderful night.

Two important things happened in 2010. The first was the amendment of the New South Wales Constitution to include a new section, section 2, which honours the First Nations peoples across our State in words that are particularly apt tonight. It says:

Parliament, on behalf of the people of New South Wales recognises that Aboriginal people, as the traditional custodians and occupants of the land in New South Wales (a) have a spiritual, social, cultural and economic relationship with their traditional lands and waters and (b) have made and continue to make a unique and lasting contribution to identity of the State^[2].

The relevance of this important constitutional recognition with what tonight represents, with its reference to culture, the economy and contribution to the wider community, will be obvious to you; and, although I am sure it was coincidental, the Indigenous in Business Award category was also introduced in 2010.

And so, as Governor, an office which also has constitutional recognition, but really because I am a proud Australian from New South Wales, I am particularly honoured to present the Indigenous in Business Award this evening.

The inception of the Ethnic Business awards 35 years ago was due to the vision and enterprise of Joe Assaf, Lebanese by birth. As we know, the Lebanese are descended from those great traders, the Phoenicians. So, it is not surprising that the many Lebanese migrants to Australia have brought with them those ingrained entrepreneurial skills deeply embedded in their DNA.

Until relatively recent times, little has been known of the trading history of Indigenous Australians. Fortunately, we now have well documented history of the trade between the Yolŋu peoples of Arnhem Land and Macassan fishermen from the island of Sulawesi, about 1500 kms to the North, as well as thanks to the recently released film Marege: Awaiting Macassan.^[3]

Every year, the Macassans arrived at the Top End – which they called Marege – in December and fished for sea cucumber – or trepang – for which they traded calico, tobacco, smoking pipes, and metal implements.^[4] They processed the trepang onshore and sailed away every April after the monsoon season, and traded the dried trepang as far north as China, where it was a favoured food and a treasured aphrodisiac.

By the mid-1800’s the Macassans were supplying one third of China’s trepang imports^[5] – up to 9 tons a year – which, given the size of their boats, and the length of the journey, was no mean feat. The Macassans, like the Phoenicians were great seafarers.

We don’t hear a great deal about the skilled cross-continent navigation and trade of Indigenous Australians. That story is equally fascinating, given that it involved thousands of kilometres on foot without navigational implements. Rather, they used a sophisticated memory system based on the stars and the landscape, particularly by attaching facts and stories to elements of the landscape.

The better-known Ancient Greek ‘Memory Palace’ system for memorising information was not dissimilar. However, recent studies at Monash University found that the Indigenous Australian memory tool was superior to the Ancient Greek ‘Memory Palace’ as a learning tool for their medical students – and more enjoyable.^[6]

There is another twist: in 2014, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for neuroscientific research into how memory and spatial awareness are intertwined in the hippocampus^[7] – in effect for ascertaining the scientific basis for the Ancient Greek Memory Palace system of learning and the Indigenous memory tool for trekking across thousands of kilometres. Given the sophistication of the superior Indigenous system – it has occurred to me that that Nobel Prize belongs here with Indigenous Australians.

It is my honour to announce – not the winner of the Nobel Prize, but the winner of the Indigenous in Business Award for 2024… Jack Reis (Baidam Solutions)

[1] The Hon. Tony Burke, Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Cyber Security, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Leader of the House, Member for Watson, representing the Prime Minister; His Excellency Dr Siswo Promono, Ambassador of Indonesia; His Excellency Mr Milad Raad, Ambassador of Lebanon; Her Excellency Betty Pavelich, Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia; General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK AC(Mil) CVO MC (RETD), former Governor General, Judge of the EBA; The Honourable Scott Morrison, Former Prime Minister; The Honourable Julian Hill MP, Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs; The Honourable Peter Dutton MP, Leader of the Opposition and Member for Dickson, Parliament of Australia; The Honourable Michael Sukkar MP, Shadow Minister for Social Services, Shadow Minister for the NDIS, Shadow Minister for Housing, Shadow Minister for Homelessness, Member for Deakin, Parliament of Australia; Dr Gianluca Rubagotti, Consul-General of Italy; Dr Sarvesvaran Janakiraman, Consul-General of India; Mr Charbel Macaron, Consul-General of Lebanon; Mr Vedi Kurnia Buana, Consul-General of Indonesia

[2] NSW Constitution Act (1902), Section 2, available here

[3] See here, written and directed by the Indonesian filmmaker Ahmad Wildan Noumeiru.

[4] ‘Defining Moments: Trade with Makasar’, National Museum of Australia website, available here. Note that ‘Makasar’ generally refers to the people, which may have mixed background, ‘Makassar’ to the place from which they sailed: ibid. See also: Lyndon Ormond-Parker, ‘Aboriginal Trade with Macassan Seafarers’, University of Agora vol.55 no.3, 2020, available here; Marshall Clark and Sally K. May (eds), Macassan History and Heritage: Journeys, Encounters and Influences, Australian National University E Press, 2013, available here

[5] ‘Defining Moments: Trade with Makasar’, op. cit.

[6] ‘New Study Finds Ancient Australian Aboriginal Memory Tool Superior to “Memory Palace” Learning Among Medical Students, Monash University Website, 19 May 2021, available here

[7] ‘Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014’, The Nobel Prize website, available here