A Modest Proposal

This modest proposal was delivered by Madeleine Cox as part of her graduation from her Mastery of Business & Empathy with Small Giants Academy. It is intended to be read with her just published reflection on the MBE that you can read here first.

Kaya, kaya, kaya – hello in the language of the Bindjareb Noongar people who belong to the beautiful place in which I was fortunate to grow up.

I believe Bindjareb people called that place Koolinup and it is now known as Coolup. This was the place of the wild turkey, known as a brush turkey or bush turkey in other parts of Australia. And not far from Coolup was Bindjareb which was the place of swamp, the wild turkey’s favoured habitat.

An early newcomer’s account described Coolup through their English lens as follows:

‘Roll away the mists of more than a century past and see, if you can, the densely wooded hills unscarred by axe or fire; away to the west the peppermint and tuart forests with the wide salty expanse of estuary and lakes, where the chatter and splash of wild fowl has never, since the beginning of time, been harshly interrupted by gunfire. And in between the hills and the salt waters the plains, swampy and dry, sandy and fertile, the haunt of the grey kangaroo, the nomad aborigine and the mighty wide-winged wild turkey. He is gone from us now, the wild turkey, gone with proud echoing name that stamped this place as his very own.’

Many of us have since come to stamp Coolup and other places throughout Australia as our own. For me, the loss of the wild turkey from Coolup, the place that bears its name, is a totem of what we all have lost from our collective past. We must cease calling these places ours and instead realise, as our First Nations people did, that we belong to the place we call Country, just as we belong to our families.

In Australia, we have indeed lost paradise, to adopt the words of English poet and civil servant John Milton. Less known is that as well as ‘Paradise Lost’, Milton also wrote ‘Paradise Regained’ and a pamphlet titled ‘The Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth’ which he published in 1660.

It is not just paradise we have lost. We have lost ourselves.

Kim Scott in ‘Kayang and Me’ describes how both indigenous and non-indigenous people in Australia suffer from ‘identity confusion’. Stan Grant in ‘Talking to My Country’ says ‘Australia makes us feel estranged in the land of our ancestors, marooned by the tides of history on the fringes of one of the rightest and demonstrably most peaceful, secure and cohesive nations on earth’.

This is not just an Australian existential crisis.

Martiniguan-French writer, poet and philosopher Édouard Glissant is recorded by Hans Ulrich Obrist in a tiny blue book called ‘The Archipelago Conversations’ as saying:

‘We cannot give a definition of utopia because for the first time in the history of humanity, the world is not a dream, not a project. The world is suffering a suffering of everything. A suffering that belongs to all of us. We are all in the same world, descendants of the colonized, descendants of colonizers, descendants of masters, descendants of slaves, we are all in this One-World at this very moment and not one of us is shielded from it. And so, we have a duty to try to navigate our own suffering – and to imagine what this suffering can become: art, justice, liberty.’

And so thinking about Australia and what might be missing, I have turned to Australia’s founding documents which were designed by the creators of our Federation to be changed. There are many aspects of our Constitution which are no longer fit for purpose, particularly the provisions which continue to allow for racism.

I ask myself what would it look like to change our Constitution for the good of Australia?

Consider the words ‘peace, order and good government’ which appear in our State constitutions. These words were affectionately known as the POGG power.

I have built on the POGG power to develop a modest proposal for a Good Constitution for the Good of Australia.

Here it is.

In doing so, I am guided by the words of Donella Meadows:

‘One of the most powerful ways to influence the behaviour of a system is through its purpose or goal … the goal is the direction – setter of the system.’

With the right purpose, Australia can continue to combine and grow, and we will find anew what it means to be Australian. We can leave the loss, trauma and confusion behind.

Have a look at this values-based proposal for a Good Constitution for Australia*.

You will be interested to hear that other than three exceptions, the values included are the same as the values that those who apply for Australian citizenship undertake to uphold.

The three exceptions are:

respect for the freedom and dignity of all the elements of NATURE – this is an attempt to reflect what nature means to our First Nations People
I have changed the word religion to spirituality as this is broader
based on the learnings this year in the MBE, I have added humility and reciprocity to what ‘fair go’ embraces.

With these values inspired by ‘fair go-ism’, Australia and the World will be able to confront the numerous wicked problems that we and our planet Earth face, as well as our ‘identity confusion’.

This is why I have included on the proposal’s cover a rock art picture of a brush turkey which comes from the ancient site at Wollombi in New South Wales as a totem. You may recall Dr Paul Callaghan in our storytelling module told us that the brush turkey nest in his culture is a totem for unification and connection – this is because brush turkey chickens have everything they need in their nest.

As an idealistic realist I am aware that there is little chance of all people voting in favour of changing our Constitution and cutting existing red tape. This does not matter.

With all of you here on this MBE journey, I have learnt that for most of the time, we already live in our Country in accordance with these values. Despite all the wicked problems, I have learnt anew that Australia is a Good Society.

This is because, in the words of the Latin American writer Eduardo Galeano:

‘We are what we do, especially what we do to change what we are: our identity resides in our action and struggle.’

With you each on your paths, and me on my own path, I have re-found my voice, and now see the world in colour like never before.

With this, I have HOPE Australia and many people around the World will be brave enough to see the light and carry the dark, and to CHANGE iteratively.

* For any sceptics of change, you may wish to have a look at the Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation which came into force on 1 January 2000.

By Madeleine Cox

* Madeleine Cox was raised on a farm on Bindjareb Noongar country and now, together with her New Zealand/Aotearoa husband, lives with their children in Fremantle/Walyalup. She loves exploring places and ideas, and connecting with people and nature. This has prompted Madeleine to start writing independently, after many years work as a corporate and government lawyer, and service on not-for-profit boards in the health and education sectors.

~ For more articles by Madeleine Cox on FSN, look here.

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