Legacy by Larissa Behrendt Read Free Book Online

movie most weekends - just him and me, father and daughter. It was our ritual - looking through the movie guides, making a list of the films we wanted to see, writing down cinemas and times, making sure we arrived in time to catch the trailers in case there were movies about to be released that could be added to our ‘must see’ list.
    One day, when I was about twelve, we had gone to the movies and, it seemed by chance, ran into one of my father’s friends. Her name was Liz. On the way home, my father said, ‘It might be best not to tell your mother about Liz. Let’s make it our little secret.’ In my innocence I enjoyed the conspiracy of silence, seeing it as no more than a secret I shared with my dad.
    The next few times that we went to the movies, we always seemed to run into Liz. I thought it was simply the strangest coincidence. And although I was sometimes tempted to tell my mother about this funny circumstance, I felt bound by my loyalty to my father not to reveal anything of it. Then, after several months, we saw Liz no more.
    In time I began to understand what the arrangement had actually meant and how I had been used to cover my father’s infidelity. How he had used, even abused, our trips to the movies, our special time together. I said nothing to my mother. I knew she would be hurt.
    When I was fourteen I stopped going to the movies with Dad. I began to resent him. At times I couldn’t listen to his political rhetoric, his talk about principles and human rights, all delivered in his self-righteous manner without reflecting on what a hypocrite he was, a hypocrite with a lack of morals. Especially when I compared him to other men who did not seem so morally flawed. Men like Jamie, who never gave me a moment’s doubt. Men, I think now, like Professor Young, dignified and intelligent, an embodiment of what a perfect father should be.
    â€˜Well, Simone,’ asks Professor Young, his voice echoing with the distance, ‘I can see from your briefing note that you have shifted your focus since our last meeting in line with what we discussed. What is your central argument now?’
    â€˜I have been thinking about our discussion. So, I’ve been reading what people actually say about sovereignty when they talk about it. You know, thinking about how they would answer if they were asked, “When you talk about being sovereign, what do you mean?” ’
    I tell Professor Young that I know there isn’t much written on the issue that begins from the Aboriginal perspective, at least in academic discussions and debates. And when that point of view is taken seriously, it is clear that people are not talking about ‘sovereignty’ as we would understand it under international law. ‘Listen to this from Kevin Gilbert - he was an Aboriginal poet and an advocate for the recognition of Aboriginal sovereignty - in a draft treaty he wrote with the Aboriginal Members of the Sovereign Aboriginal Coalition in 1987:
    We are free to manage our own affairs both internally and externally to the fullest possible extent, in the proper exercise of our Sovereign Right as a Nation … Our Sovereign Aboriginal Nation, fulfilling the criteria of Statehood, having Inherent Possessory Root Title to Lands, a permanent population and a representative governing body according to our Indigenous traditions, having the ability to enter relations with other States, possesses the right to autonomy in self-determination of our political status, to freely pursue our economic, social and cultural development and to retain our rights in religious matters, tradition and traditional practice.’
    I explain that I think within this concept of ‘sovereignty’ and ideas about the legal implications of recognition there is no claim for separatism from Australia but instead there is a desire to negotiate a better position within the Australian state.
    â€˜What does this “position