Talks of treaty in the Northern Territory have spanned decades, but no firm pathway or timeline has ever been established. This NAIDOC week, leaders in the top end are reflecting on how far they've come. But as new generations pick up the fight, they're asking whether a treaty really is the logical next step.
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00:00A decades-old tradition in the hands of a new generation. The Larrakia people have been
00:07raising their flag since the 1970s, a symbolic call for rights and recognition. Sixteen-year-old
00:14Rhianna gained strength from her elders.
00:17I'm absolutely proud to be Larrakia. My uncles, my aunties, my nana and my pops, they've all
00:25done something really big and I'm really proud of them.
00:30Her grandfather Richard Fijo is a renowned Indigenous leader from a long bloodline of
00:35advocates.
00:36We carry very strongly the history of our parents, of our grandparents and the struggles
00:41they went through and this is what fuels the fire in us.
00:45But this NAIDOC week, he's reflecting on how change comes slowly, with calls from his elders
00:51still unanswered. It's making him question what's going wrong.
00:55To have treaty, we actually have to have two parties that are sitting equally at the table
01:02and I don't think Aboriginal people and First Nations people are currently sitting
01:06equally at the table with the rest of Australia.
01:08Younger generations are wondering whether a change intact is needed. Less talk, more
01:14action.
01:15I want to go out there and I want to help and I want to learn what they need help with
01:21and what they want to do to make their community better.
01:24Treaty may be an end result, but treaty might be five, ten, twenty years down the road.
01:31What we need to focus on is also now, what's happening now around us and the disadvantage
01:37that we're facing today.
01:38As an election looms, the major parties have drawn their lines in the sand. The CLP say
01:44they'll scrap treaty altogether, while Labor have promised to revive treaty talks of their
01:48own. But for now, treaty in the Northern Territory remains in limbo.