Go back to the list of participants

Mark Yettica-Paulson

Biography:

Mark is the Chief Executive Officer for the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre.

He is Birri Gubba. His mother is from Cherbourg in South East Queensland and his father is from Tweed Heads. He is the youngest son of Graham and Iris Paulson.

Mark has a number of years experience in community leadership and youth leadership development.

He has worked in church and educational organisations.
He is a founding Trustee of the National Indigenous Youth Movement of Australia.
He is on the Edmund Rice Business Ethics Committee.

Before coming to Canberra and the role at the Leadership Centre, Mark was a Consultant in a small private company.

Mark is married and has two small children.

Statement:

When I am asked to envisage a future for Australia, I am reminded of the need to be somewhere between pessimistic reality and off-the-planet imagination. Somewhere in the middle is found a mental space of hope, despair, burden and optimism. I am assisted by a focal point of either a community or people group for whom I imagine how a new and improved country might be of benefit to them. I am compelled to think about the future for the young populations of Indigenous communities throughout the nation. What future of Australia will invite their full participation and call on them to contribute their talent to creating the brightest future possible for all Australians? This is the central question in my vision for Australia's future.

There are many elements that I am dedicated to seeing become a reality in Australian society. These elements are expected for a person with my background and work experience. They include:

• Justice and equity issues
• A proper relationship with Indigenous peoples
• Race relations and National identity
• Asia Pacific relations
• Human rights and Trade issues
• Economic structures, competition and participation

To create a more detailed picture of what might be if these elements were in place, the following statements would be accepted as 'the way things are'.

Australia would be:

• A Nation not ashamed of its past and not afraid of its future
• Able to genuinely hold in tension the complexities of national identity without reducing the cultures and heritage of its people
• A nation with a national song; accompanied by a national dance and an authentic response to the Maori Haka of the All Blacks
• No longer too big for the Pacific and too irrelevant for Asia
• Leading the world in environmental innovation
• Known for social policy innovation and mediation of ethnic and religious conflict

How to get there?

Australia must find a conversation space about Racism. This is "the log in our eye" as we look at other nations and wonder what lies beneath their veneer of social order. Australia has an opportunity to be the 'Geneva of the South'. It can be known for special skills in creating social harmony and peace. This is made possible because in the Australian society opposing people groups live in harmony alongside each other as part of the culturally rich Aussie way of life.

Australia's scientific and entrepreneurial innovation should be matched by our willingness to challenge dominant patterns of thought and behaviour that shape our current relationships with the land and each other. If our nation took up these challenges, then I believe we will enter a new an exciting stage in history that would lead the world in peace-building, conflict management and new technologies for a new way of life. Aussie ingenuity will continue to drive our participation on the global stage. However, this time we will be far more able to share the glory with all of our citizens.