In 1969, the year after I was born and two years after the referendum that finally recognised First Nations people as citizens of their own country, another Quandamooka woman stood for the Australian Labor Party for a seat in the Queensland Parliament.

Her name was Oodgeroo Nunukul (Kath Walker) and although unsuccessful in 1969, her campaign lit a beacon for other First Nations people in this state to follow.
It took another five years before we saw the first Aboriginal person elected– Uncle Eric Deeral for the seat of Cook.

It would take just shy of a further four decades before the Queensland Parliament would once again see a First Nations person take a seat in its chamber in 2015.

Today three First Nations People, guided by that beacon lit all those years ago, were sworn in as members of the Queensland Parliament at the same time. All three of us are members of the Australian Labor Party.

I wonder what Oodgeroo Nunukul would think of seeing a Quandamooka woman, a Torres Strait Island woman and a Gubbi Gubbi man all taking the oaths of office in the 57th Parliament?

I wonder what she would think of her own descendants conducting a pre-swearing in blessing on the green of Parliament House (a place Indigenous people were excluded from only a few generations ago)?

I hope there would be a sense of pride and I imagine there would be a sense of great hope and expectation. Today we light the beacon for this important work.