Speech delivered on 18 November 2025, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney.

Good evening, everyone. I would have loved to stay dancing with the kids—it was so much fun and such a lovely way to start the night. I’m am so, so pleased to join you for what has rightly been called a historic occasion here at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in the Naala Badu building. That name means “seeing waters,” and I think of it as a reminder of the sustaining waters of Cape York—the rivers, wetlands, and ocean—so deeply entwined with the beauty, history, and culture of the people we celebrate tonight.

First, thank you to Noeleen for her beautiful welcome. It’s always important to pause and reflect on the majesty of her people. We gather on Gadigal land, and I pay my respects to its traditional owners, past and present. I also acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here tonight, from so many lands across this extraordinary continent—especially the Cape York Leaders Program students I met earlier. But how remarkable, how wonderful to meet those young Aboriginal students, Torres Strait Islander students who are working hard to fulfill the promise of the Cape York partnership. 

Danny Gilbert AM, Chair of Cape York Partnership—Danny, we go back a long way to my early days at Gilbert + Tobin. 
Fiona Jose, Group Chief Executive of Cape York Partnership—thank you for sharing your aspirations with me tonight. 
Board members, staff, and alumni of the Cape York Partnership, and current Leadership Program students—your presence matters. 
We’ll hear from Kirsty Davis later, and I look forward to her words. 

Tammy Williams, FRC Commissioner; Michael Hogan, representing Ann Sherry AO, who sadly couldn’t be here; Tania Hosch, Paul Briggs AO, Anna Bligh AC—your leadership has been pivotal. Darren Rigney and Shane Webster from Jaiwun; Karyn Baylis AM—your extraordinary leadership across many years deserves recognition. And to the many philanthropists, government leaders, and supporters here tonight—thank you for your commitment.

Gabi Trainor AO, someone deeply involved in all of this work. Colin Carter – we worked a lot on the AFL commission together. When I joined it was big work you were doing to get a woman involved in the AFL, but also to engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our great game. You and I travelled, I think was in 2008, to South Africa on the Flying Boomerang tour with Derek Kickett and a number of very senior Aboriginal players who acted as mentors for those young men. We took mostly 13,14,15 year olds who had never left their community, let alone the country. Steven May was one of those young boys. And if any of you know anything about footy, Steven May is now a strapping 30 year old, an extraordinary player who I get to see occasionally and remind him of me being one of the aunties on the trip that looked after all those young boys.

Juliet Davidson, Natalie Walker, Donnella Mills, Chair of NACCHO, and Dawn Casey, the Deputy CEO of NACCHO. I'm sure that the Cape York Partnership would say, you are all distinguished and important guests. It really is a great honour for Simeon and me to be here with you on this historic night.

Thirty years ago, the Cape York agenda was a radical blueprint for transforming Indigenous communities through personal and community responsibility. It remains, for me, one of the best examples of the clarity and consistency of Aboriginal aspiration and leadership, particularly in establishing a well-reasoned Aboriginal system with ambition for children and their futures at its core. It began with children, as we do tonight.

I spoke to Jason Glanville, and he explained what was going on back then better than I could. He said it was “nation-building led by nation-builders,” long before that term was popular. The Cape York Partnership changed the seat First Nations people held at the table—closer to the head, and now often chairing the room. From the start, it was radical and pioneering, one of the very few efforts across the country, in both words and deeds, that flatly rejected the prevailing narrative of deficits. The Cape York partnership led and inspired new narratives, sometimes and often necessarily critical of existing systems, but always proposing system transformation, an ever-evolving case study of a positivity created when Aboriginal wisdom and knowledge systems are respected and supported, led by Aboriginal people and their communities in trusted partnership with others, and many of those partners are here tonight and remain trusted now.

I pay tribute to Noel Pearson, who drew inspiration from the philosophy of Amartya Sen, and expanded the Cape York Land Council into Queensland’s leading Native Title service. Landmark cases like Wik secured determinations across most of the Cape—an extraordinary achievement. Joined by an exceptional group of supporters, including many of the people in this room here tonight, Noel changed the system. Noel’s 1990 speech, Our Right to Take Responsibility, was a turning point. It exposed the harm of welfare dependency and charted the course for the partnership model.  

When I spoke to Ann Sherry this afternoon, she reminded me that there was a ragtag group of people who were in the room to hear that speech, who got together and just said, what are we going to do? We've got to partner up. And so the partnership model that then emerged ensured that Cape York people could have the capabilities to choose a life they had reason to value taking responsibility, where opportunities and self-reliance could actually flourish. As he said, many, many times and still does, a hand up, not a handout.

I recall inviting Noel to speak to IAG’s leadership team in 2002. He was unrelenting and unapologetic, urging us to build capability and turn aspiration into action. What followed were partnerships—corporate, philanthropic, and government—grounded in people. Some call it human capital, but it's people and friendship and understanding that underpinned everything. It was key. These weren’t just friendships; they were practical alliances that put education and enterprise at the centre of progress. Early partners like Westpac, Boston Consulting Group, and The Body Shop were joined by many more. It’s one of the best examples of effective brokers of change in Australia—and perhaps globally.

Today, the Partnership continues to empower Indigenous families and communities to strive for lives of value, freedom, and prosperity. Ten entities now work on the ground, and the Cape York Institute’s policy leadership has national impact. The Pama Futures agenda—a reform paper by and for the people of Cape York—shows that the radical vision of 30 years ago still shapes our country.
As Governor-General, I see Australia from both a panoramic and fine-grained perspective. I’ve witnessed the Cape York agenda reflected, adapted, adopted and interpreted across the nation. In July, I had the privilege of presiding over the posthumous investiture of Dr G. Yunupingu with the highest civilian honour in our country, the Companion of the Order of Australia, on Gumatj land. Yunupiŋu’s family and the Yolŋu community led the ceremony – we were guided by the family’s own wishes and traditions in presenting the award with a remarkable consideration of Yolŋu and Balanda ceremony and tradition. 

On the red earth, in the warm afternoon light of the Northern Territory, with Yolŋu dancing, I was proud to present the Order of Australia insignia to Dr Yunupiŋu’s daughter, Binmila Yunupiŋu, and to celebrate Dr Yunpiŋu’s exceptional leadership. 

He had said during his life, 

“Our ceremonial grounds are our universities, where we gain the knowledge that we need.” 

In late October, together with the Prime Minister, I travelled to the Northern Territory to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the handback of Uluru–Kata Tjuta to the Anaŋu.  

As we gathered in the shadow of Uluru, with its ever-changing colours as our backdrop, still sparkling from the rain of a dramatic thunderstorm overnight, I saw again the connecting power of land and community as generations of Anaŋu performed an inma. 

In the dance and storytelling of men and women, elders, teenagers and little tiny children, we saw the constant teaching of the youngest Anaŋu by their elders. 

It was a living link between an ancient tradition, and a vital, sustaining culture. Led by and determined by Anaŋu. 

Last week, I welcomed Rob de Castella and 54 students from remote communities as part of the Indigenous Marathon Foundation’s “I Can” program. Like the Cape York Leaders Program, it builds strength in culture and responsibility for the future. They joined two youth runners and their coaches from Ethiopia. The first time that Ethiopians had joined as part of a DFAT running program that links Aboriginal children with Ethiopian runners. And they played relay races and played on the grounds of Government House, just as it should be. As patron of IMF, it was my opportunity to thank the ICANN and IMF teams for the meaningful difference they make in the lives of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who, in the model of the Cape York Leadership Program, are supporting these children to be strong in culture and to belong, while taking steps to build their future, but always taking responsibility for what lies ahead. And Rob just got back from New York, where 13 athletes from remote communities around the country, a couple from Cape York, had finished the New York Marathon. They'd been accompanied by Jonathan Thurston and Buddy Franklin as their guides, who didn't run as fast as their students, but got through it – just.

I’m proud to be patron of many Aboriginal organizations—the GO Foundation, Clontarf Foundation, Australian Indigenous Education Foundation, and now, with Simeon, the Indigenous Centre of Excellence at Western Sydney University. All are rooted in the principles of the Cape York Partnership: amplifying culture, knowledge, and community as foundations of recognition and empowerment.

When I was sworn in as Governor-General in July 2024, I quoted Noel Pearson’s formulation of the great story of our nation, 65,000 years of First Nations history generously shared with all who have come since the British period that brought us many of our democratic institutions. Of course, I represent one of those quite obviously. And the last 50,60, to 80 years of migration and refugee arrivals. During the course of the next month, we will welcome the 1,000,000th refugee to Australia to hopefully settle well here as part of our wonderfully diverse community. These are the braided elements that shape the story of our modern, successful, diverse country, all grounded in 65,000 years of attachment to this continent with culture and leadership.

I tell this story wherever I go, together with the commitment I've made to put care, kindness and respect at the core of everything I do during my term. And it's that intersection of care and kindness and respect and modernity, optimism and visibility, the qualities the Prime Minister asked me to embody when he invited me to serve, that I think lies the mosaic of success and belonging at the heart of our modern nation. 

Simeon and I have tried to represent that story in the official residences, ensuring First Nations visitors feel represented through art, books, and artifacts. Just last January, I was hosting an event at Admiralty House for Indigenous engineering students, and I discovered a young man standing in front of a Sally Gabori painting of Mornington Island, with tears in his eyes. I asked him why he was so emotionally connected and he said he was so deeply moved to see his home, Mornington Island, his country, in the Official Residence of the Governor-General of Australia. He said he didn't think he belonged until that moment. I had a bit of a cry too, to be honest.  

Rhoda Roberts subsequently pointed out to me that if you stand looking at Sally Gabori’s painting from Mornington, you look across to the Opera House. You should remember that in 1973, it was the Mornington Island Aboriginal dance that was the first dance in the Opera House to open that great building just across from Admiralty House. The story needs to be told.

I also share the story of Aurukun by the late Cape York artist Mavis Ngallametta. In the dining room is a grand, big healing painting. And the late Noongar artist Paddy Bedford hangs in the entrance hall at Admiralty House with his magnificent Medicine Pocket painting — something to welcome everybody to these houses.

You know, modern Australia's future — stable, prosperous and optimistic — rests on our enduring understanding of and gratitude for those 65,000 years of continuous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. The celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and rights as part of our shared national identity, and our recognition of past wrongs as the pathway to healing — this is the future we realize through the Futures Agenda. It's called New and Empowering Partnerships.

Congratulations on setting up your new pathway: education, employment, economic empowerment, finding pathways out of the criminal justice system, and enabling future leaders to flourish. You are continuing, as Cape York Partnership, to forever change the landscape of what we expect of success.

I want to say something to Tania, who's hosting us tonight. Your piece in The Australian just a few days ago was such a powerful, grand portrayal of the intersection through the Cape York Partnership Leaders Program. You were, of course, the first student supported by that vision that became the Cape York Leaders Program — going on to design the model. You were also the youngest person ever elected to ATSIC, and our 2008 Young Australian of the Year.

Just a couple of years ago, emerging from your mother's fierce love for you, the determination to forge a path to the future, and Noel's act of generosity that enabled you to follow that path through your education at Clayfield College, the Leaders Program has gone on to deliver the most profound consequences for the students of Cape York and their communities.

As you say in the piece: 94% of those enrolled in the program who reach Year 12 graduate. 70% go straight into work or future study, acquiring skills and income to forge their future paths and lift their communities as leaders and role models. The Partnership’s programs in cultural stewardship, financial management and workforce participation reflect the same empowerment of the people of Cape York.

Tonight, Simeon and I join everyone here in celebrating the wisdom, teaching, hope, empowerment and optimism that rested with the Elders who established the Partnership 30 years ago — and the Elders of today, who continue to act with the same jealous regard, as Noel has so beautifully described it, for the people of Cape York.

Together in partnership, you're continuing to create fundamental, structural change — to transform what happens to your community and your land in a dialogue that puts your active voice at the centre of decision-making. So congratulations.

For three decades, the work goes on in a contested, somewhat difficult world we now live in. I sometimes feel it's a pretty radical act to put care at the centre of a Governor-General's activities. But it remains radical, and it remains important that you continue to pursue the agendas you started 30 years ago.

We still need to work together — to do it together — in partnership, but led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ambition.
I'll just finish with Tania's words at the end of the article in The Australian, in case you didn’t see it. 

She says:

“The success of CYLP is in its design. It is based on high expectation and family responsibility. When parental love meets institutional opportunity, the gap can close. To policymakers: stop funding failure. Fund what works. And to the young ones: you belong in every room where decisions are made. Walk in. Reach Year 12. And when you have your life before you, turn back and hold the door open for the next kid with a suitcase and a dream.”

As long as I'm in the role as Governor-General, I'll continue to support and celebrate the work of the Cape York Partnership. Celebrate 30 years. Look forward to many, many more. Keep being radical, keep teaching us, and make sure you hold us to account as a nation — because we've got a lot of work to do, and we can only do it in partnership.