As the Indigenous voice to parliament debate evolves towards the referendum, we are seeing more questions about potentially inappropriate influences over executive government.
Last week it was the deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, asking if the voice would be able to make representations to the chief of the defence force on military acquisitions or the location or operation of military bases.
While the debate focuses on the potential benefits to Indigenous Australians and the limits of power of the constitutional amendment, there is another more central issue the question raises.
Why are we so afraid of the voice offering advice to executive government, specifically about defence and national security? Assuming the advice will not have to be followed, as the government assures, Indigenous voices may provide a valuable perspective.
Our military campaigns have resulted in catastrophic loss in Afghanistan and questionable invasions of Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries.
We have damaged many lives, allegedly committed war crimes and spent huge amounts of resources in extended campaigns, the national impacts of which are still unfolding.
Most importantly, we lost our latest war alongside the world’s most powerful military when we retreated from Afghanistan. The enemy who defeated us was comprised of Indigenous forces operating in a land they know intimately.
We should not be reluctant to take advice about the defence of our own country from Indigenous people. The Australian conflicts between Indigenous groups and settlers require far more research and understanding from all perspectives.
I argue it was an invasion by any military assessment, and I am content that doesn’t make me a bad Australian. Unlike most Australians, the ancestors of Indigenous Australians knew what it is like to be invaded on their own land.
We can listen to those voices when considering the next possible invasion of the land we now share.
We can listen to the Indigenous soldiers in our ADF reserve who patrol northern Australia as regularly as any conventional unit.
Are we really so blindly arrogant as a nation and so content with our military campaigns that we would not listen to Indigenous voices on how to work in our remote lands and how to respectfully defend our great country?
Ley’s question, which was designed to make a fear-generating political point, highlights our inclination to dismiss Indigenous knowledge and gravitate to our western ideas.
Yet our limited efforts to fully understand Indigenous forces of other countries were a significant factor in our national military failures. The 20-year campaign in Afghanistan evolved eventually to a focus on training and understanding the local Indigenous forces. Unfortunately, the Taliban did it better.
These types of military and security operations are fundamental in modern and complex geopolitical contests. This is not virtue signalling.
It is practical and integrated campaign planning. That is why military forces are focused on developing unconventional warfare, or the “art of resistance”.
In Australia we have redeveloped a national focus on these capabilities, working with Indigenous military forces across northern Australia and our neighbours.
David Kilcullen, an expert in unconventional warfare, writes of the need to understand Indigenous forces and the value of their support to national resistance and defence. Including Australian Indigenous voices alongside western-centric processes would be valuable.
The voice should focus on improving the lives of Indigenous Australians. But it can be more than that. It can be about us creating more national confidence to follow our own path in all our efforts, including security and defence. Alliances and military technology are important but I believe Indigenous Australians also have a perspective worthy of respect and attention.
If we listen to them a little more and the US a little less, perhaps we can develop military campaigns which engender more pride and less embarrassment.
Perhaps this could help resisting advances from superpowers, just as the Taliban did and the Ukrainian people are doing now.
Of course, this should be developed in a way that is aligned to our ideals and without the brutality and extremism of the Taliban. But these objectionable characteristics of our enemy do not justify ignoring the military lessons of our loss.
Indigenous voices bring a valuable perspective that I will always heed, whether I am patrolling with them in northern Australia or working with them to improve our national resistance and resilience.
• Tim Robertson is a former special forces soldier with diverse experience in wars and contests across 25 years in numerous countries
