Who Gets to be an ‘Elder’?

Everyone at some point has been called upon to acknowledge “Elders past, present and emerging”. I’ve sometimes genuflected to their “wisdom, courage, creativity and resilience” at conferences six times in a day. But who decides who’s an Elder, or an “emerging Elder”, an older non-elder, or just a proud member of the XYZ Nation toting a Senior’s Card?

Big Four consultant PwC has grappled with this conundrum in a report handed to the Victorian Treaty Advancement Commission (VTAC) in December. The brief was to advise how an “Elders’ Voice” top-tier structure could work with the First People’s Assembly on Treaty, representing traditional landowners. PwC spent 5000 words defining an “Elder”, after consulting 201 of them in 19 workshops statewide. More than 80 per cent of the Elders want a way to challenge spurious Elders. PwC quotes one Elder: “There is no existing process to confirm ‘who is an Elder’. It’s hard enough to confirm Aboriginality, who…