Pittwater Life October 2023 Issue

SPEAKING CIRCUIT: Neil was asked to
deliver a REDx Talk at Mona Vale.
Zali Steggall MP, novelist
Thomas Keneally and Voice
activist Thomas Mayo. He was
advertised in the flyer as a
‘Guringai Elder’.
Nathan Moran, the president
of the Metropolitan Local
Aboriginal Land Council,
who has been in dispute with
Neil Evers regarding the land
council’s plan to develop the
Lizard Rock site at Belrose,
spoke on 2GB questioning his
heritage.
“Neil Evers couldn’t identify
that his parents identified
as Aboriginal – he has not
had any upbringing as an
Aboriginal or life experience as
an Aboriginal – and this is for
a discussion about Aboriginal
people.”
Neil is quick to admit he is
not an Elder.
“I might be old [he is 81],
but if people call me an Elder
I tell them I’m not one. Elders
hold knowledge. I don’t.” But
he says there is no doubt
about his Aboriginal ancestry.
“And Nathan Moran has
acknowledged and accepted
me at several meeting for
Aboriginal persons on the
Northern Beaches.”
Neil Evers isn’t interested
in getting into a fight. Now
his focus is on the upcoming
referendum on the Indigenous
Voice to Parliament. He likens
the Australian constitution to a
building.
“For years the Aboriginal
people have been on the
outside of the building. A
government spends millions
of dollars setting up a scheme
and then the next government
rips it up and sets up its own.
But if we can put that advisory
group inside the constitution
it cannot be knocked out. It’s a
very modest request,” he says.
Life Stories
The Local Voice Since 1991
OCTOBER 2023 47