At 7:25pm, on Saturday 14 October, Australia voted against enshrining an Indigenous Voice To Parliament.
For non-Indigenous people who voted ‘yes’—constitutional recognition of First Nations people may have represented the only logic in a time where there is an ongoing campaign to Raise The Age of criminal responsibility in Australia to keep First Nations children out of prison and almost two decades after the failed Closing The Gap initiative was introduced, a program aimed at reducing disparities in health, education and employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Australia.
Though the referendum touted record enrolment numbers (with a whopping 5.5 million of us casting our ballots before voting day) and you’ve probably never seen so many bumper stickers flaunted in support of such a critical First Nations cause, if you look at history close enough, it’s abundantly clear that the success of any referendum necessitates unwavering bipartisan backing, something in which Australia lacked at this point in time.
Success for the Voice to Parliament was always going to be a mission but we were hopeful.
Yorta Yorta rapper Senator Briggs articulated it perfectly when he posted—“There was always going to be work to be done, now we’ll know where to spend our energy”.
So, What Next?
Speaking alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday Night, as the Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney put it, “...progress doesn't always move in a straight line. There are breakthroughs and heartbreaks”.
At current, there are Indigenous leaders who are looking into international legal options to pursue Aboriginal sovereignty outside of Australia’s common law.
You’ve probably also caught word of a loose commitment made by opposition leader Peter Dutton to bring forward a second referendum on Indigenous recognition—we don’t need to spell out why this pledge seems highly unlikely.
For now, Indigenous leaders who rallied hard for months on the Yes Campaign have enacted a week of silence for the Voice, to rest and mourn, calling the outcome a “bitter irony”.
The Reality
Referendums are costly on many levels, this one in particular, carried a magnitude of cultural load for First Nations people across the country and it’s important that we don’t make a repeat of the knock-on effect of Australia’s 1967 referendum.
While initially hugely significant, it took years for various legislative and policy changes to take place at federal and state levels across land rights, access to education and healthcare. Progress was slow and often met with resistance.
What we do know is that there was actually a resounding ‘yes’ for a Voice To Parliament from polling zones where First Nations people exceeded half of the population, including remote Aboriginal communities.
The unravelling of Australia’s Voice to Parliament referendum is a brutal wake-up call, no matter how you may have voted. It’s a reminder that slow progress is not good enough, we cannot wait another half a Century to have these critical conversations.
Remember, the Voice to Parliament referendum stemmed from the Uluru Statement from the Heart, a major document, created back in 2017, in First Nations advocacy. It calls for three things for First Nations people—a Voice to Parliament, Treaty and truth-telling. Its primary purpose is to seek constitutional reform and address the historical and ongoing disparities faced by First Nations people, ensuring that they have a meaningful and constitutionally recognised role in shaping policies and laws that affect them.
It represents a call for a more inclusive and collaborative approach to Indigenous affairs in Australia and if you’re non-Indigenous, you can absolutely keep advocating for these three points in a plethora of ways—actively showing up and creating space to respectfully listen to First Nations causes is just the starting point.
Epic resources are below (but aren't limited to):
- Common Ground
- From The Heart
- AIATSIS
- ANTaR
- Pay The Rent
- Seed Mob
- Reconciliation Australia
- Our Islands Our Home
You can also cop a number of lists we’ve pulled together to keep supporting:
- First Nations businesses
- First Nations podcasts
- First Nations artists
- First Nations travel experiences
- First Nations authors
- First Nations movies and TV shows
You can read more on this from Urban List's guest editor, Gunditjmara, Bindal, Yorta Yorta and Torres Strait Islander from the Mer and Erub islands writer Tarneen Onus Browne here.
Image credit: Alessia Francischiello