Extract from The Guardian
Indigenous voice to parliament
We are on the brink of a unique moment when Australians get to make a collective decision. Will we recognise Indigenous Australians in our constitution and heed their simple request for a consultative voice to parliament? The shape and consequences of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity are clear.
Modern Australia came into being as a direct consequence of the casual, often deliberate, destruction of a people’s entire world, notwithstanding efforts by some social reformers of the day. As many understand, this is baked into our soul.
Half a century ago, the eminent anthropologist WEH Stanner coined “the great Australian silence”, as a term to describe a “cult of forgetfulness” that shrouds much of our past. The voice would help us end that silence. Instead, a confused, contentious debate has been stoked and the referendum hangs in the wind.
The no case, largely a calculated political exercise in seeding chaos and harvesting prejudice, confuses those who have not had these issues front of mind until now but want to exercise a considered vote.
It is silent about the original sin. It is silent about the disgraceful health and education disparities that have bedevilled Indigenous Australians since dispossession. It is devoid of solutions but chock-full of deliberate misinformation and overt appeals to ignorance. It summons the darkness lurking within our great Australian silence.
At present Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are nowhere to be found in our shared constitution and cumulative government efforts to redress embedded disadvantage have mainly failed. Voting no would entrench this wretched status quo.
The voice to parliament proposal is modest in its ambition and does not exist in a vacuum. However clunky the process and dialogue around it has been up to now, and however much some campaigners might wish for more, its title is emblematic of where we sit.
If the parliament and governments of the day cannot simply listen to First Australians and hear directly what is of consequence to them, then what hope is there of lifting the anvil weight of the past and heading for the uplands of a brighter tomorrow?
History is made by those who turn up. Every hour, every day we make the world and we can remake it on 14 October if we choose.
So, this moment is an opportunity to do something genuinely positive. Just as we often share pride in Aussie achievements for which we did not personally toil, we should take collective responsibility for putting our national wrongs to right even if we did not directly cause them.
We should take up this invitation from a vast majority of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to walk together. However incremental it may seem, the voice is an offer that contains hope. Consultation will lead to more effective health and education programs and invest everyone in improving the lives of Indigenous Australians. It will help end the great Australian silence.
For now, the task is straightforward; indifference is not sufficient. We must calmly rebut the blizzard of mischief and lies that have echoes in the past and encourage everyone we know to just engage with the simple question they are being asked.
At the huge yes rallies it was clear there are large numbers of Australians, some yet to be counted in the polls, one suspects, who are ready to roll and vote.
Like all of us, they have family, friends, neighbours and colleagues who are still mulling things over, weighing the arguments and now taking their first real look at what is actually being proposed.
Make no mistake: this is the pointy end of the campaign. The undecideds will make the difference.
Every pair of hands, every voice, every possible effort is needed to reach out far and wide and yarn through how we can exercise a vote toward a fairer, healthier Australian polity.
Midnight Oil’s connections with people on country made us as a band and it made us better people, too. We’ve sung with Indigenous artists I now count as friends.
I have been fortunate to travel widely and have benefited greatly from a deepening understanding of Aboriginal Australia, its peoples and challenges.
I’ve walked with elders trying to protect their country, which is loved in a deep and expressive way across the continent.
I’ve seen individuals and organisations on the ground – Indigenous rangers, the community health and art centres – thrive and deliver, in stark contrast to the confronting statistics that characterise Indigenous wellbeing.
I’m confident that recognising Indigenous Australians in our constitution and listening to them via a guaranteed voice to parliament will make a positive difference that is both practical and spiritual. The time has come.
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