Introduction by Croakey: ‘What’s next?’ That’s one of the big questions being asked by Australians who were devastated by the defeat of the 2023 Voice referendum.
In his new book, Always Was, Always Will Be, The Campaign for Justice and Recognition Continues, leading Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo, a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man born on Larrakia country in Darwin, provides a roadmap, particularly for non-Indigenous allies, to continue the fight that unified six million Australians.
Published ahead of the first anniversary of the referendum, the book is a clear and powerful read, packed with personal stories and insights of culture, community and Country, of Mayo as a son and a father, and as a campaigner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights and justice.
He writes of his heartbreak and exhaustion at the referendum result, initially unable to bear to see the Yes logo or to consider ever again reading out the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
But like fellow campaigners Professor Megan Davis and Pat Anderson, Mayo manages to summon hope and optimism out of despair, and lays out a guidebook for action, including the need for truth telling, particularly to deal with the “the fearmongering, racism and hate that the Bad Actors stirred up”.
His section on ‘Learning from the Past’ is a challenge to the colonial lens and the ‘cult of forgetting’ that has shaped Australian narratives.
He addresses myths, misinformation and racist tropes, and includes a stack of resources to inform allies and those No voters who may be open to rethinking their views, plus ways to foster resilience, build movements, and develop campaign tactics and strategies.
Mayo writes that, since the referendum, we can no longer just hold the white forefathers of this country responsible for the absence of First People’s voices in Australia’s founding document.
“It was we who excluded them, in our time, under our watch,” he says. “If we want peace and justice in our lifetimes, the campaign must continue.”
Read selected extracts from his book below, published here with permission.
Thomas Mayo writes:
When our Elders first sought a right to vote, we were told No.
When we first demanded equal wages, the answer was No.
When we first marched and litigated for land rights and Native Title, they said
No. In 2023, when we called for a Voice in the Constitution, we received that familiar response – No.
Why do we have hope?
Because every time we were told No, we took action with non-Indigenous allies. We got that fire in our bellies. And here we are now, on the field winning games, in the boardrooms leading change, in the concert halls filling seats to capacity, in the universities lecturing, and in the Parliaments, representing all Australians.
We are here to stay, and we say ‘No’ does not mean ‘No to progress’. We always were and always will be for ‘Yes’.
Compared to 50 years ago, we have come a long way. But we still have a long way to go. The statistics – the reality on the ground in many Indigenous communities, in the prison cells and on the hospital beds – are a crying shame. Our gains are under attack.
If you are walking with us, we must find our energy and give hope to others. If you are First Nations, continue to be loud and proud; fight for your rights with the commitment and determination of your ancestors.
Why have I written this book? The answer begins with the love of my family, community and fellow Australians.
Why are you reading this book? The answer is that you care. Together, we have hope.
On the Uluru Statement from the Heart
In my ponderings during November and December [2023], I thought I would never recite the Uluru Statement from the Heart again.
During the campaign, I had presented it with my heart on my sleeve, with every ounce of persuasiveness I could muster, hoping I was building the empathy and understanding Australians would need to resist the dark lies about us and vote ‘Yes’.
With the outcome of the referendum in my mind, I just couldn’t imagine reciting it again.
In January 2024, I started writing this book and later that month I travelled interstate to a conference to deliver my first speech for the year. In the briefing beforehand, I was asked if I would recite the Uluru Statement at the close of the talk. I explained why I wouldn’t, how I felt too rejected, too hurt, too empty, but then I changed my mind.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart is no less true because of the referendum result. The need for a Voice is no less logical, no less important. It remains the best way to design policies and laws, giving a Voice to the people who they affect most.
It also remains the most powerful public document that anyone in this nation has ever produced. It is the only national public statement endorsed by a consensus of Indigenous peoples – by tracking the ‘Yes’ votes across the country, it is irrefutable that the Uluru Statement is supported by a majority of Indigenous Australians.
Many people still feel the words are more moving than anything they have read or heard in their lives, and I feel this way myself.
At the conference in January, I recited the Uluru Statement with a slight change to say that a Voice remains important, though sure, it wouldn’t be added to the Australian Constitution any time soon. The words were heavy in my throat but saying them out loud to this gathering felt like an act of defiance – a statement calling for peace, not war, as the No campaign claimed in their unrelenting fight against it.
The room stood as one, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people did in the heart of the nation on 26 May 2017 when Professor Megan Davis read it aloud for the first time.
People cried, as we had done at the Uluru Convention, and as so many Australians did when we shared those words in meetings and rallies in 2023. A superficial ‘No’ cannot override such heartfelt hope.
I say to all who will listen, read the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Share it. Teach your children about it. Put it up on your wall. Commit to walk with us, for Voice, Treaty, Truth, as it invites you to do.
It continues to be a call to action from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to this nation.
On what No means
Since the referendum, some Bad Actors have been using the outcome to argue against any recognition of Indigenous Australia at all, claiming that the No vote was a ‘clear rejection of the Uluru Statement’.
That, in my opinion, is a purposeful misrepresentation of the outcome.
Conservatives in Queensland and Victoria, for example, have announced they will repeal treaty legislation if they are elected. And in some local government areas, councils have removed the traditional Welcome and Acknowledgement of Country from their meetings and events.
It appears to me that there is a greater reluctance to demonstrate leadership and vision in Indigenous affairs since the referendum.
While the Albanese Government has wasted no time introducing some practical policy advances, such as in Indigenous housing, employment and education, we cannot lose sight of the need for structural and systemic reforms – to address the core of the problem, the torment of our powerlessness.
On forgetfulness and fearmongering
During the referendum campaign, it became clear to me that many Australians do not know who Indigenous people are. This unfamiliarity made voters susceptible to the No campaign’s scare tactics and methods to confuse voters so they would turn against us.
It is easier for a person to believe a vicious rumour about a stranger than about a friend. Familiarity matters. This plays out in the way many Australians are led to believe terrible lies about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, because in the main, they don’t know us.
That we are strangers to most Australians makes sense. As I mentioned earlier, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up less than four percent of the population, spread across the vastness of one of the largest countries (by land mass) on Earth. But the reason for the negative and unfriendly views goes much deeper, both historically and as part of the Australian psyche today.
In his [2022] Boyer Lectures, Noel Pearson mentioned WEH Stanner, a non-Indigenous anthropologist who gave his own Boyer Lectures in 1968. Stanner explained how Australia’s sense of its past, its collective memory, had been built on a state of selective forgetfulness that couldn’t be “explained by absent-mindedness”.
To get his point across he used a powerful analogy showing how ignorance toward Indigenous Australians – our existence, our humanity and our rights – has been by design.
Stanner said: “It is a structural matter, a view from a window which has been carefully placed to exclude a whole quadrant of the landscape. What may well have begun as a simple forgetting of other possible views turned under habit and over time into something like a cult of forgetfulness practised on a national scale.”
There are those of us – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people – who have broken the spell and stepped up to Stanner’s window. We have seen a vision of an Australia that includes the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
But we must be aware that the cult of forgetfulness continues, maintained by a few ultraconservative historians, shock-jock radio commentators, columnists and TV hosts, and it has a real effect on the psyche of many of the people we love.
These immoral influencers have made a career from a niche in the media that exploits how little Australians know about Indigenous people. They exaggerate, misinform and use fallacies to generate clicks, to create fear. They loudly ask questions without accepting the answers – which come from Indigenous leaders and eminent legal authorities – as a way to cause confusion. Most egregiously, they lie when they claim that Indigenous people want Australians’ personal property, especially their land.
When people are told to mistrust Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and when combined with the deep-seated amnesia that Stanner speaks of, it is more likely these people will resist change.
The referendum was an opportunity for voters to face up to the past and present injustices. And many responded positively. There were valuable, open conversations that I and many supporters enjoyed across the country.
But the cult of forgetfulness and fearmongering continued its work – the result was that people were angry at us. Such strong feelings were certainly felt at the polling booths.
The greatest challenge in achieving justice for Indigenous Australians is twofold. First, we need to understand the inherent prejudice that will take a strong and united effort to overcome. Secondly, we need to help fair-minded Australians become familiar with the truth of who we First Peoples are. We must use truth to protect our fellow Australians from the lies they will continue to hear.
On counteracting disinformation
It’s amazing how vulnerable people can be to a well-crafted and well-disseminated disinformation campaign, yet there are few legal repercussions for dishonesty in politics.
Donald Trump in the United States is a case in point: he has shown that consistent lying can overwhelm the truth. The referendum confirmed the method works in Australia too.
It is important to understand that Bad Actors in Australia will continue to use the tactics that Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, bragged about with regard to spreading misinformation on social media: to ‘flood the zone with shit’.
We can expect a lot more shit to come our way as First Nations people progress treaty talks in Victoria and Queensland, as state governments establish legislated Voices, such as the one in South Australia, and in the lead-up to the next federal election.
How do we counteract these tactics? Part of the answer is to flood the zone with truth and hope.
This is an edited extract from Always Was, Always Will Be by Thomas Mayo, published by Hardie Grant Explore.
You can join Thomas Mayo and a panel of special guests in person or via Facebook Live on Thursday, 5 September at the National Library to discuss his book and explore the way ahead for reconciliation.
Read also this extract via Guardian Australia, and see this thread on X/Twitter by Croakey’s Dr Melissa Sweet from an event in lutruwita/Hobart.
Join us
Register here to join us for a #CroakeyLIVE webinar on #VoiceMatters, from 5-6pm AEST on Monday, 16 September.
The discussion, to be moderated by Croakey Health Media Co-Chairs Professor Bronwyn Fredericks and James Blackwell, will reflect upon the impact of the 2023 Voice referendum as its one-year anniversary approaches, and identify ways the health sector can support self determination and justice for First Nations peoples and communities.
See Croakey’s archive of articles about the Voice.
