Introduction by Croakey: The gorgeous photograph above was one of many powerful images shared as part of events held this week to mark the one-year anniversary of the Voice referendum.
Marie McInerney reports below from a number of these events, including reflections from Sally Scales, Professor Megan Davis, Geoff Scott, Bridget Cama, Alira Davis, Dr Pat Anderson, Dr Jill Gallagher, Fiona Rowe Minnis, Lucy Davis, Professor Tom Calma, Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter, Adjunct Professor Janine Mohamed, Shelley Ware, Dr Jackie Huggins, Bonnie Dukakis and others.
Marie McInerney writes:
For Pitjantjatjara artist Sally Scales, a stunning photograph of her young son Walter and his dear friend Susie speak powerfully to the challenges and opportunities facing Australia in the wake of the failed Voice referendum.
Scales showed the photograph at a moving event this week marking the one-year anniversary of the referendum, where speakers who had played key roles in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Yes campaign shared and reflected upon photos from the campaign
Coming close to tears, Scales told the webinar she had taken part at the Regional Dialogues and the meeting at Uluru that had led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, but that now its asks – for Voice, Treaty and Truth – will be on the shoulders of the next generation.
But younger ones can teach their elders too, she said. For her nine-year-old son, the next step after the defeated referendum was simple: “let’s go again, what’s the problem?” he had asked.
It had made her rethink the political orthodoxy around an referendum (“won or done”) and to instead not buy into the idea that defeat meant the end of the asks. That was particularly given what has been learnt since about the lies and myths spread through the campaign, the cost of disinformation and misinformation, how many hoops had to be jumped through, and the leadership required.
“We shouldn’t be afraid [to try again]…because we’re going to make the world a better place for our kids,” she said.
“I think this image is the image of our future. It is of two kids who absolutely love and adore each other and who want the world [to be where] they can have equal footing and the best for each other.
“So I think that’s what we have to continue to strive to be, because it’s about giving a better legacy for all of us.”
Staying true
‘Staying true to Uluru’ has been a big message at numerous events and gatherings that marked the anniversary this week with tears and laughter, anger, frustration and determination.
With many wearing Yes t-shirts with ‘Still’ added to their logos, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Yes proponents reflected on the vote and its repercussions, honouring the work done by previous generations, celebrating resilience, hope, and the strength “that comes from coming together and striving for justice”.
They also celebrated how the 6.2 million Yes votes meant they were now able to put a number to allies and supporters, urging allies to keep Voice, Treaty and Truth on the political agenda and hold governments to account.
“It was an invitation for us all to think deeply to be about creating a fair and just society,” Bonnie Dukakis, a Gunditjmara woman and CEO of the Koorie Youth Council told an event in Naarm/Melbourne to launch a new First Nations women’s network.
The event was attended by many high profile women including former Olympian Catherine Freeman and historian and author Dr Jackie Huggins.
In other events, special screenings of a new documentary, Voice, told the story of the Cairns-based Indigenous youth-led DIYDG (Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good ) and their journey to the Northern Territory remote community of Kalkaringi, for the annual Gurindji Freedom Day Festival, which commemorates the Gurindji stockmen’s strike, led by Vincent Lingiari, and the walk off from Wave Hill Station.
Anxiety, hope, fear
At the webinar on Sunday, Uluru Dialogues co-chair Professor Megan Davis showed a haunting black and white photo of fellow Uluru Statement from the Heart architect Dr Pat Anderson, taken after she cast her vote at City Hall in Brisbane on Turrbal and Yuggera country.
It’s a poignant shot that captures the anxiety, hope and anticipation that campaigners were feeling, Davis said, paying tribute to Anderson’s work over six decades on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights, recognition, health and wellbeing – a “relentless slog” for so many Elders.
Anderson truly believed in the Voice proposal, in “the importance of structural reform for our people,” Davis said.
“Aunty Pat, of all people working in the health sector, understands the social determinants of health and the fact that constitutions actually do make a big difference to people’s health and wellbeing.”
Davis, a Cobble Cobble woman of the Barunggam Nation and constitutional lawyer, said she and Anderson, an Alyawarre woman and long-standing leader in Aboriginal health, hadn’t known each other until they started working together in 2015 on the Referendum Council.
“We really hit it off”, Davis said. “She’s my closest friend…and we talk to each other 24/7. “
Davis talked about the constant hope among Elders like Anderson that “the next process and then the next process” would finally cut through to make the nation understand, as the High Court had and as common law did in the Mabo case, “that our culture is a distinctive culture, that actually we had a sophisticated system of laws and governance prior to the arrivals”.
“There’s been no settlement of the original grievance, that’s never happened and that’s what we’re still fighting for,” Davis said.
But while the photo of Anderson is contemplative and sad – “I wish we could have got there for Pat” – Davis does not think “this time is past”.
She feels Australians are beginning to realise that disinformation meant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people “didn’t get a fair go last year”, and are now seeing it play out in this month’s Queensland election, where the Queensland Election Commission has had to issue warnings to voters about disinformation.
“Mainstream politics is now moving to protect itself, but we were exposed to a lot of political lies and misinformation that scuttled our people’s attempts to finally do what wasn’t done in 1788, in 1901 and 1967,” Davis said.
Unity
Wiradjuri man Geoff Scott showed a photo of a Voice forum held in Broken Hill, one of many events brought Indigenous and non-Indigenous people together in a safe space.
“They actually got what the Voice was about,” he said of those attending.
“They got why we were doing this. And it was about unity. It wasn’t about division. It was about a real way forward and understanding why we wanted to do it… for the children, for the elders, but also for the whole nation”.
RN Drive: One year on Geoff Scott is clear why the Voice referendum failed
Hope and courage
Uluru Youth Dialogues co-chair Bridget Cama’s chosen photo highlighted the group’s first meeting of Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people from across the country, bringing them together from many different backgrounds, faiths and culture.
The photo represented hope, courage, and “who we are as a nation”, she said.
Cama said many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people felt the country and politicians have “moved on” from the calls of the Uluru Statement.
But, she said, young people had not, and would drive this movement forward.
“Not only have we inherited the outcome of the referendum, but it’ll be now on our shoulders to carry it forward as young people, and we really don’t have any other choice,” she said.
“We want to continue this movement, and we have the energy and the passion, and we believe in it, and we really want to see a better future.”
Her co-chair Alira Davis also came close to tears when sharing a Tik Tok video of “our fearless leaders” heading out to vote amid a gathering together of their team that was “full of laughter, fun, sadness, mourning, grief, all the emotions in one”.
The night of the vote was traumatic, Alira said, and a big learning curve for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander campaigners, “because that was our biggest No and our first No”.
She wanted to show the video because, amid all of the negativity and lies brought to the campaign, “we were still a group of people trying to impact change,” she said, paying tearful tribute also to leaders and Elders who will continue to lead until they pass the torch to the next generation.
Think big, wide and grand
Dr Pat Anderson chose a photo of a remote Yes supporter “to underscore the fact that our mob across the country wanted structural reform”.
“They want a change in the relationship between you and all of us,” she said. “Our very lives and our existence actually depend upon it.”
“Eighty-four percent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the nation, irrespective of where they live, said Yes, voted Yes, so that myth that blackfellas didn’t want it is just not true,” Anderson said, detailing the high levels of support, up to 94 percent, in booths in the Northern Territory.
Anderson’s frustration was clear as she said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make a huge contribution to Australia in many fields, but “when the chips are down Australian people will not support us”, despite constant invitations – “asking you, begging you almost, to see our point of view, to respect us, to acknowledge us”.
“Australia needs to have a really good look at itself, what its values are and who we are today. What do we stand for? Who are we, for goodness sake? it’s time that we all took off the yoke of colonisation and became a true, authentic self-respecting civilised society,” she said.
“Civilised societies are judged by how they treat their most vulnerable peoples, and Australia has got a very poor record here. Not just us. The elderly, people who are disadvantaged, the people who are disadvantaged, the people who are new to Australia…”
Anderson urged Voice proponents to use the next few years “to go again” with a referendum on Voice, “because we need structural reform to actually make a difference”, talking about structural racism that means Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents fear for their children’s safety when they are out on a Friday night or have interactions with police.
“We are not going to give up,” she said.
“This is a really quite emotional time for us, and I want to take the opportunity to ask us to think bigger and wider and to be grand and to be fantastic,” she said. “We have all the resources to do so, let’s grab it and do it.“
Read more from Dr Jill Gallagher here
Increased racism
Speaking about the anniversary on ABC TV’s 7.30, Professor Tom Calma, who led the Indigenous Voice Co-design group with Professor Marcia Langton, said the No vote has led to increased racism and racist slurs, both on social media, and in public and community life.
“It’s like people think they’ve now got a licence to have a go,” he said.
Another worrying result of the vote is the Federal Opposition appearing to believe “they now have a mandate to review and play with Indigenous programs”, Calma said.
That further undermined what had been the whole purpose of a Voice, which was to try to engender political stability and bipartisanship on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues, “irrespective of who was in Parliament on the day”.
Calma said Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had met three times with the Referendum Advisory Group: “he kept on coming back”. That was encouraging, he said, “but what he heard in the meetings and what he then said to the press straight after the meetings were two different things”.
Prior to 14 October, Dutton had “made it very public that if the referendum was lost, he would hold another referendum just to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Constitution,” Calma said.
That had led people, who backed constitutional recognition but not the Voice, to believe they would have another opportunity to vote. “And of course he recanted straight after.”
Calma said he was also disappointed with the Federal Government for stepping away from its commitment to truth-telling, saying such processes in South Africa, Canada, Barbados and other nations with Indigenous peoples had “only been better for the community”.
Looking forward, he said he drew hope from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resilience, the focus on holistic health, and work on revitalising First Nations languages.
“But one of the biggest problems that we experience in Indigenous Affairs is a change of government and a [resulting] change of policy direction. So you go one step forward, and then you’re three steps back,” he said.
From the ‘kitchen table’
Tears were also shed at a high-profile gathering on Monday – headlined ‘Pouring from the heart of the kitchen table’ – which launched the First Nations Women’s Network in Naarm, “a grassroots movement to renew the Uluru Statement campaign with laughter, love, lessons and healing”.
“We’re still here. We’re still a Yes. It’s still Truth. It’s still Treaty,” said Yoorrook Justice Commission deputy chair Sue-Anne Hunter, a Wurundjeri woman who helped form the network with Adjunct Professor Janine Mohamed.
Hunter urged people not to regard the referendum loss as the final word, pointing to how the work of Yoorrook and the First Nations Assembly in Victoria is “leading the way”.
“We’re showing them that Voice, Truth and Treaty don’t mean that the world ends,” she said. “I think we all know that we just have to keep going. This is just the beginning in our moving forward.”
Mohamed, a Narrunga Kaurna woman who is 2024 Victorian Australian of the Year and Deputy CEO First Nations at the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), said Monday’s event “was born out of the need to not let this anniversary go past in silence, to continue to move forward”.
At a chance meeting one day, she and Hunter “pondered how we could ensure that more of our people not only got heard in Parliament, but take up positions of power in Parliament”.
They built a strong steering committee, attracted champions like Cathy Freeman and Melbourne-based Indigenous singer-songwriter Jess Hitchcock, taking inspiration from the ‘kitchen table’ conversations that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are part of, and the strong roles of women in Indigenous communities.
“First Nations women play a pivotal role in our communities, serving as life givers, carers, joy makers, defenders, healers and keepers of cultural tradition,” Mohamed said.
Their informal gatherings over kitchen tables were more than just social interactions, she said.
“They maintain and strengthen community bonds. They pass on knowledge and they foster unity. These conversations, they provide a platform for storytelling, learning, genealogies, sharing experiences and discussing important issues in a relaxed and familiar and a safe setting.”
Mohamed talked about how walking into public spaces the day after the referendum was “raw”, impossible not to mentally carve up people she passed as either Yes or No voters. But the blow was particularly hard for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
“For someone of my age, it was another in a series of rejections over decades, but for my children, it was the sting of their first No,” she said.
Broadcaster Shelley Ware told the event she had called her son after the referendum result became known, to apologise.
“I felt like I had let him down,” she said.
Since then, she later told Croakey, she had been restored in many ways by the “amazing strength” shown by leaders in the community.
“I’m looking forward to creating a Yes, it’s a little different from what we wanted but a Yes for our children,” said Ware, a Yankuntjatjarra, Wirangu and Kookatha woman who features on the popular Marngrook Footy Show. Watch this brief interview.
Celebrating the 6.2 million Yes votes, Ware urged allies to take up the calls in Thomas Mayo’s new book, Always Was, Always Will Be and its 23 practical ways to seek to bring about change, including joining the #RaisetheAge campaign on the minimum age of criminality.
Special guest, eminent author, historian and activist Dr Jackie Huggins talked about her shock and grief at the loss of the referendum, which she watched from afar, during a visit to the United States.
“I had been in this bubble, because I thought the outcome was going to be a huge Yes. I didn’t know one person in my circle who had voted No…so I had a really good feeling about it,” she said.
She stayed up till 3am US time to watch the results come through and then reality hit, with the No vote landing overwhelmingly and so quickly.
Huggins realises now that she then went through the stages of grief: “I was in denial. I was in shock. I didn’t want to know. I could hardly speak to my friends the next day,” she said.
Later she had a heartbreaking call home to her family, “all crying about the loss and the missed opportunity that could have been ours”.
“I had thought we had worked so hard for reconciliation in this country, that [a Yes vote] was a given, that white fellas understood.”
In urging ongoing action and strength, Huggins highlighted the outstanding work of Waminda, the South Coast Women’s Health and Wellbeing Aboriginal Corporation based in regional New South Wales, which recently marked its 40th anniversary and where four women executives share power, taking advice from Elders.
“I see all over the country the ability to rise above the very deep hurt that we received,” she said.
Huggins said she had given herself a year to mourn.
“And it ends this day,” she said, urging those at the gathering to “build it up again”.
See this thread from X/Twitter about the event.
Via X/Twitter
See Croakey’s archive of articles on The Voice