I hear Gina Reinhardt and her mining buddies are quite happy there isn't an Aboriginal advisor that could cause problems with digging up sacred sites and blowing up ancient art.
Many of those leaders would have worked for years with the Coalition to get them onside for this referendum. It was a massive betrayal of trust.
"Indigenous leaders break their silence..."
Mmmmm. Perhaps the time for leadership and not being silent was before there was a vote ...
In their defence the moment an Indigenous leader engages in anything other than peace, love, and harmony rhetoric they are treated as an 'angry black' and taken less seriously. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't type situation.
Yeah, you're right. It's easy for me to type it on a keyboard, and totally different living it.
I'm half frustrated and half in despair that I just can't see a way forward. With the way the Voice campaign went, my god, just imagining the level of FUD around a treaty hurts.
Honestly I'm a pretty cynical person but even I overestimated how ready Australia was to discuss these issues. Misinformation certainly played a role in how things played out but I can't help but think there wasn't already quite fertile ground within our culture for it to grow. I personally think if people couldn't really get behind the voice then treaty is going to be very tough.
Yeah - they're all calling out the coalition now, but they should've done that before. Maybe they hoped that the coalition might change their minds
considering the death threats they and their families faced from Australians, I don't blame them for keeping a low profile.
What was this vote even about? Weren't people of aboriginal descent already able to be MPs and influence the country? If they want some sort of quota where there must be aboriginals in parliament that sounds like 'positive' discrimination, and it's good it didn't get passed.
Edit: I am a non Australian interested in this from an outside perspective. I have since been corrected on what the vote was actually about.
I think your comment sums up what a large portion, more than 60% of the country, felt about that referendum.
And thats the unfortunate thing because the Voice was none of what you've suggested.
At its simplest it was, 'hey politicians! You can't get rid of this government department because things are awkward for you on the news.' It was a more complicated, and interesting proposal than this, but that part drove necessary constitutional change and thus required a referendum.
But the change was declined. Most reasons i suspect have their root at: Lack of engagement with the subject matter due to unclear/tenuous benefits to their own lives. Not to mention a fair amount of ambivalence rising to dislike of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia in the broader community.
Noel Pearson's statement, "we are a much-unloved people." was and is very poignant.
This atmosphere meant anything, and i mean anything, (even contradictory statements from the same person days apart), could be thrown around as possible effects of the referendum and people would latch onto those reasons as an answer then carry on with their lives.
Sorry, i've rambled a bit. There was a lot to it.
Here's a link to the actual letter: https://ugc.production.linktr.ee/2e09849a-25e6-4743-8317-e33dfb437728_Statement-for-our-People-and-Country.pdf
