Advocates of a constitutional “Voice” for Aboriginal people are facing defeat
united when they last voted in a referendum on indigenous rights in 1967. Over 90% agreed to remove a clause in their constitution that had long excluded Aboriginal people from national population counts, sending a message “that we would be recognised and that we would be able to enjoy equality”, recalls Tom Calma, a Kungarakan elder from Darwin. Another referendum concerning Australia’s relationship with its first people will be held on October 14th.
Voice proponents are aghast. Mr Albanese billed the referendum as “a once-in-a-generation chance to bring our country together”. Unlike Canada, America and New Zealand, Australia never struck treaties with its original inhabitants. The idea for the Voice emerged from months of consultation with indigenous people to address that failure. The process culminated, in 2017, with a statement from Aboriginal elders blaming their community’s poverty on “the torment of our powerlessness”.
A debate in which race and citizenship are embroiled has raised “very sensitive issues about Australia’s past and its heritage”, says Ian McAllister of the Australian National University. The antis are appealing to “racism and stupidity”, says Marcia Langton, an indigenous academic. Voting Yes would “demonise colonial settlement in its entirety and nurture a national self-loathing”, claims Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a conservative indigenous senator.
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