Indigenous Voice Submission
I am a third generation Scottish Australian. I love this country
and feel privileged to live here. I grew up in country NSW
and Queensland. I have worked in Education and with the
NDIS program and am currently working with Mental Health
First Aid. I am making this submission in the hope that real
reform can be enacted and the First Peoples of Australia can
be properly recognised and given the voice they deserve in
this country.
The Uluru Statement of the Heart seeks constitutional reforms
to empower First Nations Peoples to “take their rightful place
in this country” and “calls for the establishment of a First
Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.” It “seeks a
Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-
making between governments and First Nations and truth-
telling about our history.”
This is long overdue. The First Peoples of this country have
lived with autonomy and self-determination, within a complex
set of social and political laws and customs, that have enabled
them to successfully coexist for 60 000 years. Upon the
arrival of white Australians this self-determination and
autonomy was savagely compromised and First Nations’ laws
and customs were decimated.
It is time to recognise the vital importance of allowing First
Peoples to regain their voice in determining their own
outcomes. To put them front and centre of decision making,
so that no decision is made about them without them. White
Australia cannot presuppose that it knows what is best for the
First Peoples of Australia. This has been tragically
demonstrated time and time again in our short history of
cohabitation in this country, and has left a shameful legacy of
trauma and disenfranchisement.
I submit a request that a model for the First Peoples Voice is
established and the Government honour its election promise to
hold a referendum, to ensure that Voice is protected by the
Constitution. And to pass enabling legislation for that Voice,
once the referendum has been held in the next term of
Parliament.
The membership model for the National Voice must ensure
that previously unheard Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people have the same chance of being selected as already
established leadership figures. Make a Submission.
If the Uluru Statement of the Heart is seriously given the
respect and gravity it deserves it will be a big step toward
reconciliation in Australia, and will allow us all to benefit
from the ancient and long standing wisdom, knowledge and
culture of our First Peoples. It will also begin real healing
within First Peoples’ communities and open the opportunity
for a shared future that could unite Australia. This is
something for us to honour and be proud of.
