Sydney | Portal
After a majority of Australians refused in a referendum to recognize Aboriginal people as the territory’s first inhabitants, Indigenous leaders called for a week of silence and reflection on the result.
On Saturday (14), more than 60% of Australians said no to rewriting the Constitution to create an advisory body to address issues relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait people in Parliament. To be passed in Australia, a referendum must have a majority of votes in four of the country’s six states and at the same time a majority of votes nationally.
“This is a bitter irony,” the indigenous leaders said in a statement. “That people who have lived on this continent for only 235 years refuse to recognize those whose home this land has been for 60,000 years or more is unfounded.” They added that they would display the Aboriginal and Aboriginal flag later in the week the Torres Strait Islanders would fly at half mast.
Supporters of the proposal believed it would usher in a new era for indigenous peoples, who are made up of hundreds of different groups, each with their own histories, traditions and languages.
Unlike other nations with similar histories, such as Canada and New Zealand, Australia has neither officially recognized nor entered into a treaty with its original peoples. They represent 3.8% of the population of the Oceanian country of 26 million, but are not even mentioned in the 1901 constitution. They also form the country’s most disadvantaged group by socioeconomic indicators and experience disproportionately high rates of suicide, domestic violence and incarceration. Life expectancy is about eight years lower than that of Australia’s nonAboriginal people.
“It is very clear that reconciliation is dead,” Marcia Langton, architect of the rejected advisory panel, told NITV. “I think it will take at least two generations for Australians to move past their colonial hatred and recognize that we exist.”
Along the same lines, Reconciliation Australia, an Indigenous organization, said the debate on the issue was marked by “ugly acts of racism and misinformation.”
Indigenous Australian leader and former rugby player Lloyd Walker said that while the path to reconciliation now appears difficult, the community must continue to fight. “We can say that he suffered a defeat in the vote, but there were still 40% of people who wanted him. Many years ago we would not have had this percentage,” he said.
Since British colonization began in 1788, the number of Aboriginal Australians has fallen sharply. They were forced off their land, exposed to disease, and forced to work in situations that resembled slavery. Many were still murdered by the colonizers.
Furthermore, between the 1910s and 1970s, one in three Aboriginal children were forcibly separated from their families and given up for adoption by nonAboriginal Australians in order to integrate them into society. In 2008 the government apologized for the socalled “stolen generation”.
The Aboriginal advisory body, called Voice in Parliament, was proposed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, a 2017 document created by around 250 Aboriginal leaders and a roadmap for reconciling people with the rest of the Australian population. The conservative government rejected the application at the time.
But the current government, led by centreleft Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has recommended Australians vote for the measure. The rejection of the proposal therefore also represents a setback for his government.
After the results were released, the Prime Minister urged Australians to be kind to one another. “Just as the Uluru Statement was a heartfelt invitation given with humility, civility and optimism for the future, we must accept this outcome with the same humility and civility this evening. And tomorrow we must look for a new path with the same optimism,” he said at a press meeting in Canberra.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Linda Burney appeared to hold back tears as she spoke alongside Albanese. She acknowledged that the last few months have been difficult for these communities and the people of the Torres Strait. “But be proud of who you are, of your identity. To the 65,000 years of history and culture you carry and to your rightful place in this land. We will continue, we will move forward and we will succeed,” he said.