Indigenous leaders who campaigned for the Voice to Parliament are calling for a week of silence across the country to grieve and reflect on the outcome of the referendum, after the nation voted against enshrining the advisory body in the constitution.
Key points:
- Yes campaigners say now is “not the time to dissect the reasons for this tragic outcome'”
- In a statement Yes campaigners described the result as a “bitter irony”
- Leaders have called on their community to regather their “strength and resolve”
In a statement distributed after the result was declared on Saturday evening, campaigners said they would not comment on the result any further.
“Now is not the time to dissect the reasons for this tragic outcome,” the statement read.
“This will be done in the weeks, years and decades to come.
“Now is the time for silence, to mourn and deeply consider the consequence of this outcome.”
The leaders took the opportunity to thank Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for pressing ahead with the referendum, while describing the result as “a bitter irony”.
“That people who have only been on this continent for 235 years would refuse to recognise those whose home this land has been for 60,000 and more years is beyond reason,” they said.
“It was never in the gift of these newcomers to refuse recognition to the true owners of Australia.
“The referendum was a chance for newcomers to show a long-refused grace and gratitude and to acknowledge that the brutal dispossession of our people underwrote their every advantage of this country.”
While noting the period of mourning, the leaders called on their community to regather their “strength and resolve” and “convene in due course to carefully consider our path forward”.
“When we determine a new direction for justice and our rights, let us once again unite,” the statement said.
“We will not rest long. Pack up the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Fly our flags low.
“Talk not of recognition and reconciliation. Only of justice and the rights of our people in our own country. Things that no one else can gift us, but to which we are entitled by fact that this is the country of our birth and inheritance.”
The leaders paid tribute to the advocates who had campaigned for the Yes cause, and the varied members of the community — from faith-based organisations, to sporting organisations — who had thrown their support behind the cause.
“Our deep chagrin at this result does not in any way diminish our pride and gratefulness for the stand they had the moral courage to take in this cause now lost,” they said.
“We know we have them by our side in the ongoing cause for justice and fairness in our own land.
“Much will be asked about the role of racism and prejudice against Indigenous people in this result.
“The only thing we ask is that each and every Australian who voted in this election reflect hard on this question.”