We are witnessing a profound moment in the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s struggle with this nation.
Indigenous people went with a lump in their throat to the Australian people, asking for a place in a document written for a nation state that once tried to wipe out its original nations.
They were rebuffed.
It’s now the beginning of the end of a bruising era in black politics.
The door has closed on a 20-year question: what would change if we meaningfully included Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Constitution? We can’t know the answer and we will not ponder this question again for another generation, if ever.
The Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said politics is full of breakthroughs and heartbreaks. Black politics is more accustomed to the latter.
At the end of a discordant debate, Australians said No. No to the creation of a permanent vehicle for Indigenous communities to raise their voices in the corridors of power. It was an emphatic No from Australians who were unconvinced by an ineffectual Yes campaign and a simplistic but persuasive No campaign which ran rings around its opponent online.
For many Australians, it was a No to a proposal that had nothing to do with them in the midst of a major cost-of-living crisis and massive global upheaval. No in a media climate that prefers shrill headlines to substance.
For others, their No was driven by false information stirred up in a fog of disinformation. These Noes are troubling. They reveal much about our modern political age. It seemed impossible to counter the shadow campaign that ran on social media, where Australians were fed mistruths by influencers and individuals who tapped into age-old prejudices and racism.
And then there were the Noes of mistrust from First Nations people that is rooted in the great Australian silence that has never gone away.
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It felt possible for so many
Where does this rejection leave the people who held onto a sliver of belief in their fellow Australians?
That Yes felt possible to elders who had lived their lives hearing No from this country should tell you all you need to know about the fortitude of the First Nations.
Yes felt possible to old women who were born on the verandahs of hospitals their mothers weren’t allowed into.
Yes felt possible to old men who remember being shut out of public swimming pools and theatres, their fathers left destitute after returning home from World Wars — black diggers forgotten by the country they served.
It felt possible to women from camps living on the fringes of regional towns where locals tell you with a wink that you should avoid the “black” pub.
It felt possible to a new generation of leaders in our cities working day and night to lift the living standards of an Indigenous urban diaspora.
Most tragically, Yes felt possible to elders who co-signed the Uluru Statement from the Heart who have now died and didn’t live to see the day a referendum was called.
That statement which spoke of the “torment of our powerlessness ” now reads more prophetic than ever.
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For others it was never enough
For others in our Indigenous communities, No was the answer they wrote on the ballot paper to reject what they saw as a meagre prize after a lifetime of struggle.
The way they saw it, a No from their neighbours, their co-workers, their friends, was unsurprising. No was expected. No was how things stood for decades. For many, many Aboriginal people, No was inevitable.
There is a legitimate need for proper — Indigenous-led — analysis on what went wrong in this campaign. Did a referendum without bipartisan support unleash a feral debate that exposed Aboriginal communities to unnecessary abuse? Was enough done to educate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities before the referendum?
No matter how they voted, do not underestimate the sorrow and the burning hot rage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people right now. The ripple effects could be significant.
After decades of disastrous policy failures and political refusal to confront Australian history, Indigenous leaders will strategise, regather themselves and rise again. But they are tired and shell-shocked.
As politicians return to Canberra, there is talk of the federal parliament moving on. That’s not an option for blackfellas.
They are back at work today. Australia doesn’t have years to tinker around the edges. We’re already on borrowed time.
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