'The world is watching,' say architects of Australia's Indigenous referendum

[June 23, 2023]  By Jill Gralow and Praveen Menon

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia has a chance to fix its image as a global outlier by voting in favour of constitutionally recognising its Indigenous people, architects of the proposed change said.

Australians will be asked to vote in a referendum later this year on whether they support altering the constitution to include a "Voice to Parliament", an Indigenous committee that can advise the parliament on matters affecting its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people.

"I think most of the world is watching," Megan Davis, constitutional lawyer and Aboriginal woman who is leading the campaign for the change, told Reuters in an interview.

The Sami parliament in Scandinavia and Canada's significant constitutional recognition of its Indigenous people are all examples of how similar countries, meaning those which were settled by the British Crown, have used particular mechanisms to recognise First Nations people, Davis said.

"But Australia hasn't done anything. So we're an outlier in the world," said Davis, who is one of the architects of the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, a document crafted by Aboriginal leaders that proposed the Voice to Parliament.

Aboriginal people, making up about 3.2% of Australia's near 26 million population, track below national averages on most socio-economic measures and are not mentioned in the constitution. They were not granted full voting rights until the 1960s.

Australia has no treaty with its Indigenous people, and has done little in comparison to other British dominions like Canada, New Zealand and the United States to include and uplift its First Nations people.

Davis has extensive experience as an international lawyer at the UN and also participated in the drafting of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

A successful referendum will set a precedent that will be "really useful for other indigenous populations around the world in relation to recognition," Davis said.

On Monday, Australia's Senate passed legislation that paved the way to hold the landmark referendum.

A Kaurna elder, Uncle Moogy, performs a traditional smoking ceremony with spectators, in Adelaide, Australia February 23, 2023. REUTERS/Jill Gralow/File photo

While a majority of Indigenous Australians back the change, support has been wavering at a national level, according to recent opinion polls.

The dip in the polls is driven by misinformation and falsehoods, Davis said, adding that the "Yes" campaign will talk to Australians to explain the facts.

"We have absolute faith in Australians understanding the exigency of this reform, why we need it, and we believe they'll come on board and vote yes," Davis said.

Groups opposing the change argue that it is a distraction from achieving practical outcomes for Indigenous people and divides Australians by race.

Getting constitutional change is difficult in Australia, as the government must secure a double majority, which means more than 50% voters nationwide, and a majority of voters in at least four of the six states must back the change.

In the past there have been 44 proposals for constitutional change in 19 referendums, and only eight of these have passed.

Pat Anderson, another Indigenous woman and campaign leader said this was the best political space Aboriginal Australians have been in since their struggle started over 200 years ago.

"We have spent all of our lives, whether young or old, fighting for this and fighting for that," Anderson said.

"Enough now. Let's settle this unfinished business between us and come to some arrangement which is conducive to a more mature and sophisticated society," said Anderson, known nationally and internationally as an advocate for the health of Indigenous Australians.

(Editing by Stephen Coates)

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