The remote communities we talk to about the voice are being bombarded with conspiracy theories | Lesley Turner
We have been travelling across the southern half of the Northern Territory since March to inform our people about the voice referendum.
Our meetings with hundreds of residents of remote communities, homelands and towns are showing three things: they are being bombarded with misinformation and conspiracy theories that rival the worst Covid-19 vaccination scares; they are hungry for the facts; and when they get them, they strongly support the voice.
They don’t need to read the latest, devastating Productivity Commission report to know that business as usual has been failing us.
They know that we have nothing to lose from the voice, and everything to gain from politicians and bureaucrats having to listen to our solutions.
The Territory is not just more divided between black and white than the rest of the nation, it is going backwards – on eight out of the 17 socio-economic Closing the Gap targets.
Around a third of our population is Aboriginal, yet governments fail to tap into our expertise and lived experience to come up with more effective policies.
We are the only jurisdiction where the employment gap is getting wider, and yet our job-creating alternative to the failed and costly remote work-for-the-dole scheme has languished in the chasm between government silos since the Uluru Statement called for voice, treaty and truth.
For almost two decades, local educators from the Warlpiri Education and Training Trust have been using their royalty income to develop a Warlpiri curriculum designed to get children back to school, with bicultural teachers who know their families and speak their language.
If only governments and bureaucrats would listen.
The voice will not only help reverse falling school attendance and make our communities safer, it is also our best chance at eradicating rheumatic heart disease, a killer linked to overcrowded housing and virtually unknown ‘down south’.
We’ve been stuck in a downwards spiral for too many years.
This cycle of failure is not just wasting tax dollars, it’s costing the lives and futures of our people.
The voice can break the cycle by championing home-grown solutions.
The widening gap between us and non-Aboriginal citizens is what divides us as a nation, not the voice.
The constitution makes explicit reference to race and allows the parliament to enact special laws for us. A constitutional right to be heard before parliament uses such a power and is a small but profound thing we can do to unite us.
How can requiring parliament and government to listen to us not make it more likely that laws and policies don’t harm us but change our lives for the better?
The elected representatives of tens of thousands of traditional owners and Aboriginal residents of remote NT communities, homelands, town camps and towns want you on their side.
In June, the NT land councils met at Barunga, on the 35th anniversary of the Barunga Statement, to urge Australians to say yes to the voice.
The Barunga Voice Declaration calls for “the recognition of our peoples in our constitution by enshrining our voice to the parliament and executive government, never to be rendered silent with the stroke of a pen again”.
It invites us all to “right the wrongs of the past and deal with the serious issues impacting First Nations peoples” in an effort to “unite our country”.
Last month we delivered it to parliament house in Canberra, where it speaks with a cultural authority unmatched by those pushing lies and misinformation on behalf of the no campaign.
Warlpiri elder Valerie Paterson from Lajamanu called on leaders of the no campaign to stop misrepresenting the support the voice enjoys in our communities.
“We hold the song lines, ceremonies and dances. We practice our law and culture every day. We are the grass roots people and we believe putting this voice into parliament will help us change our lives around, so that we can lead normal, happy, humble lives,” she said.
“It’s a chance of a lifetime so we can be heard, so the government can really recognise us as Yapa people belonging to this land. Having the right to be heard will open a door for us as the sovereign people of this land.”
Come referendum time each of us will have to pick a side – yes or no.
When it’s your turn, try walking in Ms Paterson’s shoes, by our side.
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Lesley Turner is the CEO of the Central Land Council
This article has been archived for your research. The original version from The Guardian can be found here.
