I’m alarmed at some of the dangerously ludicrous perspectives on the First Nations Voice to Parliament being expressed within this community.
There is talk of the Voice enshrining racial division, of creating an apartheid state, of raising the rights and privileges of the surviving inhabitants of this land for tens of thousands of years above those of their colonial oppressors.
These are nothing more than the regurgitated talking points of the racist rightwing political class and their cronies and benefactors, and I would invite those advancing such ideas to review them with a critical mind, and perhaps some education on these matters.
Despite the cries of being silenced and censored, these voices are coming through loud and clear.
Claims that those who disagree with their position are not engaging in debate are demonstrably false.
Those who espouse such views would prefer the status quo maintained.
This is a reality in which Aboriginal deaths in custody have actually increased since the 1991 royal commission report was handed down.
And in which material and social disadvantage disproportionately affects First Nations peoples, not because of inherent personal or racial deficits, but as a direct result of the impacts of colonisation and genocide.
The intergenerational trauma of the theft of land sustainably managed for tens of thousands of years, the deliberate erasure of culture and language, the stealing of children, and the social, political and economic marginalisation and discrimination that continues in 2023.
The disadvantage experienced by many First Peoples of this country is institutionally entrenched and will be further perpetuated without significant change.
The Voice is an extremely modest constitutional device which would be permanent until further amendments, yes, but non-binding, and which would simply ensure that the needs and perspectives of First Nations peoples could be assured of a hearing in the nation’s seat of elected power.
That is all.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart generously invites Australia to implement the tools of Voice, Treaty and Truth as a means of acknowledging the foundation and legacies of this colony, and as an opportunity to move forward as a nation in a more respectful and much less harmful manner.
To claim that the Voice would lock in a greater degree of political influence for First Nations peoples than any other group in the country is ignorant at best, particularly when we consider the influence of the wealthy corporations and industries that enjoy a much more damaging and powerful hold over policy and legislation in this country through the game of political donations, lobbying, regulatory laxity, officially sanctioned tax dodging, revolving door career favours, and exploitation of the environment and all of its inhabitants, including us.
It is true that the Australian Constitution is a colonial instrument of the occupying settlers and their institutions, and on this basis many First Nations people will refuse to have anything to do with it.
Other First Nations people insist that the Voice only be countenanced after Truth and Treaty have been established.
How anyone decides to vote is up to them, but I will not align myself with a racist movement doing its best to command a public narrative of continued oppression masquerading as (faux) progressiveness, (malappropriated) inclusion signalling, or (incoherently) justified racial discrimination.
– Lauren Granger-Brown,
Gympie
