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Be the Voice Patrick McIntyre is leading Native Title lawyer, poet and playwright. He is a former Chair of Reconciliation NT, and co-founder of the Mawul Rom Traditional and Contemporary Mediation and Leadership Training program
This piece provides a lyrical exposition of why we should consider voting yes
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Well I heard it on the radio. |
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‘Treaty’; from Yothu Yindi album ‘Tribal Voice’, (1991)
Is the Voice something that we are being asked to agree to?
What sort of something? Is the Voice a ‘thing’ at all?
Is the Voice about making something? Is it about doing something? Is it about being something?
If we say ‘Yes’ to the Voice, does that mean we will have to change?
Is a ‘Yes’ vote like a passive parental permission given to a child’s request?
Or is it more like a deeply collaborative affirmation of intent made between a couple at marriage?
Perhaps as individuals we don’t speak, or listen, like that very often.
It’s a bit risky and we want to be sure?
Its deeply moving, profound, to engage that way.
It’s a transforming encounter with our shared humanity.
In those sorts of moments, we choose to take a punt.
Have some faith in each other and launch into common future-making.
It takes courage. It takes patience. It takes compassion. It takes time, to engage like that.
Much is at stake. A sharing of respect. Of agency. Of understanding.
Sharing of a willingness to endure some discomfit.
In the presence of uncomfortable truths not yet revealed.
An invitation to engage this way is daring!
It may be untimely. Or worse. It may be rejected outright!
‘There’ll be no Treaty while I’m Prime Minister’!
That was John Howard when he refused to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2000 for National Reconciliation and stopped any member of his Cabinet from doing so!
‘And I won’t say ‘Sorry’ either!’.
He said yes to bucketloads of extinguishment of native title rights instead.
He remains unrepentant.
The abused, the bashed, the discomforting victims had to wait another 8 years.
For our nation to admit a painful truth.
Dutton, now opposition leader, waited another 15 years to apologise.
‘I failed to grasp the ‘symbolic significance’ of the moment at the time.’
The ‘time’ was when he boycotted the Parliament.
When Prime Minster Rudd delivered a National Apology to the Stolen Generations.
Was 1962 timely to offer our Fist Nations a vote?
In 1963 did we ‘grasp’ the significance of the Bark Petition’ more than as a mere wall-hanging?
Was it timely when as a nation we ‘grasped’ the need for the Racial Discrimination Act.
Twenty seven years after we endorsed the UN Declaration of Human Rights?
Neither John Howard nor his Shadow Attorney-General Greenwood endorsed the Racial Discrimination Act.
The issue of ‘race’ was ‘extremely tender’!
Thirty two years later Howard suspended the Racial Discrimination Act. Federal Labour supported him.
He and NT Labor then wreaked havoc with their ‘Intervention’.
Without notice. Without consultation.
Without any pretence at integrity or respect for our First Nations.
Eigth years later former NT Chief Minister Claire Martin publicly apologised.
Nothing timely about that!
What sort of something? Is the Voice a ‘thing’ at all?
Is the Voice about making something? Is it about doing something? Is it about being something?
If we say ‘Yes’ to the Voice, does that mean we will have to change?
Is a ‘Yes’ vote like a passive parental permission given to a child’s request?
Or is it more like a deeply collaborative affirmation of intent made between a couple at marriage?
Perhaps as individuals we don’t speak, or listen, like that very often.
It’s a bit risky and we want to be sure?
Its deeply moving, profound, to engage that way.
It’s a transforming encounter with our shared humanity.
In those sorts of moments, we choose to take a punt.
Have some faith in each other and launch into common future-making.
It takes courage. It takes patience. It takes compassion. It takes time, to engage like that.
Much is at stake. A sharing of respect. Of agency. Of understanding.
Sharing of a willingness to endure some discomfit.
In the presence of uncomfortable truths not yet revealed.
An invitation to engage this way is daring!
It may be untimely. Or worse. It may be rejected outright!
‘There’ll be no Treaty while I’m Prime Minister’!
That was John Howard when he refused to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2000 for National Reconciliation and stopped any member of his Cabinet from doing so!
‘And I won’t say ‘Sorry’ either!’.
He said yes to bucketloads of extinguishment of native title rights instead.
He remains unrepentant.
The abused, the bashed, the discomforting victims had to wait another 8 years.
For our nation to admit a painful truth.
Dutton, now opposition leader, waited another 15 years to apologise.
‘I failed to grasp the ‘symbolic significance’ of the moment at the time.’
The ‘time’ was when he boycotted the Parliament.
When Prime Minster Rudd delivered a National Apology to the Stolen Generations.
Was 1962 timely to offer our Fist Nations a vote?
In 1963 did we ‘grasp’ the significance of the Bark Petition’ more than as a mere wall-hanging?
Was it timely when as a nation we ‘grasped’ the need for the Racial Discrimination Act.
Twenty seven years after we endorsed the UN Declaration of Human Rights?
Neither John Howard nor his Shadow Attorney-General Greenwood endorsed the Racial Discrimination Act.
The issue of ‘race’ was ‘extremely tender’!
Thirty two years later Howard suspended the Racial Discrimination Act. Federal Labour supported him.
He and NT Labor then wreaked havoc with their ‘Intervention’.
Without notice. Without consultation.
Without any pretence at integrity or respect for our First Nations.
Eigth years later former NT Chief Minister Claire Martin publicly apologised.
Nothing timely about that!
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‘I want to say the Federal government is always talking about helping indigenous peoples overcome the barriers of disadvantage. The barriers they name are alcohol abuse, violence, sexual abuse, disease, chronic illness, child mortality, life expectancy, overcrowding and poverty…[those issues].. are not barriers they are symptoms. Instead, the barrier is external control, either on a systemic level or by the domination of mainstream culture over indigenous culture….Since the beginning of the Intervention…we have taken an unprecedented stride backward. My people now have fewer rights then for three decades and the Stronger Futures policy seems to be only more of the same.’ |
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Rev, Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM to Evidence to Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs 2012, Maningrida NT.
Australia is what we citizens decide to make it.
Fortunately, our First nations are (now) also citizens.
Our constitution is not ‘writing in the sand’.
It is a structure that tells our governments how to govern.
Our constitution was designed for ‘White Australia’.
It provides no structural capacity for our First Nations
To engage in how we govern.
The ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’.
The up-coming Referendum on the ‘Voice’.
Are invitations from our First Nations.
They are a daring proposal.
We are asked to become participants in a transformative national encounter.
Saying ‘Yes’ to the Voice is to become part of it!
Taking a calculated and timely punt.
Having some faith in each other.
Launching into common national future-making.
Don’t be ‘extremely tender’.
Find some courage. Some patience. Some understanding.
Be the Voice so that our nation can mature and flourish.
Fortunately, our First nations are (now) also citizens.
Our constitution is not ‘writing in the sand’.
It is a structure that tells our governments how to govern.
Our constitution was designed for ‘White Australia’.
It provides no structural capacity for our First Nations
To engage in how we govern.
The ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’.
The up-coming Referendum on the ‘Voice’.
Are invitations from our First Nations.
They are a daring proposal.
We are asked to become participants in a transformative national encounter.
Saying ‘Yes’ to the Voice is to become part of it!
Taking a calculated and timely punt.
Having some faith in each other.
Launching into common national future-making.
Don’t be ‘extremely tender’.
Find some courage. Some patience. Some understanding.
Be the Voice so that our nation can mature and flourish.
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You’re the voice, try and understand it |
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‘You’re the Voice’; from John Farnham, ‘Whispering Jack’, (1986)
