DEAR News Of The Area,

In response to Dave Wood’s Letter to the Editor ‘How hard can it be to establish The Voice?’ in NOTA’s 2 June Edition.

Yes, trauma and generational trauma and disadvantage have impacted Indigenous Australians for centuries, there is no denying this.

In fact, the past can only inform the present for necessary change, however, the society and values of the past cannot be applied to the present because they have their own human bias, greed, ignorance and narrowness.

The Voice to our Constitution is a present value to national identity.

NZ does not divide the Maori from the nation, they include them.

The Voice is a complex legal argument and to use race in this limits the identification of Indigenous Nations, of which there are over 200, many who have lost their cultural heritage.

Australian Indigenous societies are permitted under law to manage their own affairs and remember too that there is also a racial divide of Indigenous nations in this country.

It’s a complex issue and voters need to be informed.

My experience of Indigenous students from various schools around NSW is that colonists/invaders have destroyed connection to country and destroyed the land we belong to, there is additional trauma and sorrow attached to this difference in how laws apply.

Regards,
Cathie MCINTYRE.