DEAR News Of The Area,

AT the beginning of this year, support for the Voice to Parliament was over 60 percent, and the majority of Australians accepted that the Voice is a simple idea that will work to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Since then, we have witnessed an increasingly ugly debate around what it will or won’t be, and what it can or can’t do.

Rather than lay blame for this, and as difficult as the debate has been – particularly for Indigenous citizens, who have all been in the firing line – there is some reason to be grateful for it, regardless of the referendum outcome.

When is the last time we have had so many Australians becoming aware of and discussing at length our largely unacknowledged history and the unacceptable living standards endured by many Indigenous communities?

But the key to gratitude for this debate is for people to have the correct information.

If, like me, you want to know, you could do worse than to Google ‘How do the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ cases stack up?

Constitutional law experts take a look’, by Prof. Gabrielle Appleby, et al. – it’s a reputable and informative piece on the official pamphlet.

For me, it is imperative to vote Yes as the first step in truly listening to Indigenous Australians about what will work for them.

Isn’t it time we stopped telling them what’s best?

Isn’t it time to enable the self-determination to restore their own capacity for living fruitful, healthy and happy lives – a capacity that resulted in more than 60 millennia of successful civilisation and custodianship of this land?

To paraphrase the Uluru Statement from the Heart, how could such ability and knowledge simply disappear in merely 200 years?

Well, it hasn’t disappeared.

It may be largely hidden, but it’s still there.

There is nothing else like it on Earth, and I for one would feel incredibly humbled and fortunate to embrace this and walk together with Australia’s First Peoples towards a better future for all.

Regards,
Dinah EADIE,
Valla.