Cirrus@Austlit

'Why a First Nations Voice to Parliament is a ‘constitutional moment’ that offers a new vision of Australia

'At Uluru, an invitation was issued to the Australian people. With the upcoming referendum, the nation will decide whether to accept that invitation. In this compelling, fresh and imaginative essay, Megan Davis draws out the significance and the promise of this “constitutional moment” – what it could mean for recognition and justice.

'Davis presents the Voice to Parliament as an Australian solution to an Australian problem. For Indigenous people, it is a practical response to “the torment of powerlessness.” She highlights the failure of past policies, in areas from child protection to closing the gap, and the urgent need for change. She also brings out the creative and imaginative dimensions of the Voice. Fundamental to her account is the importance of truly listening. In explaining why the Voice is needed from the ground up, she evokes a new vision of Country and community.

'“When people say this is about changing Australian identity, it’s not. It’s about location; we are located here together, we are born here, we arrive here, we die here and we must coexist in a peaceful way. The fundamental message that many elders planted in the Uluru Statement is that the country needs peace, and the country cannot be at peace until we meet; the Uluru Statement is the beginning of that.” Megan Davis, Voice of Reason'  (Publication summary)

'BETWEEN 2016 AND 2017, a series of First Nations regional constitutional dialogues were held across Australia. These dialogues led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and they were resolute in their rejection of ‘reconciliation’ as an appropriate framework to apply to Australian conditions. According to many who participated in the dialogues, reconciliation is the wrong framework, as it assumes a pre-existing relationship: as the Uluru Statement from the Heart puts it, we have never met. The proper framing of the relationship between First Nations and the Australian people is a starting point, an invitation to meet – and this is the vision of the Uluru Statement. In this way, the delivery of the statement by those First Nations peoples gathered together at Uluru on 27 May 2017 traversed the language of reconciliation after decades of trite utterances and a steely-eyed focus on citizenship rights and Indigenous engagement in the market economy to the exclusion of truth and justice. While employment compacts have proliferated, signed in the name of reconciliation, our people have become sicker and less educated while child removals and incarceration rates have skyrocketed.'(Introduction)

'We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

'On 26 May 2017, after a historic process of consultation, the Uluru Statement from the Heart was read out. This clear and urgent call for reform to the community from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples asked for the establishment of a First Nations Voice to Parliament protected in the constitution and a process of agreement-making and truth-telling. Voice. Treaty. Truth.

'What was the journey to this point? What do Australians need to know about the Uluru Statement from the Heart? And how can these reforms be achieved?

'Everything You Need to Know about the Uluru Statement from the Heart , written by Megan Davis and George Williams, two of Australia’s best-known constitutional experts, is essential reading on how our Constitution was drafted, what the 1967 referendum achieved, and the lead-up and response to the Uluru Statement. Importantly, it explains how the Uluru Statement offers change that will benefit the whole nation.' (Publication summary)

'This year marks the beginning of the second decade of constitutional recognition. Who could’ve known when Julia Gillard created the expert panel, at the urging of the Greens and independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, that 10 years, seven processes and nine reports later the nation would still be waiting for the Commonwealth to act?' (Introduction)

'On 26 May 2017, more than 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples gathered at the First Nations Constitutional Convention and issued the Uluru Statement from the Heart. This Convention was the culmination of an Indigenous-designed and -led process of regional dialogues across the nations designed to elicit from First Nations what meaningful constitutional recognition would mean to them. The deliberative dialogue process adopted by the Referendum Council sought to build an informed consensus across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities on reform proposals. The Statement called for two key reforms: a voice for Indigenous peoples in the constitutional structure (the so-called ‘Voice to Parliament’) and a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement, or treaty-making, and a ‘truth-telling about our history’.' (Introduction)

'If the Uluru Statement from the Heart was an example of the trans-formative potential of liberal democratic governance through civic engagement beyond the ballot box, the aftermath of Uluru revealed the limitations of Australian retail politics. The Uluru Statement from the Heart was a call for peace and the Referendum Council proposed reforms – a  roadmap to peace. Yet Prime Minister Turnbull dismissed it four months later, inventing a fiction that the enhanced participation of First Peoples in Australian liberal democracy amounted to a ‘third chamber’ of the parliament.'  (Introduction)

'A collection of short essays by leading and emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander thinkers and leaders. Edited by and including contributions from Megan Davis and Marcia Langton, it conveys to Australians why indigenous peoples should have a direct say in the decisions that affect their lives. Australia is one of the only liberal democracies still grappling with fundamental questions about the place of indigenous peoples, unlike its common law cousins Canada, the United States and New Zealand. (Source: Publisher's website)

On finishing Larissa Behrendt’s book, Achieving Social Justice: Indigenous Rights and Australia’s Future, I was reminded of a quote from Helen Irving lamenting Australians’ ambivalence toward their own history. She said she felt

'a deep melancholy when I contemplate the approaching centenary of Federation. ... Although I am certain that there is a much greater level of ‘product recognition’ in the Australian community than there was at the beginning of the 1990s, it is also clear that Australians remain almost entirely unmoved by political history and even more so by constitutional history.'' (Introduction)