Labor backbencher Dr Marisa Paterson MLA will call on the ACT Government tomorrow to endorse the Uluru Statement from the Heart and support the First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum campaign.
ACT Labor has consistently and steadfastly supported the Uluru Statement from the Heart since 2017, Dr Paterson said.
Her motion calls on the ACT Government to work with and support local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups in initiatives around the Uluru Statement of the Heart, and to build grassroots momentum for the Voice campaign.
“Enshrining the Voice to Parliament in the Constitution will ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are always a part of conversations about issues that affect them,” Dr Paterson said. “It will also start an important process of truth-telling and treaty making. You simply cannot make a practical difference without having First Nation peoples at the forefront of conversation, otherwise you are simply repeating historical injustices. But to get the Voice to Parliament, we need to have a referendum where everyone will get a chance to cast their vote to change the constitution. The Voice referendum is an invitation for all of us to walk together for a better future.”
An ACT Labor government established a democratically elected voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans in 2008 after the Howard government abolished the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 2004.
Dr Paterson has worked in remote Indigenous communities around Australia for much of her academic career, and is committed to using her role as an MLA to contribute to positive change for reconciliation.
“We are stronger as a nation when we walk together towards real action on First Nations justice, rights, and respect. It is time to walk the talk and support the First Nations Voice referendum.”
Aunty Violet Sheridan, a local Ngunnawal elder, expressed her support for the motion. “My community and First Nations people across Australia have been fighting our whole lives for the recognition and respect of the spiritual and physical relationship between our people and land we stand on. Enshrining a First Nations Voice in the Constitution and coming together for truth-telling is vitally important to empower my people and return the power over our own destiny that we lost with colonisation. To achieve this important goal, we need to walk together towards a future that empowers the voices of our First Nations communities and comes together over the truth of our history.”
Paula McGrady, a member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, said: “We have to start somewhere, and the Uluru Statement from the Heart speaks truth with good intentions. I believe this will evolve into something much stronger with our future generations at the helm. We are giving them a step up now to show that we are working on creating a place for them at the table, that is rightly there for them and us, that hopes to improve on all outcomes of disadvantage. Our future depends on decisions being made now. It’s so important that we educate the wider Australia and try to share the vulnerability we are all giving up, in support of understanding more about each other.
“It will be an empowered voice for our future leaders, created from the unity to Strengthen and Truth Recording to permanently enshrine for our future forevermore. There has to be permanent recognition of the beautiful people and culture we are and history that we want, to safely, and honestly bare and share together as an understood, heard, and united nation.”
