Indigenous leaders of the Yes campaign have denounced the racism associated with the No result, and will push ahead to establish a Voice framework anyway. A statement has been issued which said: “We accept that the majority of non-Indigenous voting Australians have rejected recognition in the Australian Constitution. We do not for one moment accept that this country is not ours,” the statement said. “It is the legitimacy of the non-Indigenous occupation in this country that requires recognition, not the other way around. Our sovereignty has never been ceded.” By implication, there is no sovereignty to non-indigenous Australia. This statement has been issued where it was stated that the next big thing was a treaty, as there was an “occupation” of this land, which belonged to Aboriginals and no-one else. What, no multicultural diversity as a strength talk?
Let’s get that in context. The creation of a modern world, as distinct from tribal life hunting and gathering, was done by the settlement of Australia by the dreaded British. The doctrine must therefore reject modernity. Thus, if every building and modern evidence of civilisation could be removed, and the land restored to just desert bushland, these guys would be happy. Along with this, the descendants of the invaders need to leave. Ok, carrying the thought experiment forward, how then would the remaining indigenous population support itself by tribal hunting and gathering, as present population numbers are too great? They might want the infrastructure to be left as reparations, while the invaders go. But even here, there would not be enough indigenous people to kick start a modern economy.
Apart from the philosophical absurdities of the claims, the treaty must be opposed even stronger than the voice. It is the next big fight in this area. It never ends, but they have been damaged for the time.
“The leaders of the Yes campaign have flagged their intention to establish an Indigenous voice despite the referendum’s defeat, as a week of silence ended with accusations of racism, dishonesty and ignorance towards No voters.
In a statement released late on Sunday, a group that described itself as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, community members and organisations that supported Yes said it was now clear that no constitutional change recognising Indigenous Australians would ever succeed.
In a sign the Indigenous affairs debate will increasingly turn to treaty in the wake of the referendum defeat, the statement addressed the “occupation” of an Australia that belonged to Indigenous people.
“We accept that the majority of non-Indigenous voting Australians have rejected recognition in the Australian Constitution. We do not for one moment accept that this country is not ours,” the statement said. “It is the legitimacy of the non-Indigenous occupation in this country that requires recognition, not the other way around. Our sovereignty has never been ceded.”
The statement said a voice was “sorely needed” in the pursuit of First Nations rights.
“We want to talk with our people and our supporters about establishing – independent of the Constitution or legislation – an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to take up the cause of justice for our people,” the statement said.
“Rejection of constitutional recognition will not deter us from speaking up to governments, parliaments and to the Australian people.”
The referendum’s defeat, the statement said, meant Indigenous people remained excluded from the Constitution as originally intended by the nation’s founding fathers.
“A ‘founding document’ without recognition of First Peoples of this country continues the process of colonisation,” the statement said. “It is clear no reform of the Constitution that includes our peoples will ever succeed. This is the bitter lesson from 14 October.”
The statement was also scathing of the conduct of the Coalition, the No campaign and the media.
The decision by Peter Dutton and Nationals leader David Littleproud to oppose the voice ended more than a decade of bipartisan support for the reform, they said.
“The proposal was tracking 60 per cent support compared to 40 per cent opposition for several years until the National and Liberal parties preferred wanton political damage over support for some of this country’s most disadvantaged people,” they said.
“There was little the Yes campaign could do to countervail this.”
Mr Littleproud on Sunday night said while he understood the disappointment of some Yes leaders, the referendum result was “a democratically determined outcome the country made”.
“The loss of the referendum lays squarely at the feet of the Prime Minister,” he said. “He misread the nation by putting forward a proposal that conflated recognition with more bureaucracy.”
Lies were a primary feature of the campaign, the statement said, saying that the No campaign was funded and resourced by conservative and international interests with no genuine interest in Australia’s Indigenous people.
“The scale of deliberate disinformation and misinformation was unprecedented, and it proliferated, unchecked, on social media, repeated in mainstream media and unleashed a tsunami of racism against our people,” they said. “We know that the mainstream media failed our people, favouring ‘a false sense of balance’ over facts.”
Racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had increased during the campaign and was a powerful driver of the No campaign.
While the authors of the statement were not listed, the document was distributed by the public relations agency that had been working with the Uluru Dialogue throughout the Yes campaign.
It’s understood that while up to 60 Indigenous leaders were involved in the drafting of the document, not all those involved endorsed the final statement.
Sean Gordon, a co-convenor of the Liberals for Yes campaign, said the statement was written by a collective of leaders as a response to all Indigenous people. He said signatures were deliberately not attached so as to allow Indigenous people to share and take ownership of the statement.
The Australian revealed last week that Indigenous groups in the Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Western Australia had already begun discussions about developing voice-like bodies at a local levels, buoyed by voting results that showed strong support for the referendum in predominantly Indigenous communities.
Those voices would sit outside legislation and would work to deliver outcomes originally envisaged under a constitutionally enshrined voice.
Earlier on Sunday, the Central Land Council, which represents Aboriginal communities in the southern half of the Northern Territory, said the referendum result showed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were united in knowing what they needed and that things needed to change.
“The CLC will never stop advocating for our rights,” the group said. “We will keep fighting for equality, fighting for land, fighting for water, fighting for housing, infrastructure, good jobs, education, closing the gap – a future for our children.”
The organisation said its people were “grieving” the referendum result. “Those of us who have been around for a long time recognise how it feels. We have been here before,” it said.
“We are sad, but we know that we must stay strong. Others in our communities, especially young people, are in shock and disbelief. We need to work together and support each other.”
Three more groups – the Northern Land Council, Tiwi Land Council and Anindilyakwa Land Council – issued a joint statement in which they said the result could not be separated from “a deep-seated racism”.
“The vitriol and hatred that were part of the campaign existed prior to it, but were given licence through the process,” the groups said. “The overarching theory we are incapable of managing our own affairs is dehumanising, degrading and … deeply flawed.”
Tiwi Land Council chair Gibson Farmer said the referendum result underscored the need for a way forward that ensured Indigenous voices were not only heard but respected when governments made decisions.”