Reflections on the Referendum for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament
La Trobe University Media Release
Where: Online series
Cost: Free
Bookings here
One year ago, the referendum for an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament failed.
La Trobe University’s Ideas and Society this month delves into what the referendum campaign and its result revealed about the contemporary attitude of non-Indigenous Australians to the Indigenous peoples.
What can now be done to advance the decades-long struggle for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians?
The Ideas and Society Program at La Trobe University is delighted to be able to invite you to join a discussion between two people at the very centre of the “Yes” campaign, both of whom have recently published important books that represent the first drafts of the history of the struggle for the Voice and its failure.
Thomas Mayo, a leader of the “Yes” campaign and author of Always Was, Always Will Be.
Thomas is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander man who lives on Larrakia land in Darwin. He is the Assistant National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, an award–winning author, essayist, orator and a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
His advocacy and leadership in the push for the rights and recognition of Indigenous peoples spans over 20 years. Thomas is currently on the board of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition and the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. He is also on the steering group for the First Nations Clean Energy Network.
Dr Shireen Morris worked closely with another leader of the “Yes” campaign, Noel Pearson, and is the author of Broken Heart: A True History of the Voice Referendum.
Dr Morris is a constitutional lawyer, senior lecturer and director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School. She has spent the last 12 years working with Cape York Institute and Indigenous leaders like Noel Pearson, devising and advocating the concept of a constitutionally guaranteed Indigenous Voice, which was the subject of her 2017 PhD thesis.
Since 2020, Dr Morris has been particularly focused on building multicultural and multi-faith support for the Voice. Dr Morris publishes widely in academia and mainstream media and often appears on TV and radio. Her books include Statements from the Soul: the moral case for the Uluru Statement from the Heart (2023), A First Nations Voice in the Australian Constitution(2020), A Rightful Place: A Roadmap to Recognition (2017), The Forgotten People: Liberal and Conservative Approaches to Recognising Indigenous Peoples (2016).
The event will be introduced by Professor Julie Andrews, Academic Director of Indigenous Research at La Trobe University. Professor Mark McKenna, historian from the University of Sydney, will facilitate the discussion.
A recording will be available three hours following the event on this link.
Click the “book now” link and enter your email (if you have already registered) to access the recording. If you have not registered, you can log in via the “book now” link to view the video.
Email the media contact if you require a transcript following the event.
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4 comments
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Anne Webber -
Terence Mills -
Andrew Smith -
Michael Taylor
Return to home pageIm not sure how enlightening this event will be. It was easy to predict The Voice’s failure solely on the fact that there was no bipartisan support for it. History has shown that is the only way a referendum would get up. And that wasn’t going to happen when the LNP slogan was “if you don’t know, vote no”.
How very odd, for La Trobe University to be inviting one and all to join a discussion between two people at the very centre of the “Yes” campaign.
Clearly this will not be an inclusive debate as it will not include anybody from the NO campaign who, after all is said and done, were extremely successful in putting their case that the Referendum was divisive.
For this discussion to have any substance it would need to include the Aboriginal leaders of the NO campaign, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Nyunggai Warren Mundine.
I cannot see the purpose of this talkfest !
There had been bi-partisan support till Abbott’s Advance, Murdoch led RW MSM & sh*tty online No campaign to mislead with disinfo, Tanton Network bigotry and Atlas Koch Network’s & Gina’s IPA/CIS backed up by white Oz sentiments in regions, oldies & low info, with much cognitive dissonance; too easy.
Also a failure of media which allowed disinfo and/misinformation talking points of No to prevail, without challenge and adopted voters
The big one heard often was claim of changing constitution would create a special class ie. indigenous vs mainstream Australia.
However, for this to be valid one needs to presume we have no special classes or groups in Australia?!
One only needs to look at key people in background, Rhinehart and Murdoch?
I think the autopsy of the result has been well and truly dissected by now. No matter what happens, no matter how good this discussion might be … there is unlikely to be another referendum in the foreseeable future.