Honi Soit proudly says “Yes” to the Voice to Parliament. We believe that all who support a vision of a just Australia, all who oppose racism, and all who stand for First Nations sovereignty and self-determination must vote “Yes” on October 14.
So-called Australia is a colonial project built upon the forced dispossession and genocide of First Nations peoples, the benefits of which are reaped in perpetuity by White Australians. From the moment of British arrival, First Nations people have been brutalised and removed from their lands under successive White governments which sought to erase over 65,000 years of culture, knowledge, kinship and diplomacy.
Forcing people into missions, and separating children from their families is state-sanctioned and supported violence — violence that this nation must acknowledge and disavow.
First Nations peoples have survived and resisted ongoing attempts of extermination by White Australia. But history cannot be suspended in the past, and these legacies do continue today. First Nations people are six times more likely to commit suicide, and are proportionally the most incarcerated people in the world. More than 550 First Nations people have died in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and there remains a difference of a decade in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. These legacies of invasion and colonisation cannot be undone without acknowledgement.
In 1967, Australia voted to remove references in the Constitution that discriminated against Indigenous peoples. In 2023, Australia will vote to recognise Indigenous peoples and enshrine a Voice in the Constitution to advise on matters that directly impact them.
The mainstream coverage around this referendum has stoked uncertainty and reinforced the blindness of everyday people to their privilege as settlers. The No campaign has been centred around a falsely colour-blind view of Australia that constructs the Voice as an excessive measure imposed upon a nation that is already equal.
Supporters of the No vote have spread misinformation, obfuscating what the Voice is and the intentions behind it. This dog whistling has emboldened racist rhetoric on the streets — in Melbourne, an anti-voice protest group gathered at the foot of State parliament, with a “Voice = Anti white” banner. They performed a Nazi salute.
Though not all those voting “No” are so extreme, their vote will have the same effect — it will set the Indigenous rights movement back significantly and embolden racist rhetoric. This is why so much of the messaging has focused on uncertainty and confusion. It permits non-Indigenous people to carry on with their lives without reflecting on the political realities they exist in; “Don’t know, vote No”. It permits people to avoid thinking about the Voice and the reality of Australia that it seeks to address — the reality that Australia was founded on racial division and that this continues to affect the lives of Indigenous communities today.
The Voice represents decades of activism by Indigenous people to achieve constitutional recognition, and establish pathways to undoing the harms of colonialism since the 70s. In dialogues around the 1967 referendum, a representative body was considered.
Currently, polls indicate that 80% of First Nations people support the Voice, it is the product of grassroots movements — First Nations people staking their claim to self-determination. The reality is that, if only First Nations people were voting on the Voice, it would pass in a landslide. This fact should be instructive for non-Indigenous people as they head to the polls.
The sovereign No movement, which has been headed by First Nations people, has rejected the Voice in favour of other, more radical policies. Recently, high-profile figures from the sovereign No movement have reconsidered their position and settled on a Yes vote. Tarneen Onus Browne and Meriki Onus, are two people who have done so. While they highlighted the imperfections with voting Yes, they also noted that the consequences of a No vote would be more harmful.
Honi stands behind a progressive Yes. The campaign does not end with the outcome of the referendum, but instead extends beyond, into truth-telling and treaty-making. It is incumbent upon activists to continue fighting against child removals, over-policing, and disproportionate incarceration in Indigenous communities. The Voice will help pave the way for these changes to occur, and afford First Nations people necessary and unprecedented representation in co-designing critical legislation and policy.
The reality of a referendum is that it creates a binary. The people of this country have a choice — a choice to support First Nations people in their fight for self-determination or vote alongside those who seek to maintain a system which has divided Australia since the white settlers arrived in 1788. Vote Yes to be on the right side of history.