Varying opinions and perspectives on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament were heard at the fourth annual Day of Mourning event in Newcastle on Thursday.
The Australia Day event organised by Justice Aunties drew thousands to Newcastle Foreshore, where politicians and First Nations organisers discussed the upcoming referendum before attendees marched along Wharf Road.
Justice Aunties founder and Awabakal woman Tracey Hanshaw said she wanted to provide people with information to make their own decision, rather than advocate one way or another.
She spoke in favour of the Voice, saying First Nations people should be included in the Constitution while Wiradjuri woman Suzanne Ross spoke against it based on the draft wording.
Ms Hanshaw said the Voice to Parliament should be "enshrined" in the Constitution.
"This is not dividing the country but forging forward to heal," she said.
"This is your conscience vote. I am voting yes."
Ms Ross said she was yet to find someone who could explain how the Voice was going to contribute to "real issues" in communities, including disadvantage, violence, poverty and failed service delivery.
She said the draft wording asks "do you support an alteration to the Constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?" and does not include the word "enshrined".
Ms Ross held concerns that the Voice would be an advisory body and wouldn't have power to make decisions, with the government able to ignore any advice given.
"We are the most consulted race in history with no power," she said.
Local Labor and Green politicians also weighed in on the issue.
Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon said she was pleased to be part of a government that would put the question to the Australian people.
"That will ask: are we ready? Are we mature enough as a nation yet? To stop and think about changing our Constitution, our nation's birth certificate that today is utterly silent on the unique status of First Nations people in Australia," she said.
"It's a big job. I don't pretend otherwise and referendums in this country are notoriously unsuccessful.
"We have had eight successful referendums. Thankfully, one of those was the 1967 referendum where we first put questions about the unease of our relationship between colonial power and First Nations people.
"That referendum was spectacularly successful. I have to say, it gives me incredible hope."
Ms Claydon said the Voice would be followed by the other two elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart - Treaty and Truth.
"We've struggled for 234 years to make good on those asks from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia," she said.
"I want 2023 to be a year when the Australian people recognise we cannot continue this pattern of failure.
"We cannot fail First Nations people again.
"There will be different opinions and that's okay.
"But we can listen to each other with respect. We can certainly make sure we're informed about the proposition."
Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the City of Newcastle had enshrined the Guraki Aboriginal Advisory Committee into its processes for 20 years.
"It only makes us a stronger, more inclusive and better city to understand the true history and culture of the land that we all live, work and play on," she said. "This can only be a positive thing at a federal level."
State Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp said NSW Labor had committed to a treaty if elected in March, which would provide a legally-binding agreement that sets out the rights, status and history of Indigenous people.
Mr Crakanthorp said other states had created treaties with First Nations people, and that it would be a collaborative process with communities across NSW.
Newcastle Greens councillor John Mackenzie, who is also running for the seat of Newcastle in the state election, said a treaty was integral to healing from "invasion and ongoing dispossession of our First Nations people".
"A treaty is a formal agreement that can reset the relationship between government and First Nations people, but above all, resets that relationship in a way that formally acknowledges that sovereignty over this land has never been ceded," he said.
"It's about protecting Aboriginal rights and it's about making sure that Aboriginal and First Nations people are at the forefront of decisions going forward about how policies impact them."
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