Prominent Indigenous campaigners have criticised the Albanese government’s response to defeat in the referendum to entrench an Indigenous voice in the constitution before a week of silence to “grieve” the result.
Campaigners from the Uluru Dialogue have accused the government of a “copout” and “flippant” response to the referendum’s defeat.
The intervention follows a statement released on Saturday evening from unnamed Indigenous leaders asking for a week of silence for Australians to reflect on “the role of racism and prejudice against Indigenous people” in the no result.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags should fly at half-mast for the week of silence, they said, asking “others to do the same”.
The referendum to entrench an Indigenous voice to parliament and executive government was defeated, with a majority of Australians (about 60%) and all states rejecting the proposal.
The Uluru Dialogue, co-chaired by Prof Megan Davis and Pat Anderson, is the group behind the 2017 Uluru statement from the heart, which called for a constitutionally enshrined voice, truth-telling and treaty making.
On Saturday evening the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, dead-batted questions about whether the government remained committed to the Uluru statement in full.
“We had a referendum and it wasn’t successful. I respect the outcome of that referendum,” he said.
On Sunday morning the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, was asked about truth-telling and reiterated “we have committed to implementing the Uluru Statement in full”.
“That’s what we have taken to the Australian people and that’s been our articulated position for a long time,” he told the ABC’s Insiders.
“I think in terms of the specific steps forward and what we do now, I come back to a comment you made earlier, I think we need to let the dust settle here.”
Earlier, members of the Uluru Dialogue were scathing of the response from Albanese, Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney and treasurer Jim Chalmers.
After Albanese’s speech Allira Davis – Megan’s niece and chair of the Uluru youth dialogue – claimed “The PM is moving on tonight. He just wants to go to Washington and prepare for re-election”, referring to his upcoming state visit to the United States.
“And we are just a blip. He’s quoting Churchill FFS. A whole culture of 65,000 years and we are not a part of Australian democracy. And we will not be recognised,” Allira Davis continued.
“Our mobs are devastated. And the PM’s speech is cruel. Imagine saying tonight that you are proud of being Australian when First Nations people are in mourning after a relentless campaign of lies and racist abuse. How callous ‘we have accepted the result’. He’s already moved on.”
Sally Scales, a senior campaigner with the Uluru Dialogue, tweeted: “This was a devastating result that keeps our people in the status quo. It is bleak. The PM was insulting & pathetic. How dare he. A cop out. Albanese and the ALP will not accept the lies that we put up with. We have been rejected by the Australian people. Reconciliation is dead.”
Scales accused Burney of having “done nothing since the ALP came to office. As usual the ALP has continued Morrison-era policy.”
“And unfortunately Linda’s speech was glib and flippant. Racism drove this result. Lies drove this result,” Scales said.
The Uluru Dialogue’s website says it is “based at the Indigenous Law Centre, UNSW Sydney”.
Chalmers last night wrote on Twitter: “Our job now is not to dwell on this hurt or this disappointment, but to come together, and work together, to address it and heal it and Close the Gap.”
The UNSW Indigenous Law Centre responded, writing: “What privilege to ‘not dwell on this hurt’.”
“Our people do not have the luxury of Cabinet members. Our people have been rejected. The country can never come back from this. But neither do they care,” the @ILC_UNSW account said.
In the week of silence statement, Indigenous leaders described the loss as a “bitter irony”. “That people who have only been on this continent for 235 years would refuse to recognise those whose home this land has been for 60,000 and more years is beyond reason.”
“It was never in the gift of these newcomers to refuse recognition to the true owners of Australia.
“The referendum was a chance for newcomers to show a long-refused grace and gratitude and to acknowledge that the brutal dispossession of our people underwrote their every advantage in this country.”
The statement has been shared by the prominent yes campaigner, Thomas Mayo, Central Land Council, the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria co-chair Ngarra Murray, and Congress, an Aboriginal community controlled health service.
Yes23, the campaign organisation for the yes side, said it would honour the week’s silence and did not comment after campaign director Dean Parkin’s speech on Saturday evening.
The unnamed leaders thanked millions of Australians who voted yes, the prime minster Anthony Albanese, Greens, independents and particularly some “Liberal parliamentarians who bravely advocated for the voice”.
“Now is not the time to dissect the reasons for this tragic outcome,” they said. “This will be done in the weeks, years and decades to come. Now is the time for silence, to mourn and deeply consider the consequence of this outcome.”
“Much will be asked about the role of racism and prejudice against Indigenous people in this result.
“The only thing we ask is that each and every Australian who voted in this election reflect hard on this question.”
The leaders urged Indigenous Australians not to “shed tears”.
“This rejection was never for others to issue. The truth is that rejection was always ours to determine.
“The truth is that we offered this recognition and it has been refused. We now know where we stand in this our own country. Always was. Always will be.”
The leaders vowed that they will “not rest long” but rather “re-gather our strength and resolve, and when we determine a new direction for justice and our rights, let us once again unite”.
Not everyone approved of the week of silence approach.
The chief executive of campaign organisation GetUp, Larissa Baldwin-Roberts, a Widjabul Wia-bal woman, said she did not understand the silence “when hundreds of thousands of black kids have to go to school tomorrow”.
I don’t understand the week of silence when hundreds of thousands of black kids have to go to school tomorrow.
— Larissa Baldwin-Roberts (@Riss_Bundjalung) October 14, 2023
