The Voice to Parliament for Indigenous Australians will go to a referendum in a bid to amend the constitution. There are opposing camps pushing for either a yes or no vote to make this possible. Changing the constitution is a tough ask and few changes have got through the process successfully. Australia is an outlier in its official non-recognition of its First Nation’s peoples. This policy established by its colonial founders has damaged the lives and self-esteem of countless generations of Indigenous Australians. The Voice is an opportunity to begin the process of recognition and treaty, which will honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians for the first time in our history.
First Nations Australians Deserving Of A Voice & Recognition
White people have treated Black people here and around the world badly. Indigenous Australians did not get the vote until 1962, which meant they were not recognised as citizens of the nation for hundreds of years of European rule. It took until 1965 for First Nation Queenslanders to get the vote in that state. I would posit that Queensland remains the most racist state in the country. Terra nullas was the concept behind this non-recognition, with the British invaders deciding that Australia was not inhabited by any people civilised enough to be in possession of the land. This is important when you consider the controversy over Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu.
Dark Emu Gave Voice To Doubts About Terra Nullas
In this book, the author Bruce Pascoe, used the written records of first explorers to question the assumptions made by our colonial founders and subsequent academics in regard to land use by Aboriginal Australians. This information seemingly contradicted the scientific basis for terra nullas. Definitions of ‘agriculture’, according to white, Western academia came into sharp focus. Nomadic hunters and gatherers was the classification bestowed upon Indigenous Australians and this condemned them as fair game for a conquering European power, apparently. We decide what the rules are and on this basis, you do not count – this was the outcome according to the invading power and their supportive academic minions. Science remember is a tool in the hands of whomever holds authority.
There is no ultimate objective scientific truth there are only interpretations based upon conclusions drawn from evidence.
Australia The Racist Nation
Australia is a racist nation. Our history has taught generations of Australians that Aborigines were backward savages with little culture worth worrying about. I was taught at school and elsewhere that they were dying out and that assimilation was the best they could hope for. Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their parents and families to be educated as servants for white families. These people would become known as the Stolen Generation. The Church and their charities were heavily involved in processes like this. My own mother did volunteer work at the Sister Kate’s orphanage in Perth. Child abuse, as we now know, is endemic through these religious groups and Indigenous Australians suffered accordingly. Blackbirding in Queensland was the enslavement of Islanders and Indigenous Australians for profit. White Australia does not spend much time thinking about what went on and what still goes on with regard to Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. Out of sight is out of mind for most Aussies. On racist networks, like Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News Australia and Fox News, the coverage on issues like juvenile crime in Indigenous communities focuses on sensationalist headlines like “out of control youth crime waves”. Peter Dutton wants to bring in the army to sort out the problem in Alice Springs. This is the extent of the concerns of white Australia when it is brought to their attention.
White Trash Australia
‘White trash’ is a particularly American expression but has some relevance here in Australia as well. The original defining characteristic of white trash was the landless poverty of its members. This no longer bears any currency here in Oz, as many of these folk have enough money and may own their own home. It is education or the lack of it that defines white trash in the current clime. If you have grown up solely focused on making money and never bothered with an education beyond year 10 – thinking about diversity is not something you have been trained in. Respecting people from different cultural backgrounds does not come naturally for many, especially if your parents and their parents grew up in a racist society. Racism survives via what happens in the home and in families.
Science debunks racism and has done for more than a century but pockets of it survive via the kitchen table and living rooms of Australian households.
Racist Ideas About Free Rides For First Nations People
The idea that Indigenous Australians get an easy ride is a popular idea that thrives in the racist metaverse. It is like those ideas about Jews running the world through their financial power and influence. Nutty and dangerous beliefs and ideas promulgated to poorly educated white Australians. These racists simultaneously despise dark skinned Indigenous Aussies and go out of their way to cast aspersions upon them whilst believing they get more opportunities due to their Aboriginality. They have no idea what it is like to be looked upon with instinctive suspicion by members of white Australia in their own home and in their own land. To be irrationally feared for no logical reason is a terrible affliction visited upon them by racists of all ages and genders. Racist Australia is prone to fear powerful First Nation’s people like Adam Goodes, who was anointed Australian of the Year and was a champion AFL footballer. White trash and the sons and daughters of white trash don’t like the darkies to rise above their place.
Stan Grant has borne the brunt of their vitriol for a long time and has stepped away of late from the full glare of racist Australia in his role in the media.
The Voice & Awakening Racist Australia
The Voice referendum is awakening the slumbering racist reality of Australia. White Australians, unlike their American counterparts, are not by nature loud mouthed braggards about their racist views. More taciturn by inclination and more likely to make racist jokes on the golf course with their mates about things like Cathy Freeman’s perceived ugliness in their view. White skinned ideas of beauty are entrenched in European conceptions of what is appealing. Again, this is an example of an Indigenous Australian who rose to prominence beyond her race in the opinion of the underbelly of white Australia. Olympic champion and a great Australian who became an international ambassador. White trash don’t like the savages of terra nullas to walk upon the world stage whilst they toil away in obscurity. It makes them bitter and twisted.
Progressive Voices Championing Indigenous Australia
What is happening in Australia is concerted progress among the tertiary educated city dwelling inhabitants of modern Australia in regard to raising the public profile of Indigenous Australia. Things like seeing more Aboriginal faces in the media, predominantly on the ABC of course, and tributes to country acknowledging the Original inhabitants of the land are all reminders to white Australia of our responsibilities. There is an effort being made by both First Nations people and responsible white Australia to encourage and promote greater awareness of our Indigenous roots and reality.
The Voice on the back of the Uluru Statement from the Heart is and can be a big part of this. These Indigenous advocates have led the way with courage and we can do our part by backing the YES vote in the referendum.
In many ways, the referendum is a vote for a better future for all Australians or it will be a turning of our back, based on fear and confusion, upon overdue recognition of First Nations Australians. Australia will either walk proudly into a better future or become a moral pariah on the international stage. PM Anthony Albanese has had the guts to put this on the agenda for all Australians. He should be congratulated for taking the risk and not criticised for opening this can of worms. Albo did not put those worms there, as they have been there since the inception of European Australia. Non-recognition has been a stain on our collective conscience for 245 years. It is time to remedy the situation by voting YES in the referendum for the Voice to Parliament for Indigenous Australians. Come on Australia – do the right thing!
By the way – the Jews do not rule the financial world and Indigenous Australians do not get a free ride in this country. In fact, for generations more First Nations people have been treated with contempt, cruel neglect, and deprived of opportunities white Australians have grown rich upon. The truth about stuff you hear coming out of the mouth by individuals like Tony Abbott claiming that $30 billion was spent annually by the National Indigenous Australians Agency is:
“This week, we debunk a claim made by former prime minister Tony Abbott that the National Indigenous Australians Agency, a regular target for misinformation about the Voice to Parliament, disburses $30 billion in funding each year. We also tackle several false claims contained in an unauthorised No pamphlet being shared online, and revisit a persistent myth that the Voice will constitute a “third chamber” of parliament. No, the NIAA doesn’t spend $30b a year on Indigenous programs.
The spokesman added that the NIAA administers programs through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS), and had “provided grant funding from the IAS of $1.6 billion in the 2022-23 financial year”.”
This is the kind of stuff being peddled by a former Prime Minister of Australia – lies and misinformation designed to appeal to the white trash base. Personally, I think that the sneering leer of Tony Abbott would better serve the nation if it was incarcerated for crimes against humanity for things like wilful denial of climate change. His government put back Australia’s efforts to combat global warming by decades. As properties burn in the coming years I hope that these men will be held accountable for their actions as leaders of the nation.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt & Financial Freedom
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