\n<\/p>\n
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia were not granted citizenship until 1963. And they were not counted<\/a> in the census until 1967.<\/p>\n To Brooke Prentis<\/a>, the former CEO of the Christian social justice organization Common Grace, these numbers aren\u2019t just dates and statistics. As a woman from the Wakka Wakka people of southwest Queensland, they\u2019re a part of what she calls her \u201cliving memories.\u201d<\/p>\n Australia\u2019s upcoming Voice referendum will be yet another milestone etched in Prentis\u2019s mind. On October 14, the country will vote<\/a> \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d to amendments in the Constitution that would recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (a broad term<\/a> for people hailing from 274 small islands between the state of Queensland and Papua New Guinea) as the First Peoples of Australia.<\/p>\n If the Voice referendum is passed, the Constitution will be amended to include<\/a> language that calls for the formation of a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. It will also state that this Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the executive government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Indigenous Australians; and that Parliament has the power to influence what the Voice looks like.<\/p>\n These constitutional changes are one of the calls to action in the Uluru Statement from the Heart<\/a>, which was crafted in 2017 after dialogues with Indigenous peoples across the country.<\/p>\n Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples comprise<\/a> 3.8 percent of the Australian population. Just over half (54%) identify<\/a> as Christian according to the 2016 census, but they face challenges within their own First Nations communities and also from the larger Australian Christian community.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a long time, I\u2019ve been the only Aboriginal theologian in the country,\u201d said Anne Pattel-Gray, a descendant of the Bidjara nation and head of the Victoria-based University of Divinity\u2019s School of Indigenous Studies. Many Indigenous believers \u201chave been excluded from theological education through mainstream or denominational seminaries,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Indigenous Christian communities are experiencing mixed reactions to the Voice, say the Aboriginal pastors and leaders CT interviewed. Many lamented the factious ways in which Christians have engaged on the topic and the spike in racism that First Nation peoples have experienced in the midst of the campaigns.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I have called for from Christians [particularly], and all peoples in these lands now called Australia during this time, is to listen<\/a> with love and compassion. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve seen missing from the campaigns, the debates, how people are talking to each other,\u201d said Prentis, who declined to reveal what her vote would be for.<\/p>\n Some Indigenous Christian leaders are unequivocal about voting \u201cyes\u201d<\/a> to the Voice referendum, especially in how it seeks to address historical injustice against their peoples.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be recognized in our Australian Constitution would be really significant as the First Peoples of this land,\u201d said Pattel-Gray.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be recognizing all of those omissions of history<\/a> where terra nullius <\/em>[Latin for \u201cnobody\u2019s land\u201d] was the basis on which colonization and invasion took place, where we didn\u2019t belong here. We weren\u2019t here.\u201d<\/p>\n Pattel-Gray also emphasized the importance of having permanent Indigenous representation in the government. \u201cFor over 200 centuries, Aboriginal people have been silenced, marginalized in this country, and our voices have not been heard,\u201d she said. Having a Voice in Parliament would help First Nations peoples \u201cinfluence and have a say about what kind of future and destiny we would like to create, where our children have an opportunity to prosper and to be nurtured,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Indigenous children\u2019s health and education are two of the foremost issues that Pattel-Gray hopes the government can address if the Voice is included in the Constitution.<\/p>\n The Indigenous child mortality rate was twice<\/a> that of nonindigenous children in 2018, and the average Indigenous student is around two-and-a-half years behind<\/a> the average nonindigenous one.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are called to be Christ\u2019s ambassadors. \u2026 We Christians need to remember that we\u2019ve been given a mandate to uphold, and how we do that now, with integrity, is yet to be seen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Raymond Minnecon, a descendant of the Kabi Kabi and Gurang Gurang nations of southeast Queensland, echoed Pattel-Gray\u2019s views, saying that his Christian faith is \u201cfundamental\u201d to how he will be voting this Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bible says, \u2018Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.\u2019 We\u2019re the peacemakers in this business. We\u2019re not the ones trying to antagonize,\u201d said the co-pastor of Scarred Tree Indigenous Ministries at St. John\u2019s Anglican church in Glebe, Sydney.<\/p>\n Minnecon also sees the Voice as a means of self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. \u201cTo us as Christians, we should be saying this is a fundamental, God-given right, not [only] a human right. He gave us this voice. He gave us our language, he gave us our culture, he gave us our land.\u201d<\/p>\n The Uluru Statement is \u201can invitation of transformational forgiveness offered to those who benefit directly from the dispossession of our country, culture and spirituality,\u201d said<\/a> Glenn Loughrey, a Melbourne-based Wiradjuri man and chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Council (NATSIAC) in a Q&A with Eternity News<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThose comprising the church are asked to accept this invitation and its accompanying offer of forgiveness from First Nations people as an opportunity<\/a> for redemption,\u201d Loughrey said.<\/p>\n But Indigenous pastor James Dargin of New Wine Life Church in Unanderra, Wollongong, is choosing to vote<\/a> \u201cno.\u201d One reason is because he holds a different view of land ownership.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have had decades of land rights, the 2008 National Apology, a national curriculum that elevates Indigenous issues, a dozen significant Indigenous dates<\/a> annually, and Welcomes to Country everywhere we go. For many Indigenous Australians like me (James), these initiatives are already more than enough. Some even find it tiring or patronizing,\u201d Dargin wrote<\/a> in Australian Christian news outlet The Daily Declaration <\/em>with co-author Kurt Wahlburg.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the \u2018yes\u2019 Voice get[s] in, we lose our sovereignty and [the] UN will control the land of Australia,\u201d Dargin told CT. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are still recognized as original owners of the land, but if they are included in the Constitution, it will mean they have ceded their sovereignty and that all Australians, including Indigenous peoples, will lose their properties and houses under Native title and will no longer be classed as owners or businesses, he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe our prime minister is using the Voice for distraction so he [can] focus on Australia becoming a Republic country,\u201d he also said.<\/p>\n Dargin\u2019s view represents one strand of thought in the \u201cno\u201d camp, which believes that if the Voice referendum passes, Indigenous sovereignty of their self-determination and control over their affairs would be lost.<\/p>\n A similar argument is held by the Blak Sovereign Movement<\/a>, a group of Indigenous elders, academics, activists, and community workers who believe that Indigenous peoples are the only sovereigns of the land and that the Voice is \u201ca vehicle of unwanted constitutional recognition\u201d that attempts to \u201crule over us and our lands\u201d.<\/p>\n Besides this, there are three other prevailing viewpoints that Indigenous peoples in the \u201cno\u201d camp ascribe to, explains Prentis. One view contends that the formulation of a treaty should come before incorporating an Indigenous voice in Parliament, like what occurred in Canada<\/a>. Another thinks that the Voice is powerless because it would only be an advisory body to Parliament and the government. Yet another regards the Voice as a means of division between Indigenous and nonindigenous peoples, which is what leading Indigenous \u201cno\u201d campaigner and Catholic businessman Nyunggai Warren Mundine is promoting<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFor real reconciliation, it\u2019s not enough that Australia as a nation says sorry, but Indigenous people also need to forgive Australia as a nation,\u201d wrote<\/a> Mundine, a member of the Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr, and Yuin peoples.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Aboriginals, we have a choice\u2014to continue to feel angry, or to draw a line in history and not be captive to the past.\u201d<\/p>\n In Mundine\u2019s view<\/a>, the Uluru Statement \u201cpresents a radical and divisive vision of Australia,\u201d and the Voice re-introduces racial segregation into the Constitution, casting Aboriginal people as \u201cone homogenized race\u201d even though they comprise many different nations, and is \u201cbuilt on a lie\u201d that Indigenous Australians do not possess a voice.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only person who can better your life is not the government, not the Voice. It\u2019s you,\u201d Mundine said<\/a>, regarding his hopes for Aboriginal people in a campaign video.<\/p>\n The Uluru Statement\u2019s ultimate goal is to establish a treaty, which refers to reparations that will likely be a fixed percentage of the nation\u2019s GDP paid to Indigenous peoples, Dargin and Mahlburg also wrote. However, receiving more money as a form of reparations may not improve circumstances, and developing better management of existing funds could be a better solution, they argued.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat if the Voice represents just a subset of Indigenous Australians, who have a special interest in keeping a spirit of resentment alive? \u2026 What if reconciliation efforts are undermined by an unwillingness to forgive?\u201d<\/p>\n Whichever way the Voice vote swings, Indigenous leaders told CT that they have observed and experienced more racism this year than in years past.<\/p>\nWhere history and future collide<\/h5>\n
A land of one\u2019s own<\/h5>\n
With outstretched hands<\/h5>\n