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A key face of the movement has been independent senator Lidia Thorpe, who resigned from the Greens earlier this year to campaign freely on the Voice and act as a spokesperson for the Blak sovereign movement.
The priorities are the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and of the Bringing Them Home Report, as well as “our land rights, our calls for self-determination and our calls just for real, tangible impacts and progress for our people”.
“While we are opposed to the Voice referendum for various reasons, we do also understand that whether it’s a Yes or a No outcome, we have still got a big task ahead of us and we’re still going to be organising on October 15th towards our ultimate ends,” Stewart-Assheton told The Feed.
What’s the significance of the Bringing Them Home Report and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody?
Similarly, the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made more than 300 recommendations for federal, state, and territory governments.
In an interview with ABC’s RN Breakfast on 25 September, Lidia Thorpe said she also wants the government to focus on implementing the recommendations of both the royal commission and report – something she has called for consistently.
Lidia Thorpe resigned from the Greens in February. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
In a May press conference held after the Voice Referendum Bill passed the House of Representatives, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus was asked about Thorpe’s calls for the recommendations to be implemented.
“Our people are still dying at the hands of the system. The system is still racist,” she told the ABC.
Yes23, the official campaign in favour of the Voice, says the Voice will allow First Nations people to be directly listened to by parliament and the government, and mean they’re able to propose solutions for issues affecting their communities.
Voice, Treaty, Truth?
“We don’t have one voice,” Wayne Wharton, Kooma man and head of the Treaty Before Voice campaign, told The Feed.
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Wayne Wharton wants to see treaties for each First Nation. Source: AAP / Jono Searle
Wharton wants treaties or agreements for each of the Indigenous nations in Australia.
The mainstream No campaign, led by groups like Fair Australia and Recognise a Better Way, has said a Voice could lead to a Treaty. But this hasn’t been confirmed by the government.
He said the Treaty process was already starting in states and territories, including Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Support for a Treaty
On their website, the Greens say “we will be keeping the pressure on to advance Truth and Treaty following the vote”.
Speaking on NITV’s The Point, campaigner Tarneen Onus Williams – who has voted Yes after initially supporting a progressive No vote – said they thought Australia could work towards Treaty and a Voice at the same time.
“The reason for that being that we can have that stronger unity and that stronger bargaining position, and we’ll be able to actually have a bit more of a united resistance in our struggle against the colony,” Keiran Stewart-Assheton said.
What happens after we vote on 14 October?
“Stop deaths, stop children being removed and stop Country being blown up and destroyed.”
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