31 May 2021
It’s been four years since the Uluru Statement from the Heart was issued to Australians - a landmark agreement of Indigenous delegates calling for a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
The Statement last week was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize, with the jury saying it brought "together Australia's First Nations Peoples around a clear and comprehensive agenda for healing and peace within our nation".
The ongoing push for First Nations recognition in the Constitution continues. Yet, despite the support of the majority of Australians, the Federal Government has chosen not to act on its recommendations.
“The Uluru Statement was issued as an invitation to the Australian people to walk with us First Nations people, and to compel the politicians we elect to embrace change and not be afraid of change,’’ said Pat Anderson AO, an Alyawarre woman from the Northern Territory and one of the key drivers of the Statement.
“As Australians we walked together once before, in 1967, and it was the highest ‘yes’ vote in Australian constitutional history. We are going to have another run at it.’’
“As long as First Nations peoples remain unrecognised, then Australia is missing its most vital heart,” said Indigenous leader Noel Pearson. “The Uluru Statement was the answer to the Commonwealth’s desire to recognise First Nations in the Constitution. The evidence four years later is overwhelmingly that Australians will support giving us a voice. It’s time.”
To quote the Statement: “Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.
“These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.
“We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.’’
This week is National Reconciliation Week (May 27 to June 3). Click
here to view or listen to the Statement and sign up as a supporter of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Click
here for more on National Reconciliation Week.