Leading Yes campaigner Noel Pearson has said Indigenous victimhood will end once more power is granted to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
“Our victimhood ends with our own power. Have the same expectations of us as you would your own,” he told the National Press Club in a speech on Sept. 27.
“We have many problems. But we Australians have the gumption and we can summon the national resolve to get on top of them.”
He asked Australians to hold Indigenous people accountable if The Voice is successful and is entrenched into the Constitution.
“We can close the gap when we are empowered to take responsibility for our destiny. Blame us when you give us a voice. Hold us accountable too when we do this,” he said.
“We want our right to take responsibility. Allow us to empower our people to take charge of our children, our families, and our people’s destiny.”
Mr. Pearson said the love of the country joined everyone together as Australians and was a driving force behind constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
“It is our mutual love of country that unites us,” he said.
“We don’t need mutual affection to succeed in this referendum. We need to recognise our mutually shared love for the land. Our children and grandchildren will be more likely to share affection between them than us.”
Moving on From Colonial Past
Mr. Pearson helped draft the early versions of the Uluru Statement of the Heart, the main document pushing for constitutional change in the form of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.He called on the Indigenous community to acknowledge past atrocities while learning to move forward without being shackled down by history.
“Indigenous people also need to forgive Australia as a nation. Many Aboriginals feel angry about past wrongdoings but these events cannot be undone,” Mr. Mundine said.
“We have a choice to continue to feel aggrieved or to draw a line in history and not be captive to that past. Always remember, never forget the history. Learn from it but move forward.”
However, Mr. Pearson said The Voice was the best chance for the Indigenous community to move forward from its colonial past.
“If affirmed, this referendum will seize our first best chance and last best hope for a lasting settlement,” he said. “We do this for our future unborn.”
Power of Listening
Mr. Pearson said listening did not guarantee success, but it was a precondition.“My work has taught me the power of listening. Over decades of community work ... I have observed both the fundamental power of listening and the devastating consequences of wilful deafness,” he said.
For example, the challenges that the Indigenous communities have with rheumatic heart disease could be addressed if Australia voted Yes, Mr. Pearson noted.
“It is a disease of the unlistened to. It is the disease of a people who have spoken, but have not been heard,” he said.
“No gets us nowhere when it comes to confronting rheumatic heart disease. Yes makes it possible.”
The disease disproportionately affects Indigenous Australians, accounting for 78 percent of diagnoses among all Australians, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
“Rheumatic heart disease inflicts lifelong damage to the valves around a child’s heart, causing early death,” Mr. Pearson said.
Disappointing Message: Price
In response to Mr. Pearson’s speech, Senator Jacinta Price, a leading No campaigner, said the Yes proposition would spread division in the country.“It’s disappointing that the message that I got from his speech today was about an ‘us and them’ approach,” she told Sky News Australia.
“Which is something that I know that Australians are not happy to get behind. It’s certainly not what I’ve been looking for.”
