Australia is about to vote on whether Aboriginal peoples can vote in Parliament
So far, indigenous peoples have not been mentioned in the constitution. After hundreds of years of discrimination, this is about to change. The Senate has cleared the way.
A dark chapter in Australian history must be corrected: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Photo: A.P
At the end of May, the Australian House of Representatives had already voted overwhelmingly in favor of a much-discussed referendum on the slogan “Voice for Parliament”. It is questionable whether, in the future, the organization of Indigenous Australians will advise the government on issues affecting Indigenous peoples. Members should be nominated by Aboriginal authorities, not the government.
Australia’s Senate on Monday gave the go-ahead for a referendum, which must now be held within six months. Observers expect October as a possible date.
Applause in the Senate
After the vote, there was applause in the Senate. Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said the survey was about finally recognizing the 65,000-year history of Aboriginal people in the Constitution. “Indigenous Australians have been worse off than non-indigenous Australians for a long time,” he said. “It’s a broken system.”
Linda Burney, Minister for Australian Aborigines.
Photo: Stevcen Saphore (AAP Image via AP/Keystone)
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been holding the referendum since winning the May 2022 election, said: “I say to my fellow Australians: Parliaments make laws, but people make history. This is your time, your chance to be a part of history.”
Of the approximately 26 million Australians, nearly a million are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander – the islands’ indigenous peoples are called by the same name. The country is deeply divided over the referendum issue. A constitutional change requires a “double” majority: more than just a national no vote – a majority of six states and territories must also be in favour, meaning at least four.
(Members of the Putzulla people at the official ceremony to rename Fraser Island to Kekari on June 7, 2023)
Photo: Keystone
The government in Canberra is currently trying to reach out to and reconcile Indigenous peoples at various levels. Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island off the coast of Queensland, was officially renamed two weeks ago. He now reverts to his original name Kekari (pronounced Gary). The word means heaven in the language of the Putzulla people.
However, a large proportion of the white majority have settled in the country for tens of thousands of years, and continue to exclude indigenous peoples. Tribal people were not mentioned in the country’s constitution passed in 1901. They were granted civil rights only in 1967.
After the arrival of the first fleet from Britain in 1788 and the colonization that followed, Aboriginal children were torn from their parents for decades. The “stolen generation” had to grow up in homes or with white families.
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