Country artist Benn Gunn is releasing his new single, ‘Let Their Voice Be Heard’, and urging Australians to vote yes in the upcoming referendum.
“It’s long overdue that we are proud of our indigenous Australians. They’re the longest surviving culture on earth which makes them the greatest survivors in human history.”
Indigenous Australians developed their own society, culture, and strategies that helped them survive and thrive in some of the most hostile environments on earth for over 60,000 years.
But that survival was threatened during colonization. From the late 1700s right up to the 1920s, State Governments in Australia sanctioned the hunting down and killing of Indigenous Australian men, women and children.
If you Google “aboriginal massacres” you’ll find over 270 cases where Indigenous Australians were murdered in large groups, over 140 years of colonization. And those are just the documented cases. Then we had systemic racism, the stolen generation, stolen wages … the list of injustices done to Indigenous Australians goes on and on.
Even their history has been stolen. We know from the early explorers there were yam fields that stretched to the horizon with soil so deeply cultivated you could put your arm in it up to the elbow. There were yam pits dug so deep a man could stand in them and there was real danger a horse might fall into them.
Calling Indigenous Australians hunters and gathers doesn’t even begin to describe the huge diversity of different cultures that were here before colonization, all the way from Islanders who grew their own food, to the desert people who were mostly nomadic.
In 2017, 250 Aboriginal and Islander delegates from all over Australia gathered at Uluru and gifted us with the Uluru Statement, From The Heart, a document that outlines a process to bring all Australians together, and bring pride and self determination to Indigenous Australians.
The first part of that statement is a voice to Parliament … a body of Indigenous Australians elected by their local communities who can consult with the executive of the Australian Government and give them feedback on legislation that affects Indigenous Australians. It doesn’t give them any special powers, just the right to give feedback.
Just a little feedback has the potential to save Australians hundreds of millions of dollars.
Most Indigenous Australians today have family stories of their ancestors being killed or taken away by the Government. Many are still alive today who experienced or witnessed it. Understandably, most have some distrust towards Governments at all levels.
Federal Government spending on Indigenous Australians, including health and other essential services, is currently approximately $4.5 billion dollars a year. That distrust means government programs with excellent intentions can struggle to find wide acceptance among Indigenous People.
With Indigenous Elders giving feedback on programs and policies, their acceptance and their implementation is likely to improve substantially. Even if outcomes on Indigenous spending improved by just 10%, that’s a saving of $450 million dollars a year for our Federal Government.
The second verse of Benn’s song, ‘Let Their Voice Be Heard’, powers into an up-tempo, celebratory mood. He sings “With our generations reconciled the day can finally come, where our whole nation stands with pride, and we all walk as one.”
With the referendum we have an historic chance to recognize Indigenous Australians in our constitution and give them that voice of representatives they elect from their own communities.
“It’s time to come together and make a brand new start.” – Benn Gunn