Written by Agnes Wilson

On Saturday 14 October 2023 a big question, full of hope and feared consequences, was posed to all Australians. 

There was a referendum that asked if the Constitution, the founding document of the country, should be altered to recognise the first peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to parliament.

To me, it was a simple choice. Yes. 

These were people who had their land stolen under the legal fiction of terra nullius with the arrival of white settlement. They were people who could trace their history to the country back 65,000 years. Yet they were some of the most vulnerable people in the country.

Their mortality rates are higher than other Australians. Their incarceration rates are higher. Educational outcomes are lower. They have been systematically oppressed by our collective sin of racism for almost all of Australia’s colonial history. They have had their children taken from them, annihilating ties to country, language and heritage, as late as the 1970s. Some say the systemic oppression continues today.

Governments have from time to time tried much to turn the tide of the resulting intergenerational trauma and disadvantage, but not much has worked. The Voice was another, perhaps better, opportunity to influence laws that directly affected the First Peoples of Australia.

This wasn’t just another referendum for me and many others. It wasn’t another opportunity to have my say and be done with it.

This concept of the Voice to parliament came out of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The statement was formed from a series of dialogues held across the country, culminating in a National Constitutional Convention at Uluru in 2017.

The purpose was to reach an agreement on how to formally “recognise” Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Australian Constitution. 

And after years of consultation, First Nations peoples made a very generous offer to modern Australia. More than 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates from all four points of the southern sky gathered at Uluru to put their names to a document – the Uluru Statement from the Heart. 

The Uluru Statement from the Heart is an invitation to the Australian people to walk together to build a better future by establishing a First Nations Voice to parliament enshrined in the Constitution, and the establishment of a Makarrata Commission for the purpose of treaty-making and truth-telling.

This was an opportunity for reconciliation between First Nations people and modern Australia. This was also a way to show our repentance for our collective sin of racism towards a people who had their way of life irrevocably changed, some may even say damaged.

For the first time, I thought the country I spent most of my life in would be able to walk the talk of her apologies and well wishes and do something First Nations people wanted.

“We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country,” the Statement said. 

“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 was their hope. It was a test of the Australian character as much as a question posed. Will she finally rise above fear? Will we understand the harm we’ve caused, love our neighbours as ourselves, finally listen to their pain, and do something about it?

Love is more than lip service. Love is action and truth.

To my horror, the answer from most of Australia was a resounding no. 

The split wasn’t even close. About 60% voted against it. The decision was so decisive, that commentators knew within about two hours that the referendum for the Voice had failed.

First came worry – for all those people this result was going to affect. The 80% of First Nations people who were for the Voice. Then came shame.

I felt ashamed and sad.  Sadness and grief for the pain this will cause people who have already endured so much. The online gloating and blatant racism didn’t help.

Sin. Sin. Obvious and everywhere. We are all sodden in it.

Jesus summarised all the laws into two commandments:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31, NIV)

I felt like we Australians failed to do the second on 14 October 2023. Maybe even the first, by failing to see our First Nations people as ones also made in the image of God. As people deserving of love and respect. And one terrible day, we will all need to repent of our repeated collective sin.

Jesus really is our only salvation. We humans have made such a mess of things. For that, I am disappointed and repent at the same time.

Agnes Wilson is a Christian blogger, wife, and mother. She finished law school only to realise she would make a terrible lawyer and that she wanted to write for a living instead. Agnes has worked in communications for more than 20 years, for which she is thankful. God has been merciful. During her journey, he opened her eyes to the immense grace found in Jesus Christ. She’s been praising him through sunshine and storms ever since