SUMMIT 2023, bringing together Catholics from across the Brisbane Archdiocese, has heard a compelling case for voting ‘yes’ at the upcoming referendum to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution by establishing an Indigenous Voice to parliament.
“This is a simple recognition of the fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the first peoples of this country that we are the oldest continuous culture on earth,” Campaign Director, Yes23, Dean Parkin told an assembly of parishioners, educators, parents, support staff, catechists, lay leaders, religious and clergy from across south east Queensland.
Mr Parkin, a Quandamooka man and a Catholic from North Stradbroke Island, has the support of Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge who has championed Indigenous leaders demanding a constitutional voice. Archbishop Coleridge’s endorsement is founded on Scripture and a history of dispossession of First Nation peoples.
Mr Parkin said securing a Voice to parliament would be a ‘modest statement of recognition in the Australian constitution that would connect every single Australian to the country’s 65,000 year-old history.
He said voting ‘yes’ for an indigenous Voice was not a case of “the 97 per cent of the non-Indigenous population doing something nice for the three per cent ([of Indigenous Australians].”
“We’re saying something about who we are as a nation, and we’re deepening and strengthening that sense of what it means to be an Australian,” Mr Parkin said.
“We get to do something a bit practical too. We get to give our people a real voice established under the Constitution.
Mr Parkin said the Voice would allow Indigenous people to get a “fair go” and take positive, practical steps to close the gap in areas of health, education and life expectancy.
Many of the Closing the Gap targets are not being met.
“We know that when you give Indigenous peoples a say on these things you get a better outcome – you actually start to seeing progress,” Mr Parkin said.
“We believe the nation will rise to the occasion… and say ‘it’s time we said ‘yes’.”
Mr Parkin spoke during a panel discussion on how the Brisbane Archdiocese can better engage with First Nations peoples.
It is one of seven apostolic priorities outlined by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge in “With Lamps Ablaze” – a document he wrote for Summit 2023.
“If sexual abuse is a running sore at the heart of the Church, the injustice done to First Nations peoples in this country is a running sore at the heart of the nation,” Archbishop Coleridge wrote.
“The Church has been involved with the Indigenous peoples in various ways since European settlement.
“But however well intentioned these efforts were, many of them have been counter-productive, based as they were upon an unconscious racism and a serious failure to read Indigenous cultures and listen to Indigenous people.”
Human rights lawyer and academic, Fr Frank Brennan also spoke at Summit 2023 in support of a ‘yes’ vote.
“We need to listen to the voices of Indigenous Australians,” the Jesuit priest said.
He said the referendum on the Voice, expected to be held in six months, would be won or lost on the votes of Australians who are currently undecided on an Indigenous Voice to parliament.
“Some of those who are undecided want more information. They want to be assured this can work. They want to be assured it will make a difference. They want to be assured it won’t mess up the system of government,” Fr Brennan said.
“That’s why we have to act conscientiously and why we have to not only inform ourselves, but inform our fellow citizens, our fellow church goers – over the family meal, the community barbeque and in the workplace.
“Let’s start that respectful discussion, so that we can hopefully get the country to [vote] ‘yes’.”
