The “yes” vote in Australia

Thank you Whitewave; I couldn't find any factual info.

Of course it’s not racial. It is a divisive thing and the First Nations people in the NT and WA who live as they have always lived don’t like it because it will be of no help for them at all. I find the comment about racism offensive and uninformed.

You are being too defensive. All I said was that i hope it isn’t a racial thing

However, as I understand 20% of the indigenous folk want nothing to do with the incomers and that is they’re prerogative, however, 80% appear to want to be included in decision making taking place in their country, which seems a very reasonable demand to me..

nanna8

No one I know is voting Yes. The pure blood First Nations people will vote no because it is not their people who will benefit, sadly. The loud self styled Aborigines are not representative of those who live in the traditional way but they ar3 the ones who will make the decisions. As per usual.

My cousin in Brisbane has exactly this standpoint, the Aboriginal rights system is exploited on a massive scale, by those with as little a 1/8th heritage.

Indigenous folks must integrate with colonising cultures else be refused a vote in the land of their own origins. But no, that’s not racist.

Unsurprisingly, same people with that sick mentality tend to be anti-immigration despite defending colonialsim and its damage to indigenous peoples smh.

Whatever the indigenous people of Australia chose, my opinion of those that oppose them any voice or rights whatsoever will remain way down in the gutter.

Don’t talk uninformed garbage. No one here is anti immigration because we are ALL immigrants. First generation migrants are close to 30 % of the population these days - vast majority now no longer of British descent. It is a lot harder for a Brit to get here than almost any others now, reverse of what it was.

The exploitation of aboriginal rights - assuming you mean government grant of rights and not native title, is presumably in the government hands and therefore under government control. If there is massive exploitation by what appear to be a small majority then what is the government doing about it?

I feel very uncomfortable reading about 1/8th aborigine. How on earth do you know? And if a person identifies as aborigine isn’t that enough? It sounds so much like apartheid South Africa.

Representation and being given a voice must surely extend democracy? Haven taken their lands by force and trashed their life I would have thought the least the colonisers could do would be to give them a voice.

maddyone

Please let’s not descend into the idea that colonisers are the problem. Those who have moved to Australia have built the country into what it is now, which is successful and rich.
I’m wondering why the indigenous population are apparently, according to what is written here because I have no other knowledge, living in what sounds like squalor and not working? Is this actually the case? I don’t know but I think we should not think those who have made the country into what it now is, are somehow in the wrong. I know the indigenous population were greatly disadvantaged two hundred or so years ago, but I don’t think they are today.
I admit to having a limited knowledge of Australia.

Not all of the indigenous population are like that, so many are integrated, married to those of other origins, contribute to society in so many ways. Just like some in the whole of the population, there will always be those who don't want to work, drink, take drugs etc.

There's a long way to go still but I'm not sure that much of this has been reported properly.

colonisers it's a while since the British formed penal colonies there.
There are so many different nationalities living in Australia from every corner of the world.

nanna8

Don’t talk uninformed garbage. No one here is anti immigration because we are ALL immigrants. First generation migrants are close to 30 % of the population these days - vast majority now no longer of British descent. It is a lot harder for a Brit to get here than almost any others now, reverse of what it was.

😁

Oh good, I hoped you might contribute, nanna8

DD has been very interested in this and I should have taken more notice. Not all indigenous Australians are in agreement over this as far as I can gather.

I feel very uncomfortable reading about 1/8th aborigine
Why?
Well, just as we can - get our DNA done ?

Or if a great-grandparent is a Indigenous Australian?
Like some of DGC's school friends?

It sounds so much like apartheid South Africa
Nothing like it

You are making it sound as if there is no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander representation allowed in Parliament, Whitewave and that integration and representation is forbidden.

peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/your-questions-on-notice/questions/how-many-aboriginal-or-torres-straits-islander-mps-or-senators-are-there-and-what-are-their-names/

Not all Indigenous People agree with this, some are vociferously opposed to it, including some prominent leaders like Warren Mundine and Jacinta Price.
Although Noel Pearson is in favour of it.

www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indigenous-people-opposing-australias-voice-referendum-2023-05-11/

Thank you very much for your contributions nanna8 and Callistemon.
I dislike the tone of some of the comments on here, and I especially dislike the word colonisers. It sounds derogatory in my opinion.
Anyway to be honest, if we live in Britain, or anywhere that’s not Australia, it’s not got a jot to do with us. In the same way as laws enforcing the wearing of the abaya in Soudi has nothing to do with us, or the death penalty in America has nothing to do with us. I agree with neither of these examples but it’s nothing to do with me. Nor is what the Australian Parliament are doing got anything to do with me, but at least it’s not a suggestion to introduce the death penalty or a suggestion to behave misogynistically legally.

There is a lot wrong in our own country too.

It's a referendum, it's not being forced on any sector without them expressing an opinion.

I usually don't post ,but I would like as an Australian to have a voice . We already have indigenous members in every state of Australia. My vote will be No. Please read Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Australian Northern Territory Senator . She is of aboriginal descent, and is urging Australians to vote No. She says this is all about virtue signaling and won"t help aboriginal people at all. She has said that colonization has been good for her people. She cited they have food ,running water, housing .This is all funded by the Australian tax payer at 4.1 billion dollars this financial year. She also says we have the best democratic system in the world, and our labour government is going to make our country more divisive. Jacinta has had abuse, and death threats thrown her way. Yet the labour government can tell us to vote yes, without any repercussions. The houses that were given to the aboriginals are trashed, money spent on alcohol. What more can be done. as one poster said ,they are happy to live that way

There are so many different nationalities living in Australia from every corner of the world.

Yup. Colonisers

nanna8

Don’t talk uninformed garbage. No one here is anti immigration because we are ALL immigrants. First generation migrants are close to 30 % of the population these days - vast majority now no longer of British descent. It is a lot harder for a Brit to get here than almost any others now, reverse of what it was.

Cry me a river

bluebird51

I usually don't post ,but I would like as an Australian to have a voice . We already have indigenous members in every state of Australia. My vote will be No. Please read Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Australian Northern Territory Senator . She is of aboriginal descent, and is urging Australians to vote No. She says this is all about virtue signaling and won"t help aboriginal people at all. She has said that colonization has been good for her people. She cited they have food ,running water, housing .This is all funded by the Australian tax payer at 4.1 billion dollars this financial year. She also says we have the best democratic system in the world, and our labour government is going to make our country more divisive. Jacinta has had abuse, and death threats thrown her way. Yet the labour government can tell us to vote yes, without any repercussions. The houses that were given to the aboriginals are trashed, money spent on alcohol. What more can be done. as one poster said ,they are happy to live that way

I was waiting for the “one indigenous person I know said colonisers did us a favour by civilising us” speil. It never fails smdh

Not one single comment here with an adequate defense of refusing the only real natives’ a voice in a country forced upon their ancestors by violence. They are owed that voice. Period.

If you take away a persons culture - in this case totemism - you take away everything. That is why the indigenous people have had such difficulty since the colonisers arrived.

And colonisers is appropriate and always will be. The past will not be whitewashed away just because it doesn’t always paint the “glorious empire” as some savior and civiliser. That fact is and remains that indigenous people are generationally far worse off post colonialism, by design. Can’t wash away the ugliness of that fact by shying away from terms that truthfully describe what happened. Whatever the majority of the indigenous want, they should have in this case. Waving around a few vocal minority opinions isn’t going wash away the stink of denying them more representation. It’s ugly as the history has been.

lyleLyle

bluebird51

I usually don't post ,but I would like as an Australian to have a voice . We already have indigenous members in every state of Australia. My vote will be No. Please read Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Australian Northern Territory Senator . She is of aboriginal descent, and is urging Australians to vote No. She says this is all about virtue signaling and won"t help aboriginal people at all. She has said that colonization has been good for her people. She cited they have food ,running water, housing .This is all funded by the Australian tax payer at 4.1 billion dollars this financial year. She also says we have the best democratic system in the world, and our labour government is going to make our country more divisive. Jacinta has had abuse, and death threats thrown her way. Yet the labour government can tell us to vote yes, without any repercussions. The houses that were given to the aboriginals are trashed, money spent on alcohol. What more can be done. as one poster said ,they are happy to live that way

I was waiting for the “one indigenous person I know said colonisers did us a favour by civilising us” speil. It never fails smdh

Not one single comment here with an adequate defense of refusing the only real natives’ a voice in a country forced upon their ancestors by violence. They are owed that voice. Period.

Jacinta Price are not just "one indigenous person" that the poster knows nor is Warren Mundine.

Jacinta Price is a Senator and Warren Mundine is a businessman, political strategist and advocate for an Aboriginal voice.
They do not not believe that this is the way forward.

Interesting that Noel Pearson who has always been a campaigner for Aboriginal rights is for the referendum.

lyleLyle

nanna8

Don’t talk uninformed garbage. No one here is anti immigration because we are ALL immigrants. First generation migrants are close to 30 % of the population these days - vast majority now no longer of British descent. It is a lot harder for a Brit to get here than almost any others now, reverse of what it was.

Cry me a river

Are you Indigenous American lyleLyle?

So all immigrants to other countries are colonists now

I am not Australian, have no connections with Australia and have never been there.

However, I have read quite a lot about the plight of the aboriginal population, and vividly remember a documentary by John Pilger which I found quite shocking and very sad.

The aboriginal population has been appallingly treated since the arrival of Europeans, and their culture has not been valued or respected. They have become strangers in their own country and, in many cases, dispossessed of what was once theirs.

I realise that now more progressive voices are now being heard and many changes have been made and hopefully this vote will bring even more change. But as for "integration", why were the natural inhabitants of a country meant to "integrate" with what was, in effect, a hostile invasion and occupation?

No-one has to integrate if they do not wish to Eloethan and many Aboriginal people still live their lives as they always have on their land. All children go to school, however. We can learn much from their ancient knowledge and culture, knowledge that has been lost in the rush to modern 'civilisation'.

However, many have embraced a more modern way of life, going to college and university, working, entering politics, becoming part of the extensive and diverse mix of peoples that make up Australia today,

Colonization is a fact of life it’s not going to be reversed in Australia, the indigenous population is in exactly the same position as the North and South American indigenous populations and have learned to live alongside the majority, some have integrated, others continue with their traditions on the margins.

It’s never going to be fair because the majority will always make the rules, this vote is not going change anything quickly