Chris Smith

The result of the referendum for me was a shock, this was not because the
‘no’ vote won, but because of the magnitude of the ‘no’ response. I did
anticipate more of a contest. There seems to be no one single idea about
why so many people said ‘no’, however a possible aspect I thought of is
this:- that those who were supportive of recognition to be recorded in
the constitution but were not for ‘the voice,’ may be saying that it is
acceptable to have indigenous people mentioned in history, after all that
fact is indisputable however enshrining the voice in the Constitution
would mean they are speaking in the present day. I remember hearing in
my student days that in power politics, conquering a people isn’t enough
for some victors, silencing them is part of the process.

For me it wasn’t a case of Indigenous people getting ‘no’ as a separate
entity with them over in the distance somewhere. I think it effects us all. I
find the indigenous culture a point of meditation upon our own culture and
a critique of the more dehumanising aspects of economic rationalism
such as the commodification of everything and the increasing
fragmentation of the society. Aboriginal people have a culture that values
connection above all else and that value is confronting to a materialistic
ethos. The kind of world that crushes Aboriginal culture is a pretty tough
world to live in. They in fact hold a treasure in an alternative way of
seeing things. And so it is this result of the Referendum, the
overwhelming ‘no’ that clarified the situation. Some people are saying
‘Let us retire hope, let us stop asking for acceptance, as the colonial world
can’t give it. Let us instead turn inwards and affirm ourselves and stop
begging and asking. Let us enter the field of human rights.’

Indigenous people know about living in the no, this ‘no’ has shadowed
them over decades and into centuries and they have survived in spite of it.
It is a wider ‘no’ and something also sensed and encountered by people
who have a vision other than the dominant one that drives the society. It is
our liberation that is tied up with theirs. The forty percent who said ‘Yes’
could be imagined to share something of a vision and this is also
significant. We need the indigenous people and what they have to offer.
Bring them forward and may they be heard loud and clear.
‘If you have come to help us you are wasting your time, but if you have
come because your liberation is tied up with ours then come let us work
together.’ Lilla Watson