Voice advocate hopes Surf Coast’s “yes” energy will spread

A LEADING activist for the Voice says a “yes” vote at the referendum can succeed if the enthusiasm on the Surf Coast can be replicated across the country.

Thomas Mayo, a Torres Strait Islander and author of Finding the Heart of the Nation: The Journey of the Uluru Statement from the Heart Continues was one of four featured guest speakers at the Surf Coast Voice to Parliament Referendum Forum, which drew a full house of 200 people to Grant Pavilion on April 27.

 

In an interview with this newspaper, Mr Mayo said said the forum – organised by Surf Coast Votes Yes and also streamed live online – was in some ways very similar to meetings he had attended over the past six years.

“When people have the facts before them, when people have an understanding of the history that leads to the proposal, of other statements and petitions that have been dismissed and ignored, of voices established that have done good work but have had problems amplified to have politics played with them and silence our voices, when people have a grasp of that as well, and when people hear the hope of this, that it’s a generous and modest proposal that partly shares our wonderful culture and heritage with all Australians, they tend to support it.

“But there was a great energy as well that I think was outstanding on the Surf Coast, because people want to really get out there and do the work, and so I think the people of the Surf Coast and everyone involved can be proud of themselves.”

 

He said he was feeling confident the “yes” vote would win “because I know it’s the Australian people that will decide this, not the politicians”.

“We’ve got, I think, five to six months ahead of us before the referendum, and with the energy in the room that we saw in the Surf Coast, if we could replicate around the country, then I think Australians will join us and support this.”

Other speakers at the forum included Wadawurrung Traditional Owner Corrina Eccles, Corangamite Labor federal member Libby Coker and Geelong MP Christine Couzens.

On the night, Ms Eccles and Ms Couzens both emphasised the importance of the referendum and the urgency behind the push to put a First Nations voice into the Constitution.

“I don’t want to wake up the next morning after the count and feel sick in the stomach because we have just rejected the first peoples of this country,” Ms Couzens said.

In response to a question from the crowd about whether parents in remote Aboriginal communities should take more responsibility because “you can’t blame everything on colonisation”, Mr Mayo said the issues experienced in those communities were not exclusive to Indigenous people.

“It’s a problem with traumas that are carried from generation to generation; this is scientifically proven now.

“People experience poverty, and helplessness and those types of things, which is where the problems come from.

“We are trying to take responsibility as Indigenous parents because we know the system is failing us as it is.”