Australia’s Indigenous leaders have called for a week of silence and reflection after a referendum to recognise the country’s First Peoples was rejected.
The referendum sought to tackle disadvantages faced by Australia’s Indigenous people by enshrining a new advocacy committee in the constitution.
Citizens were required to vote either “Yes” or “No” to whether they agreed to amend the country’s constitution to recognise Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people with an indigenous advisory body called “Voice to Parliament”.
A national majority and majorities in at least four states were needed for the referendum to pass.
But over 60 per cent of Australians voted “No” in the landmark referendum with all six states rejecting the proposal.
“This is a bitter irony. That people who have only been on this continent for 235 years would refuse to recognise those whose home this land has been for 60,000 and more years is beyond reason,” the Indigenous leaders said in a statement.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people make up about 4 per cent of Australia’s 26 million population and have inhabited the country for about 60,000 years, but they are not mentioned in the constitution.
They are also the country’s most disadvantaged people, who die eight years younger on average than the wider population and suffer from diseases that have been eradicated from many wealthy countries.
But unlike countries like Canada and New Zealand, Australia has not reached a treaty with its First Peoples.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese, whose centre-left Labor Party staked significant political capital on the referendum, said “sharing this continent with the oldest continuous culture” was a “source of pride” for Australians.
But the conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton said “Australia did not need to have” the referendum and that it only ended up dividing the nation.
Observers have pointed out the lack of bipartisan support may have been reasons for the loss as no referendum has passed in Australia without bipartisan backing.
Mr Albanese looked visibly distressed on Saturday as he addressed the nation on Saturday, calling for “a spirit of unity and healing.”
“Much will be asked of the role of racism and prejudice against Indigenous people in this result. The only thing we ask is that each and every Australian who voted in this election reflect hard on this question,” the Indigenous leaders said in the statement.
