First Nations people are digesting the no result after a bruising and often ugly campaign, with those who stood for and against the voice vowing to continue to fight on against the racism, injustice and inequities Indigenous people face.
Australia has overwhelmingly voted against enshrining an Indigenous voice to parliament in the constitution to advise policy and lawmakers on issues affecting First Nations people.
The ACT is the only jurisdiction that voted in favour of the voice.
Hannah McGlade, a lawyer and member of the UN permanent forum on Indigenous issues, said it was a difficult result for her.
“It’s very sad and it’s grieving,” she said. “The majority of Australian people could not see the sense in finally recognising Aboriginal people.
“This is a truth-telling moment for Australia and a wake up call that we need to really do so much better and have those courageous conversations about racism and Indigenous rights.”
McGlade said the result was a damning result for Australia’s international reputation but said it could be a moment of moving forward and continuing the fight to close the gap in incarceration rates, child removals, poverty and other social determinants.
“We’ll keep fighting for our people’s human rights and for dignity, for equality, and practical reforms. Our children deserve a life and a future,” the Noongar woman told Guardian Australia.
In Alice Springs, Doreen Carroll, a Western Arrernte elder, has long campaigned for improvements for her community as part of the Strong Grandmothers of Central Australia group.
She said the result was disappointing and thought misinformation had played a role in the referendum’s defeat.
“I would have loved to see it pass,” she said. “History is what people were looking at it and how we can make it better to go forward.
“People saying all these things like they’re gonna take your houses and your property that you paid for. That Aboriginal people are gonna take over. I think that is scare mongering.
“Everybody gotta get up tomorrow morning and stand up straight and say well look, now where do we start? And have those conversations.”
Reconciliation Australia said in a statement that the organisation was “grappling” with the referendum’s outcome.
“We must also grapple with the ugly acts of racism and disinformation that have been a feature of the debate despite regular calls for respectful engagement,” it said.
The organisation said it was still confident for a united and “just” Australia.
“The millions of Australians who voted yes, and those who voted no but who are committed to better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, will unite.”
Several Indigenous organisations including the Central Land Council and the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress have shared a group statement calling for a national week of silence in the aftermath of the referendum.
Prof Marcia Langton, a leading yes campaigner and architect of the Indigenous voice, said on NITV that the no result was “a sad moment in the country’s history”.
Langton said that because the voice was rejected by the majority of the country she believed the result would put reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia backwards.
“It will be at least two generations before Australians are capable of putting their colonial hatreds behind them and acknowledging that we exist.”
Nova Peris, an Olympic gold medalist and yes campaigner, told NITV’s The Point program that she didn’t believe she would live long enough to see Indigenous people recognised in the constitution.
She said the result was “gut wrenching”.
“It makes me sick, it’s a really sad indictment,” Peris said.
“Australia has pulled the shutters down and said we choose not to see you, we choose not to hear you, we won’t give you a voice you’ve been asking for.”
