Rejecting the voice shows Australia is still in denial, its history of forgetting a festering wrong

‘Anthony Albanese was fond of saying, during the campaign, “If not now, then when?” On Saturday night he got an answer: never. There won’t be another referendum any time soon to recognise Indigenous people in the nation’s birth certificate.’ Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Australia has overwhelmingly voted not to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution, and the nation has changed forever.

Plenty will be said in the coming days about the campaign and how it all went down, much of it by non-Indigenous people who already have power, influence and access to the media to prosecute their arguments. In that way, the country will be much the same as it was last week: a place where the voices of First Nations people are drowned out, talked over and misrepresented in a national conversation that is forever about us, without us.