The yes campaign in Australia’s referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament has focused on the immediate questions, the ones on the ballot on 14 October. That is understandable. Will voters recognise the original inhabitants of the land in the constitution? Does wider society think Indigenous Australians should provide advice on decisions affecting them?
These simple asks were always intended as the first step on a long walk to make peace with the past. They were the precursor to a deeper and more difficult discussion about the ongoing impact of colonisation and dispossession and all the policies that followed; a conversation that will take years.
