Displaying items by tag: aboriginal rights

On 14 October, Australia will vote in a historic referendum that cuts to the core of how it sees itself as a nation. If successful, the proposal - known as the Voice - will recognise aboriginal people in the constitution, while creating a body for them to advise governments on the issues affecting their communities. Advocates say it Is a ‘modest yet profound’ change that will allow Indigenous Australians to take a rightful place in their own country - which has often dragged its heels confronting its past. But those campaigning against it describe it as a ‘radical’ proposal that will ‘permanently divide’ the country by giving First Nations people greater rights than other Australians - a claim legal experts reject. Australia is unusual among settler nations to have never made a treaty with its indigenous peoples. It first voted on whether to acknowledge them in the preamble of the constitution back in 1999. The reform - which was one of two amendments tied to the referendum over whether to become a republic - failed.