It is time for change.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Such was the call put out by the Recognise campaigners travelling around the nation calling for a referendum to rewrite certain aspects of the Australian constitution that continue to discriminate against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens.
Central Queensland author and historian Jackie Huggins is leading the charge that has brought Australians together for more than two years and visited Glen Innes this week on the way south.
“I think overwhelmingly people want to see this happen. We have taken some social polling which says that 70 per cent of Australians want to see this happen,” she said.
“Before us, there was an expert panel that went around and I think their rating was around 63 per cent of Australians wanted to see the constitution changed and honestly reflect a modern Australia that doesn’t think we should have racist clauses in our constitution anymore.”
Recognise, the campaign that has become synonymous with the luminous ‘R’, arrived at King George Oval this week after only a fortnight in NSW.
Jackie said there has been overwhelming support for the push to recognise Indigenous cultures in the Constitution and said the two year journey to spread the word has yielded an excellent community response.
“Referendums are very hard to get, we have had 44 referendums in this country and eight of those have been success. The most successful was in 1967 when aboriginal people were given, essentially, citizenship rights,” she said.
“I often think how wonderful it would be to have that kind of result in our modern Australia in 2017, or whenever the referendum is being held. I think that would say a lot about Australia and show how much we have grown and how much we have matured.”
Jackie said one of the key aspects of the campaign was informing the community how Recognise would coincide with treaty, sovereignty and native title issues.
“We understand that putting aborigines in the constitution will not negate treaty or sovereignty issues,” she said.
