Will We Be Good Ancestors?

Will We Be Good Ancestors?

 The vote is counted and lost. 

The Voice referendum gave us a chance to show that our nation is willing to face the dark parts of our history, and begin to address the inequalities of modern Australia. That we see through and reject the lies of small people intent on holding us back. That we can hold our heads high as a people our descendants will be proud of.

When it failed, we failed. Instead, we have broadcast to our Aboriginal brothers and sisters, and to the world, that we are a country of craven fellows. A small people that our children's children will look back on and shake their heads in disbelief and shame.

Instead of reaching for a bright future, we’ve cruelly clung in fear to the dark shadows of the past. We've voted for racial bias, for dire health outcomes for Aboriginal people.

It is a statement that their struggles, rooted in a history of injustices, are best addressed by others, better able to understand them than they themselves can. That white Australia believes Aboriginal people do not deserve a say in their own lives. 

 And where to now? Now that the mean-spirited, spiteful trolls like Pauline Hanson and Peter Dutton are encouraged by their victory? 

They know now that their lies work. Lies like when they said a yes vote would mean having to give up your home, that Aboriginal people will have the right to overrule parliament, that you'll be made pay reparations, and most absurdly, that the UN would take over Australia.

 They know now that the people will shit on their Neighbours to keep hold things that they were never at risk of losing. 

 We must be better than this. The best that we can be. We must do all we can to become good ancestors.