“Action, Not Apologies”: How Allies Can Make A Tangible Difference For First Nations People Post-Referendum

After months of gruelling and dehumanising debate, Australia has returned a ‘No’ to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

I know the shame that many people are feeling right now. My inbox has been inundated with apologies, and every email I receive seems to begin with a form of ‘my condolences’. While I understand that these are coming from a good place, Aboriginal people do not need to shoulder the shame of a nation. What we actually need is action, not apologies.

I want to contextualise this result as a young Koori person, sitting with the hurt I feel before I speak to the hope I see.

I remember Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s 2022 victory speech vividly.

I was living in inner-city Newcastle, an old-time Labor seat, watching the ABC’s Antony Green election coverage like a hawk. My best friend and I had just returned to her living room from a pub a couple minutes' walk away, after we had (accidentally) snuck into an official Labor watch party.

It felt like a dream when he took the podium to say, “I commit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full…Tonight, the Australian people have voted for change.”

Initially, I was shocked. Growing up in this country, I know all too well the struggle to have Australia pay attention to us. We are so often denied a place on the political agenda, let alone acknowledged front and centre. Most of the time, our attempts to platform our concerns lead to us being admonished as being “only 3%".

However, shortly after, I had an anxiety rest in my stomach. I knew that, from this point, my people would yet again become a debate topic for the nation.

Do you understand how dehumanising it feels to have your existence become an intellectual exercise for millions of people who have never met you, your family or your community? Marginalised people know this feeling all too well — we know what it feels like to be changed overnight from a person to a policy point.

At 23 years old, I have seen the many faces this nation presents to First Nations people. I’m a child of the reconciliation era. In 2000, 250,000 people walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of reconciliation. I was five months old. In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered a formal apology from the nation to the Stolen Generations. I was 8 years old. I have been told that these have been milestones of reconciliation.

I have seen the rise of Acknowledgement of Country, the chase to re-introduce First Nations place names, the call to support Black-owned businesses, the freeing of the Aboriginal flag from copyright struggle, the Black Lives Matter movement and the following increase of Indigenous representation in mainstream media. These are important milestones, but I have also witnessed so many setbacks.

I have been constantly reminded that this must be done for the project of reconciliation, and that I must be “grateful” for “how far we have come”. I was a child when the Howard Government created the Northern Territory Intervention and stoked the coals of anti-Aboriginal racism nationally. I was an early teen when Australia booed Adam Goodes after he stood up to racism and Alan Jones said we needed another Stolen Generation. I was in my late teens when some Australians claimed that closing the Uluru climb “divided the nation”, when the Queensland Government extinguished the Native Title of Wangan and Jagalingou people for the Adani-Carmichael coal mine, and when Rio Tinto blew up a 46,000 year-old sacred site called Juukan Gorge.

Now that I’m nearing my mid-20s, I have been subjected to months of relentless dehumanising coverage and denied a Voice by my country. Should I be grateful?

But just because Australia has rejected us, does not mean we can be taken off the agenda. Now is the time to be louder than ever, and we must reclaim the narrative of not just First Nations people but the entire trajectory of the country we live in. Reconciliation is not enough to heal this; we need to navigate a collective reckoning with the state of play within ‘Australia’.

After months of raising the profile on First Nations perspectives, mobilising tens of thousands of volunteers and having millions of voters turning out for Yes, we must cut through the racism and division to utilise the feelings of goodwill.

In short: Australia, it’s time to fight for First Nations justice with us. If this was the cause that captured your attention for First Nations people and our demands, the worst thing you can do right now is retreat from the fight. Indigenous people can’t retreat. You may be fighting for your values but we are fighting for our lives.

The Voice was never the only mechanism for change. We have existing and emerging demands that must be heard. In the immediate term, what we must do is demonstrate tangible support for First Nations-led change. We need a radical display of solidarity with Blackfellas right across the continent.

- Find and follow your local Black activist groups and truth tellers. Pay attention to our calls when it’s not compulsory.
- Show up to rallies and events. Offer your skill sets to these spaces, e.g. free photography, logos, pro-bono legal support, donations of food or water for an Elders tent.
- Start conversations with your non-Indigenous friends. Blackfellas dont need to be told what the issues are; demand engagement from the disengagement you see around you.
- Redistribute your wealth. Our communities need support now for the solutions we know work. Places like First Nations Futures and Pay The Rent are a perfect place to start.