Hurt ripples in wake of Indigenous Voice vote

Nigel Browne, a proud Aboriginal Australian, woke up on Sunday questioning his place in the country.

The day before, Australians rejected a referendum on whether to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the nation's 122-year-old constitution, and give them greater political say.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese argued the Voice vote could unite Australia. But others remained convinced such a proposal would divide it.

There was no expectation the "Voice to Parliament" - an advisory body made up of Indigenous people - would be a miracle cure for the problems they face.

Indeed it faced criticism from a bloc of Indigenous people who believed the measures wouldn't be powerful enough. Others saw it is a largely symbolic gesture and believed that money could be better spent on immediate solutions.

After a resounding 60% of people voted "No", the nation as a whole is tending to the wounds caused by months of brutal debate.

Australia's First Peoples are classed as the oldest living culture on earth, and have inhabited Australia for at least 65,000 years.

There have been long-term political efforts to "close the gap" between the life outcomes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. But over time, some have widened.

For Mr Browne, and others who supported the Yes campaign, the Voice was a new approach that offered a glimmer of hope. But their hopes have been dashed by the outcome of the vote.

"To me it basically says you are still not a part of a country that's supposed to be… the country of a fair go," Mr Browne said.

"[It says] you are not my equal. And as for your infant mortality rate, your mortality rate, your incarceration, your education, your health? Suck it up."

Australia calls itself "the Lucky Country", he added. "But lucky for who, is the question?"

On the other side, prominent No campaigner and Bundjalung man Nyunggai Warren Mundine argued the Yes campaign didn't effectively explain how the Voice would work or how it would change lives. He said his team's message that all Australians should be equal had resonated instead.

"There are some Aboriginal people who will be out there hurting because they put up this idea which was rejected, but it was rejected for good reasons."

A bruising debate

Back in 2017, Mr Browne was among the more than 250 people from many different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations who signed the Uluru Statement from the Heart - a historic petition which calls for, among other things, the Voice.

It was a result of years of advocacy by prominent Indigenous Australians and built on a more-than-century-long struggle for self-determination and recognition.

"We came together in good faith with an invitation to the country to help Aboriginal Australia lift itself up by its own bootstraps," the Larrakia Wulna man said.

Six years later, the arguments against the Voice remain largely the same as those aired in 2017, when the then government rejected the Uluru Statement - that it would have too much influence on parliament and could give First Nations people more rights than other Australians.

Even in the days before the referendum, there was a growing sense of doom among supporters as polling suggested the proposal was likely to fail.

The 2017 summit brought together people from various Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations

"I've already cried about it. Almost every morning, I cry with the dread of a No vote," Mililma May told the BBC two days before the poll.

Originally wary of the Voice, the Kulumbirigin Danggalaba Tiwi woman from the Northern Territory (NT) became one of the region's most outspoken supporters.

"It is such a simple idea… The least we deserve is a voice and a seat at the table."

But Ms May feels like - somehow - not just her human rights, but her "human-ness" was up for debate during the campaign.

A former PM, a former minister, and a sitting Indigenous senator, argued colonisation was good for Indigenous people. The leader of the opposition called the senator's comments "brave".

Trolls online debated whether campaigners were Indigenous enough for their opinion to matter. Racist abuse was so prolific - for First Nations people on all sides of the campaign - that authorities told social media companies to act.

Death threats against one Aboriginal senator forced her to move out of her house, and Mr Mundine spoke candidly about how the attacks against him had made him suicidal.

National helplines were fielding a tsunami of calls from Indigenous people as Australia's usually quiet electoral commission repeatedly called for respectful and truthful debate.

Ms May said she'd tried to stay "delusionally optimistic", but the referendum process had been demoralising.

"When you're walking down the street now you're passing people thinking 'Did you just vote No?' 'Did you just say my voice doesn't matter?'

"It's such a visceral experience… and a really uncomfortable feeling to sit with."

She says she left town this week because she felt paranoid in the street and unsafe on her own traditional lands.

No campaigner Steve Rodgers also worries the referendum may have caused enduring harm.

Outside a polling booth on Saturday, the 76-year-old said he was not opposed to the idea of the Voice - he just wanted to keep it out of the nation's founding document.

"I'm regarded as being a bad guy among some of my friends… [but] I just don't want racism in the constitution basically," he said, referring to the contested claim that the referendum could make Indigenous people "more equal" than other Australians.

Steve Rodgers says he voted No but felt the campaign did not 'hit the nail on the head'

"I've been disappointed in the No campaign to be honest, and I think it hasn't really hit the nail on the head," he said.

"I voted No. But there's a part of me that hopes the Yes vote wins because I think there are so many people who are emotionally tied to this."

But the referendum was over even before the polls closed in the NT time zone.

In an empty room in Darwin, set up for a Yes party, a TV blared news of the defeat, based on results elsewhere. Volunteers and campaigners trickled in just in time to learn the NT had also voted "No".

Some cried. Others hugged. "The world is watching," one volunteer told the BBC.

'This was not a do-or-die'

In the fall-out on Saturday, Yes figure after Yes figure - including the PM - claimed misinformation had clouded the campaign.

Independent fact-checkers have said the volumes of mis-and-disinformation linked to the Voice debate have surpassed what they saw at recent elections.

The room for the Yes party was deserted once the results became clear

What both sides can agree on is their relief that this bruising campaign is over.

"It's not like we're up here and dancing and having a few beers - now the hard work starts," Mr Mundine said.

Some, like opposition leader Peter Dutton, have floated the idea of a second referendum that recognises Indigenous people in the constitution, but doesn't create an advisory body. Others have suggested the government could create the Voice through legislation - but Mr Albanese has ruled that out.

There are questions too about where this leaves the other aims of the Uluru Statement - treaty-making and truth-telling about Australia's history.

"The biggest fear is it just becomes another offer of engagement with the Australian people… another document to hang on the wall in Parliament House… another symbol of 'coulda, woulda, shoulda'," Mr Browne said.

Mr Mundine, who had previously supported treaties, said he believed the vote meant Australians had rejected the Uluru Statement in its entirety.

"A lot of the messaging after this is that reconciliation is dead... There's no hope for tomorrow," said Myles Jerrard, a Kamilaroi Dhungutti man who opposed the Voice too.

But he said he didn't agree with that view. "[We're] a people who are fighters, who are resilient... This was not a do or die... We need to be going back to the drawing board and coming up with better solutions," he said.

But Voice supporters worry this result is a mandate to do nothing.

"Governments will take it as… 'People are happy with the status quo'," Mr Browne said.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people say they cannot afford to sit idle, and attention now turns to how else they can achieve change.

"It's just another bullet in the back," Ms May said.

"The age-old experience of oppressed peoples around the world is that the things that our old people have been fighting for - and which we hope to never pass on to our children - we end up… fighting the same fight."

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