Two comrades in discussion about the Voice a few days before the referendum on 14 October:
Comrade 1– How do you see the Voice mate? I don’t know. Anything the establishment wants to push for can’t be good. I’m thinking vote no but opened minded. Like Normie Gallagher said “If you don’t have the bosses by the balls, you’ll get crumbs”. Albanese and the Labor Party wouldn’t give a fuck for First Nations people, so there has to be a con in it somewhere.
Comrade 2 – “Yeah mate, our tour guide for Daintree / Mossman was Ron*(name changed) a Kuku Yalanji man. He thought the Voice wouldn’t change much for his people. They have always struggled and relied on themselves for a better life and still have to struggle after the vote. He said they don’t have much to do with Canberra and he reckoned that would still be the same.
Marcia Langton one of the indigenous leaders for the Yes campaign at a speech last month at the National Press Club in Canberra, admitted the Voice is the barest of minimums. She was also deeply upset that the issue had had degenerated into vile abuse and division.
And that’s a big problem. It has become a political football. And never should never have come to that. The indigenous struggle is far too important.
And like you say the Labor Party don’t give a shit. Their primary purpose is to get re-elected. They have tried to take the indigenous struggle into the parliamentary arena. More white paternalism- trust us we’ll sort things out for you.
Like Ron* said they have to rely on themselves in the struggle. And that’s a pointer to the way forward, fighting to empower local communities and each individual nation.
The main national issues are treaty and reparations. I like Lidia Thorpe’s position and the Blak Sovereignty Movement, that the Voice proposal is just another addition to the white colonial parliament and a con.
Comrade 1– Yeah Lidia is right on the money. She is one of the fair dinkum ones that’s not there to sell out. She basically takes the piss out of parliament. Says what she thinks. An inspiration to her people.
