In 2020, Religions for Peace Australia amended its Constitution to include support appropriate recognition of the spiritualities of the First Peoples of Australia. In this wise, Religions for Peace Australia wrote to the Prime Minister in August 2020 calling for a Voice to Parliament, a Makarrata Treaty and a Truth Telling Commission. On this page, we provide our reasons for support of the Constitutional Recognition Referendum.
The mission of Religions for Peace Australia is to work for interreligious peace and harmony and for social cohesion in Australia as well as upholding the universal values of authentic religion and spirituality. In the Mission and Objectives of Religions for Peace Australia, it is stated, inter-alia,
To work for the appropriate recognition of the spiritualities of Australia’s First Peoples and all indigenous peoples across the world
In 2020, Religions for Peace Australia made the decision to focus on Australia’s First Peoples and Aboriginal spirituality as well as their quest for reconciliation built around the Uluru statement. Australia’s indigenous peoples are the longest, continuously existing culture in the world having lived on the Australian continent for 65,000+ years.
On 10 August, 2020, Religions for Peace Australia wrote to the Prime Minister and Hon. Ken Wyatt, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.
In that letter,
Motion 2. “Religions for Peace Australia supports the Uluru Statement from the Heart and supports its recommendations”.
Australia is not immune to racism.
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991 recommended a formal process of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia be undertaken. It gave clear guidance about the key actions required to redress the wrongs of the past, yet many of its well-researched recommendations have still not been implemented, thirty years later.
More recently, over 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates came together in 2017 to reach consensus on the Uluru Statement of the Heart, calling for three key elements:
- A Voice to Parliament – Enshrining an elected First Nations voice to the Parliament guaranteed by the Australian constitution, that would empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have a say in the laws that affect them.
- A Makarrata (Treaty) Commission (“coming together after a struggle”) with two roles: to develop a national framework that permits each sovereign Aboriginal nation state to negotiate their own respective treaty; and
- A Truth-telling Commission in Australia (similar to those already established in Canada, New Zealand and South Africa) to oversee a process that allows all Australians to better understand Aboriginal/Australian shared history and move towards genuine reconciliation.
(ends excerpt from letter to the Prime Minister.)
As there is no separation between the land, the spirit and the person in Australia’s First Peoples, Religions for Peace Australia supports First Peoples and Constitutional Recognition of the Voice to Parliament.
The Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) Bill 2023 is to amend the Australian Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
This Bill is about recognising and listening. It passed in Parliament on Monday 19 June 2023 when the Senate voted 52 votes to 19.
The task is to go back to Australia’s founding federal document, the Constitution, and give recognition and a formal role in government to Australia’s First Peoples. It is a just and reasonable path towards unity, reconciliation, and the healing of our nations.
There may be discomfort, there may be uncomfortable conversations. From a spiritual perspective, change can only occur if we have uncomfortable conversations. These conversations elicit the space for reflection and the opportunity to act ethically. When we speak ethically, we might get a greater understanding of what a Voice to Parliament can be.
That ethical conversation might include the idea of relationship to country, to narratives, to story-telling, where we respect, allow and honour the story telling of the country we stand upon. Great damage is done when that relationship to country cannot be maintained by First Peoples.
We must acknowledge that since white settlement in Australia, our First Nations’ spiritualities have been deeply misunderstood and suppressed by faith leaders and communities of various Christian denominations. Hindsight reveals these actions were misguided. These actions were perpetrated not only by faith communities but also various governments, officials, and other settlers, many of whom were our ancestors. Sadly, this disrespect toward Australia’s First Nations peoples and their spiritualities continues today within some faith communities, their leaders and within some pockets of the Australian body politic.
In considering a Voice to Parliament, we acknowledge that it is not easy to accept this complexity given the religious traditions we all come from. We have brought our divine experience, our revelation and scriptures, sacred texts to a land where sacred stories and connections to the Creator was pre-existing for 65,000 years.
It is with integrity that Religions for Peace honours the sacred narratives of this land under the Southern skies, and allows those elders to share these stories. We listen with dadirri, deep listening. As people of faith, we acknowledge our need to learn more about and recognise First Nations’ spiritualities.
There has been much work done on these matters over the past two decades, most commissioned by the Australian Government and undertaken by Indigenous and constitutional experts. We support their agreement, as expressed in the Uluru Statement of the Heart, that structural reform in the relationship between the Commonwealth Government and First Nations Peoples must start with constitutional establishment of the Voice.
We note that with any political or social issue not all people will be in agreement. Thus, we acknowledge that some First Nations peoples are not in agreement with the constitutionally guaranteed Voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and we affirm their right to a different point of view.
We support their agreement, as expressed in the Uluru Statement of the Heart, that structural reform in the relationship between the Commonwealth Government and First Nations Peoples must start with constitutional establishment of the Voice.
Constitutional recognition of the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice is the first step on the pathway for a fairer, more truthful, and better reconciled relationship between First Nations and the people of Australia.
