This year, Australians will be asked to vote in a referendum to give our first nations people a Voice to Parliament. This will create constitutional change to give aboriginal people an advisory role in matters which affect them.
The Buddhist Council of NSW is playing a leading role in the Buddhist community to help inform our diverse member organisations about the referendum process and why it matters.
The Voice to Parliament came out of the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, which set out the reasons for enshrining a first nations voice in our constitution. Following this statement, in 2023, a series of essays from religious leaders was collected in a book, Statements from the Soul: The Moral Case for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, to lay out the moral case for constitutional change. The Buddhist perspective was provided by Sydney based monk, Bhante Sujato, reproduced below.
Read all the essays in the book Statements from the Soul: The Moral Case for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, edited by Shireen Morris and Damien Freeman, La Trobe University Press, 2023.
