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Aboriginal tent embassy campaigns against 'tokenistic' Voice to Parliament

Nioka Coe spoke out against the constitutional change, saying not one politician, aside from Senator Lidia Thorpe, had visited the embassy to discuss it.

CANBERRA TENT EMBASSY REFERENDUM

Aboriginal tent embassy representatives Nioka Coe (left) and Malika Munro outside the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch/AAP Image

The Aboriginal tent embassy has hit out at the Indigenous Voice on the day the prime minister announced when Australians will head to the polls for the referendum.

The longest-running Indigenous protest said a constitutionally enshrined advisory body would only become "another governing body to deal with the Aboriginal issue".
Nioka Coe, the daughter of Billy Craigie, one of the four originators of the embassy, said people at the encampment had not been consulted on their voice.

"Our family connections, our nations, go back over 5000 generations in this country," she told AAP.

"I don't think we need to be added to a constitution that oppresses our people.

"We've been here for 50 years, we still maintain the site, nobody's coming down here, no politician has come down here."

Ms Coe said Independent senator Lidia Thorpe, also a 'no' campaigner and Aboriginal sovereignty advocate, was the only politician to occasionally visit the site, which sits just over a kilometre from Parliament House in Canberra.

She called the constitutional change a "tokenistic gesture" that would allow the government to say they were doing something to help Indigenous people.

"No discussion has happened with our people," she said.
Ms Coe's comments came as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in Adelaide to announce the voice referendum would be held on October 14.

Mr Albanese countered the accusations of a lack of consultation, saying the proposal had come from the Indigenous community.

"An invitation that comes directly from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves," he said of the body.

"A proposal that thousands of Elders and leaders in communities all over our country have worked on for well over a decade.

"A change supported by more than 80 per cent of Indigenous Australians."
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Anthony Albanese announcing the date of the referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
The prime minister said consultation would lead to real change.

"That's what [Indigenous Australians] are asking you to say 'yes' to at this referendum: the same opportunity for their children to make a good life for themselves."

The Aboriginal tent embassy was set up on January 26, 1972 when Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Bertie Williams and Tony Coorey marched on Canberra to protest a land rights announcement by then-prime minister William McMahon.

Armed with a beach umbrella and three signs, the embassy was set up to pay homage to the Indigenous people never having ceded sovereignty.

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Published 31 August 2023 9:04am
Source: AAP


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