The Very Rev’d Dr. Peter Catt of St John’s Cathedral.
This NAIDOC Week I find myself, unsurprisingly, thinking about The Voice Referendum and more specifically about the process of deciding how to vote.
At the forefront of my thinking is an awareness that I, as a majority Australian, will be making a decision that will have a profound effect on the lives of those who make up a small minority of our population. I am also mindful that the decision will have very little direct effect on my life.
I am painfully aware that we majority Australians have been making decisions affecting the lives of the First Nations minority for the best part of 250 years, usually without any reference to what they want for themselves.
So, as I consider the referendum I find myself seeking to understand what Aboriginal and Torres Strait people want.
I have been assisted in this process by the fact that The Anglican Church of Australia already has a defacto ‘Voice to the Church’ in the form of NATSIAC (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Council).
NATSIAC gives the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of our Church, who are in the minority, a mechanism for speaking to the majority members of the Church.
NATSIAC has a small number of seats allocated to it on General Synod and The General Synod and The Standing Committee seek the advice of NATSIAC on issues that directly affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait people.
NATSIAC has specifically asked the members of the Anglican church to support them by voting ‘Yes’ in the referendum. It is their understanding that the majority of First Nations people want the voice.
So, The Voice to the Church is asking Church members to back The Voice to parliament.
Our Diocese took that ask to heart and in December 2022 joined ‘From the Heart’, which has since been renamed, Yes23: https://yes23.com.au/
NATSIAC’s ask is not binding on members of the church. In the end we will all need to vote according to conscience. Nonetheless I have found it useful to have voice like NATSIAC to help me in my deliberations.
Peace,
Peter+
