Later this year, Australians will vote in a referendum that asks a key question: should we alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?

Join us for Voices for Impact and find out how you can support Australia’s First Peoples in having a say in the laws and policies that affect them. The Impact Fund will be funding a range of initiatives presenting on the night, and inviting co-contributions after the event.

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to come together to ensure we reach a milestone in creating a fairer and more sustainable Australia for all. Speakers will include leaders from Yes 23, the Uluru Dialogue and Passing the Message Stick.

EVENT INFORMATION

Thursday 27 April
5:30pm Smoking Ceremony for 6pm start

Location
The Edge, Fed Square
Melbourne 3000

Livestream
Join online from anywhere in Australia. Livestream begins at 6:30pm AEST.

This event will take place on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to their elders past and present. Always was, always will be.

PRESENTING ORGANISATIONS

Yes23
In the lead-up to this year’s Referendum, Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition (AICR) is enabling all Australians to be a part of this historic opportunity through a national Indigenous-led campaign: Yes23.

Rachel Perkins
Co-Chair, Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition
Rachel is an Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman, a multi-award-winning filmmaker, signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and with Danny Gilbert, Co-Chair of AICR. She also co-chairs the National Native Title Council and Commonwealth government’s partnership to reform Indigenous heritage laws. In 2020, she was named one of the most culturally powerful Australians in the AFR.

Passing the Message Stick
A multi-year research project shifting public narrative in support of First Nations justice and self-determination. The project is supported by Australian Progress and GetUp.

Larissa Baldwin-Roberts
Chief Executive Officer, GetUp, and Passing the Message Stick Lead
A proud Widjabul Wia-bul woman from the Bundjalung Nation, Larissa has dedicated her life to First Nations justice, climate action and a more fair Australia. Prior to founding and leading the First Nations Justice team at GetUp, Larissa co-founded Seed, Australia’s first Indigenous youth climate network.

Uluru Dialogue
The Uluru Dialogue represents the cultural authority of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and leads community education on the Uluru Statement’s reforms of Voice, Treaty and Truth. The Uluru Dialogue is based at the Indigenous Law Centre, UNSW Sydney.

Bridget Cama
Co-Chair, Uluru Youth Dialogue

Bridget is a Wiradjuri First Nations and Pasifika Fijian woman who was born and grew up in Lithgow, New South Wales and has connections to the Cudgegong River just outside of Mudgee. Working with the Uluru Dialogue since March 2019, Bridget is Co-Chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue, an associate of the Indigenous Law Centre at UNSW and a member of the legal support team to the Uluru Dialogue.

Allira Davis
Co-Chair, Uluru Youth Dialogue

Allira is a Cobble Cobble woman from the Barungum and Birrigubba Nations. Allira has worked closely with Bridget Cama in leading and co-convening the Uluru Youth Dialogue, organising and co-chairing the Uluru Youth Summit (2019) and providing First Nations youth with the skills and knowledge to make substantive change to the lives of our people and a better future for all.

Marcus Stewart
Co-Chair, First People’s Assembly of Victoria

Marcus is a proud Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung Nation and Co-Chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria. He is a negotiator and strategist with more than 15 years’ experience in Aboriginal affairs.

JOINING THE ORGANISATIONS PRESENTING ON THE NIGHT


Dr Jackie Huggins AM FAHA (Emcee)

Passing the Message Stick Lead
Jackie is a Bidjara (central Queensland) and Birri-Gubba Juru (North Queensland) woman who has worked in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs for over thirty years. Jackie is a celebrated author, historian and activist. She is the former Co-Chair of Treaty/Treaties in Queensland, Co-Chair National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, former member of the National Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Co-Chair Reconciliation Australia, the State Library Board of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

Jack Heath
CEO, Philanthropy Australia
Jack has been a leader of for-purpose organisations for more than 25 years. He believes there has never been a more important time for philanthropy as we grapple with huge societal challenges. Jack holds a deep-seated belief in the ability of philanthropy to inspire long-lasting, positive change in individual lives and communities.

Maree Sidey
CEO, Australian Communities Foundation

Maree has been Chief Executive Officer of Australian Communities Foundation since 2015. Maree also holds Non-Executive Director roles at Community Foundations of Australia, Australian Progress and Philanthropy Australia.

Mapping laws and policies that have impacted the lives of First Nations people since 1788

Towards Truth is a collaboration between the Indigenous Law Centre and the Justice and Equity Centre identifying, analysing and cataloguing original government documents, scholarly materials, and commentary, to provide an accessible website that will support First Nations’ community truth-telling practices.

Issue

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples came together in 2017 to make the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’. Here is an excerpt: “Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future. These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.”

Response

The Uluru Statement seeks constitutional reforms so Indigenous people can take their rightful place in their own country. The Statement calls for the establishment of a First Nations’ Voice enshrined in the Constitution. Truth-telling about our joint history supports the Makarrata Commission, which is a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations.

Indigenous Law Centre, UNSW and the Justice and Equity Centre are working together on the ‘Towards Truth’ project to provide practical, foundational support for the truth-telling process. They will systematically examine law and policy that have impacted First Nations people since 1788; no one has ever done this before.

Grants

  • 2022 Large Grants round: $100,000

Progressing the Uluru Statement and its ambitions for a better Australia for everyone

As the largest consensus of First Nations peoples on a proposal for substantive recognition in Australian history, the road to the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a long one even without mentioning the decades of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activism that came before it.

Issue

Over a decade since the Council of Australian Governments agreed to a coordinated approach to addressing disadvantage in First Nations communities, there is a consensus among First Nations peoples that the gap in health, social and economic outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Australia cannot be addressed through more research and program funding alone – a different approach is needed. The problem is structural and the solution needs to be informed by First Nations through a process they identify as meaningful to them.

Response

The Uluru Statement from the Heart was issued to the Australian people in 2017 as a way forward. The Indigenous Law Centre (ILC) at UNSW is the backbone organisation for the Statement that coordinates the ongoing national dialogue process to ensure First Nations voices remain at the heart of delivering on Voice, Treaty, Truth—the three pathways to justice set out in the Statement.

Utilising a hub and spoke model, local communities have identified leaders to represent them at National Uluru Dialogues, taking place at least three times a year. Furthermore, the ILC has been undertaking extensive research to support First Nations communities to make evidence-based and informed decisions essential to successful constitutional reform negotiations, while also developing a longer-term intergenerational vision for self-determination by supporting emerging First Nations researchers, critical thinkers and leaders.

PROGRESS UPDATE

UPDATED MARCH 2022
  • Increased awareness and support: The Uluru Statement was recognised by the Sydney Peace Prize, taking out the 2021 award for its ‘historic offering of peace’. 90% of submissions to the Government’s Voice co-design process in favour of a constitutionally protected Voice to Parliament.
  • Ongoing leadership dialogues: The campaign has facilitated the Uluru Youth Summit In Cairns and Yarrabah, constitutional workshops with legal experts, and a workshop at UNSW Sydney that brought together the nation’s leading constitutional law scholars.
  • Collaboration with fellow Impact Partner, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre: ILC has worked with PIAC to broaden the reach of the Statement by translating it into more than 60 languages. The two organisations are now collaborating on the Towards Truth project to gather and analyse laws and policies that have impacted Indigenous peoples since 1788.

GRANTS

  • 2017 Large Grants round: $150,000 in campaign support

Raising the age of criminal responsibility and keeping kids in community

Raise the Age is a campaign for the federal, state and territory governments to do what’s right and change the laws to raise the age, so children aged 10 to 13 years are not sent to prison.

Issue

Everyone knows that children do best when they are supported, nurtured and loved. But across Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, charged with an offence, hauled before a court and locked away in youth prisons.

In just one year across Australia close to 600 children aged 10 to 13 years were locked up and thousands more were hauled through the criminal legal system. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are disproportionately impacted by these laws and pushed into prison cells at even higher rates, accounting for 65 per cent of these younger children in prisons.

When children this young are forced through a criminal legal process at such a formative age, they can suffer immense harm – to their health, wellbeing and future. Ten year old kids belong in schools and playgrounds, not placed in handcuffs, held in watchhouses or locked in prisons away from their families, community and culture. Governments can change this by raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years.

Response

Raise the Age is leading a national campaign, raising awareness of the issue and advocating for an increase to the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

The campaign has been developed by a coalition of legal, medical and social justice organisations, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community owned organisations. This group includes National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, Australian Indigenous Doctors Association, Change the Record, Human Rights Law Centre, Law Council of Australia, Amnesty International Australia, Australian Medical Association, Royal Australasian College of Physicians and Public Health Association of Australia.

Protecting First Nations communities from Covid-19

When Covid-19 emerged, the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress moved to establish a viral control zone for remote First Nations communities in central Australia.

Issue

Remote First Nations communities are among the most vulnerable to the potential spread of viruses. The sustainability of health services in these remote areas during a Covid-19 outbreak is unlikely and high-risk populations in these areas are very likely to need the highest levels of healthcare to survive.

Response

The Central Australian Aboriginal Congress established a proposal for a Central Australian Viral Control Zone to include checkpoints on all entry points into the tristate region with a requirement for 14 days mandatory quarantine; provision of adequate PPE; establishment of a surge workforce in Alice Springs; and the need for enhanced testing.

This proposal was adopted by national peak body, the NACCHO, and by the Combined Aboriginal Organisations of Alice Springs. The Northern Territory subsequently introduced border controls, which were key to keeping communities safe.

Eliminating over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander children in out-of-home care

Family Matters: Strong Communities. Strong Culture. Stronger Children is Australia’s national campaign to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people grow up safe and cared for in family, community and culture.

Issue

In what is being termed the new Stolen Generation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are now more than 10 times more likely to be removed from their families than other children. Based on the latest data available (June 2020), 18,862 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were in out-of-home care in Australia, comprising 33% of the total out-of-home care population. The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out of home care has doubled since the 2008 Apology and the rate of over-representation is set to more than triple by 2036 unless there is effective intervention for change.

Response

The Family Matters campaign has sought to compile, analyse, and disseminate evidence on the operations of child protection systems in every jurisdiction in Australia and their impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. Furthermore, the campaign has sought to use documented evidence to monitor the provision of Aboriginal Controlled Community Organisations (ACCO) Child and Family Services in each jurisdiction and advocate for the adoption and implementation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle to ensure adequate safeguards for children and families.

Contact Us
Level 6, 126 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne VIC 3002

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants and Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live, learn and work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.

Australian Communities Foundation is a proudly inclusive organisation and an ally of LGBTQIA+ communities and the movement toward equality.