Past policies and decision have not worked for First Nations people, writes Douglas Smith

There wouldn’t be a referendum for a Voice to Parliament if the policies and decisions made for First Nations people in the past had worked, writes Douglas Smith.

How do I see a Voice to Parliament working?

Well, for me, if it does what the Prime Minister says it will, it will be a message stick sent to Canberra by everyday First Nations people either living in remote communities or our other centres.

And that message will be heard.

It does not mean that the government has to agree and do what that message says, only that it is inclined to listen, because there might be a better way that it has not thought of.

It is just a message from First Nations people who are living in disadvantage, who could tell government how the needs of their communities could be better addressed by policies and decisions made by government.

The Voice seems to be a stepping stone on the path to a long-term goal which is to see First Nations people in Australia have the right to self-determination.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney. Picture: Twitter

Governments have controlled our communities for too long, with more policies only after seeing the previous ones fail. It continues to fuel the ongoing cycle of disadvantage.

The cashless debit card is a prime example of a government reacting to First Nations communities, who have suffered for so long that they find themselves living in dire circumstances.

For me, it is pretty simple, and this argument is not overused or outdated, nor will it ever be for First Nations people. The effects of colonisation are still very real, and are playing out every day in Australia in Indigenous communities. The Closing the Gap reports prove that.

It is fair to say that we see such a large gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people because of what colonisation has taken from us, and then deprived us of.

Something we have been deprived of is the opportunity to build generational wealth for our communities and families because everything has been taken away from us. Our land, our culture, our language and the opportunities to walk in both worlds on an even playing field.

Instead, we have been given less than the bare minimum, from rations to the cashless welfare card. Over time, we have survived on sheer resilience from generation to generation. We have to. I have had to learn to be resilient since I was a kid because it is still a fight every day, for my community, for my family and for our future generations.

First Nations people are always having to fight the system because it does not work for us.

In South Australia, we have the legislated First Nations Voice to Parliament that we will see up and running before the end of the year, which could be around the same time a referendum is held for a national Voice.

I believe that a state Voice can only go so far when it comes to delivering services based on need to First Nations people in SA.

If politicians in Canberra are not hearing about what is needed on the ground from the people who are living it every day, how can they address the issue? How can they adequately work with their state and territory counterparts to ensure better service delivery to where it is needed most?

The answer is, they can’t.

There would not be a referendum for an Indigenous Voice to parliament if the policies and decisions made for First Nations people and communities by governments in the past had actually worked for us.

Warren Mundine. Britta Campion / The Australian

No campaigner Warren Mundine said the other day that the Voice was a “threat” to First Nations communities because it would add “another layer” of bureaucracy that is not needed.

He said that he believed First Nations groups across Australia were already a Voice, and that they only needed to be empowered. I agree with half of that statement, because although they are a Voice, they are not listened to. Mundine speaks of these things as if governments have been interested in empowering First Nations people and communities, when in fact, the policies and decisions made tell a different story.

He used the negotiations between mining companies and First Nations groups who hold Native Title as an example of Indigenous people already having a Voice, saying that nothing is destroyed unless there is an agreement already set in place.

If this was the case, we would not see the continuous destruction of our sacred sites and heritage which we have protected for tens of thousands of years.

For governments, the economic benefits of these projects far outweigh the impacts they have on our spiritual and cultural connection to the land.

If the Voice is to get up at the referendum, it will be an opportunity for all sides of parliament to listen, take it seriously and learn from the oldest living culture on earth.