Butchulla Elder Glen Miller reacts to No vote after Voice referendum

Two Butchulla men say their commitment to reconciliation and changing the lives of indigenous people remains unchanged after the Voice to parliament was voted down at the weekend.

A Butchulla Elder is determined to keep working towards reconciliation and addressing challenges facing indigenous people despite the vast majority of Australians voting against the Voice referendum.

On Saturday, Australians had their say on if the Constitution should be changed to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

On Monday, Glen Miller sat with fellow Butchulla man Bruce Waia, for a “bit of an autopsy” over the result.

Mr Miller said he felt the problem with the Yes campaign was that it had been “based on emotion”.

“There were no pragmatics in there,” he said.

“People aren’t going to vote for something they don’t understand.

“I understood what (Prime Minister Anthony) Albanese was trying to do, create something that a politician couldn’t get rid of, but I think he didn’t do it very well.”

Events were held on the Fraser Coast to champion the Yes vote, including one at Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre, attended by well-known journalist Kerry O’Brien.

Mr Miller, the founder and president of Butchulla Men’s Business, said he believed if a simple question had been asked such as “do you think Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should have a say in matters that affect their future”, 99 per cent of Australians would have said yes.

Butchulla dancers Bruce Waia, Destiny Sexton, and Conway Burns, celebrate the renaming of Fraser Island back to its original name of K’gari. Picture: Liam Kidston.

“It was all about emotion with no simple, practical proposal put up,” he said.

Mr Miller said there had been no explanation that the Voice was a Commonwealth initiative and issues such as housing, health, employment and youth justice would not be affected as they were state issues.

He and Mr Waia agreed that even if the Yes vote had succeeded, it would not have made a difference in Maryborough.

Mr Miller said he felt the referendum had created division, but there were still plenty of opportunities to achieve real reconciliation.

His work at a grassroots level includes the creation of the Butchulla Warriors Memorial, unveiled in Queens Park in Maryborough earlier this year.

Mr Miller said there was no need for a referendum to achieve change and that “every day of the week before the referendum could have brought in changes”.

On Monday, Mr Miller received a message from a friend in Dubbo saying reconciliation was dead.

His response? “Only if we let it”.

Mr Waia said he was not fazed by the result because he heard both sides of the argument within his own family with half voting yes and half no.

Butchulla Elder Uncle Glen Miller.

Mr Waia said his goal was to strengthen Butchulla men and young people and address the many issues they faced as they lived “in two worlds”, including higher rates of incarceration and suicide.

“I seen it coming (the no vote) and it didn’t surprise me,” he said.

The result had made him more determined to keep fighting, Mr Waia said, adding that it had not changed the way he viewed Australia.

“As long as I’m still walking and breathing, I’m still going to be walking towards those outcomes at the end of the day, the betterment of those people,” he said.

“We’re winning all the wrong races at the moment, the incarceration rate, the suicide rate.

“There’s not one month that’s gone by this year where we haven’t been affected by suicide.

“We’ve got to work towards a better future.”

Both men said the referendum had been a “big distraction to the greater goal”.