$5m Ramsay donation kickstarts Indigenous voice Yes campaign

The philanthropic organisation named after entrepreneur Paul Ramsay has donated $5m to the Yes campaign for the Indigenous voice.

Paul Ramsay Foundation chief executive Kristy Muir.

The philanthropic organisation named after entrepreneur Paul Ramsay has donated $5m to the Yes campaign for the Indigenous voice, the biggest known donation to either side since the referendum was announced in May last year.

The Yes alliance – a collective of faith groups, community organisations, unions and strategists donating their time – launched on Thursday in Adelaide in front of an estimated 500 volunteers.

The location was chosen for its historical significance – Adelaide is where in 1958 a collective of activists formed the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement and began an ultimately successful push to have the commonwealth make laws for Indigenous Australians via the 1967 referendum.

Among the early members of the council was activist Charles Perkins, whose daughter, writer and filmmaker Rachel Perkins, told the crowd on Thursday: “Those people built unity in this country. They brought everyone into the tent and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Perkins, co-chair of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition, said the Uluru Statement from the Heart and its call for a voice was issued to the Australian people, not politicians, for an important reason.

“Only the Australian people can change the Constitution. It’s our document to change,” she said. “We are going to take the people with us.”

Yes alliance director Dean Parkin told the crowd all Australians had something important to gain if the Constitution was amended to recognise Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders through a voice. Speaking to non-Indigenous Australians, he said: “It means you get to connect your sense of what it means to be Australian to the oldest continuous culture on earth.”

Before the launch, the Paul Ramsay Foundation announced it was backing the Yes campaign with a donation of $5m to AICR, which will act as a fundraising and governance body for the Yes movement.