Indigenous voice to parliament’s Yes campaign ‘not about separatism’, says Noel Pearson

Noel Pearson has declared Indigenous Australia will not return to ‘assimilation’ as the voice’s co-architect moves to counter No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

Noel Pearson and former Liberal Indigenous Australians minister Ken Wyatt, left, promote the Yes23 campaign in Kalamunda on Tuesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Philip Gostelow

Noel Pearson has declared Indigenous Australia will not return to “assimilation” as the co-architect of the Indigenous voice moved to counter No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s calls for an end to separatism.

The Cape York leader expressed concerns the debate over the Indigenous voice to parliament was sending the country backward into old territory where assimilationist ideas were accepted.

He argues for an alternative concept of unity in which Indigenous people have a special but not separate place in the nation’s story, a reference to John Howard’s landmark speech on constitutional recognition in 2007.

“It’s too late for us now to be talking about assimilation. We’re not gonna turn into whitefellas tomorrow,” Mr Pearson said.

“Our children are gonna remain Aboriginal. And I think we can accept that I think Australians accept that. You can’t turn the clock back. It’s gonna be an enriching thing for the country when we do this.”

The Cape York leader was in Perth on Tuesday when he categorically rejected that the campaign for the Indigenous voice to parliament was about separatism, as Senator Nampijinpa Price has repeatedly argued.

One of the No campaign’s key slogans is “One Together, Not Two Divided”.

“The Yes campaign is not a campaign for separatism, it is not a campaign for assimilation,” Mr Pearson said at Edith Cowan University in the northern Perth suburb of Joondalup, where students can take a unit studying his reforming work and philosophy in Indigenous economic participation and welfare reciprocity.

“It (the voice) is a third way, which is that we be recognised as having our own identity, culture, languages, heritage within a united Australia.”

Senator Nampijinpa Price’s blanket rejection that there has been any downside of colonisation caused deep upset last week, and historians and researchers rushed to offer evidence of the ongoing harm of colonial policies.

However, when an audience member at Edith Cowan University asked Mr Pearson if Senator Nampijinpa Price was wrong or being mean-spirited, he replied that it was “a tactic”.

“It is like (saying) ‘all Mexicans are rapists’. Just say an outrageous thing. It’s the way democratic discourse seems to have taken a turn,” he said.

“People can say outrageous things – even things they don’t believe – in order to capture attention, galvanise constituencies. They’re as delighted at our distress as much as anything so I just think we must not be distracted by that. I don’t think it’s a serious argument … we have to continue with the progress we have made.

“On this issue it’s either assimilation or it’s separatism or it’s a united society where we get to keep our culture, we get to self-determine our lives … these are (John) Howard’s words, a special but not separate place in Australia.”

Mr Pearson lamented that the referendum had become about power for some politicians.

“In the minds of too many people, particularly the politicians, this is about the next federal election rather than the long-term future of the Australian people,” he said. “Referendums are about a long vision for the country.”

Earlier on Perth radio, Mr Pearson made a pitch to West Australian voters when he said: “The No campaign, it’s in their interest to hearken back to controversial policies of the past. The fact is … we’re at a point in Australia where Australians largely accept that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have their own identities. They have their own cultures. They have their own languages. And that this is a good thing for the country. We don’t want to lose those things.

“We are no longer demanding that Aboriginal people abandon those things. They’re not ugly things. They’re not bad things. They are, in fact, rich things and we have got something to contribute to the culture. The situation has changed from 30, 50, 80 years ago. We now accept Aboriginal identity and culture and languages, and recognition of that. The recognition that that is part of Australia is something we now want to agree with in the Constitution and recognise it in the vote that we take on October 14.

“When Aboriginal kids go astray and they see no place in the society, you know really it’s not about so-called assimilation, we’re not going to turn into whitefellas. That’s never going to happen. We’re not going to leave our culture and identity and languages. But at the same time, it’s not about separatism. The Yes campaign is about integration. It’s about unity. It’s about bringing the country together so that people can have their cultures but be very naturally Australian.”

Senator Nampijinpa Price said: “This is a disgraceful and divisive attempt by Noel Pearson to verbal Australians voting no.

“Nobody except him is talking about assimilation or turning Aboriginal children into ‘whitefellas’.

“Of course Australians are proud of their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters. Of course we are proud of our Indigenous heritage.

“And this is exactly why we don’t want to be divided by race in our Constitution.”