Smiling face of the Yes case for the Indigenous voice

Daniel Morrison-Bird’s gift of persuasion could be that he does not seem like he is trying to persuade.

Yes23 volunteer Daniel Morrison-Bird hits the streets of Armadale, Western Australia, to talk to residents about the Indigenous voice. Picture: Colin Murty

Daniel Morrison-Bird’s gift of persuasion could be that he does not seem like he is trying to persuade.

The 44-year-old father of two is an early star of Yes23’s doorknocking campaign. In doorways and driveways across Perth, undecided voters are turning to Yes after speaking to him.

Less than six weeks out from the referendum on October 14, Morrison-Bird is among 2700 volunteers at doors and on phones in Western Australia. Nationally, Yes23 says, there are 30,000 people donating their time to try to reverse falling support for a cons­titutional amendment that would guarantee an Indigenous voice to parliament and government.

The Noongar, Yamatji and Gija man says he begins by introducing himself as a Yes campaigner before asking the householder if they are aware of the referendum.

Sometimes he does not get that far. On Thursday at Seville Grove, in Perth’s southeast corridor, one woman spotted Morrison-Bird and campaigner Alison Wilkes approaching in their Yes T-shirts and shouted through her flyscreen door: “You guys f..k off or I’ll let the dog out.” Morrison-Bird feels it is important to stay polite no matter what. He is out doorknocking twice a week with a smilein line with Indigenous leader Noel Pearson’s edict at the Garma Festival last month: “We’re going to love them on the beaches in this campaign. We’re gonna love them at every front door, on the football pitches and every street and every railway station. We are going to leave no stone unturned.”

If a person is undecided or even a No, Morrison-Bird offers a Yes23 information pamphlet. Some people have questions about it that lead to a longer conversation. He says voters sometimes raise the fact a lot of money already is spent on Indigenous affairs. He agrees this is correct and tells them it does not always reach the ground.

“(I say) a way to address that is having a voice to parliament, having a group of Aboriginal people from grassroots and from regional areas and from urban settings that can talk to government about resources that are already going to communities and whether it’s reaching the ground or whether it could be done better,” he says.

He knows better than most how government policy improves when Indigenous communities get the chance to be involved. Morrison-Bird is chief executive of the Indigenous organisation that helped reduce the number of Aboriginal children in care in WA for the first time in 26 years.

When Wungening Aboriginal Corporation was contracted to work with parents who were at risk of having their children removed, something extraordinary happened. The corporation’s Aboriginal staff had tough conversations with parents who needed to make changes. They helped them solve difficult problems, like finding a safe place to live. In 92 per cent of cases, the state’s child protection department saw the improvements, closed the file and the children were not removed.

“We work across all the wicked issues – whether it’s child protection, family violence, homelessness, alcohol and drugs, and justice – so we have a very good understanding of what the issues are in the community and we know that when an Aboriginal community-controlled organisation like ours gets involved and does the work they can be successful,” Morrison-Bird says. “That’s why the voice, if it’s led by and guided by Aboriginal advice, then it can make a positive impact.”