Indigenous voice to parliament: The women building a movement that cannot be ignored

An intriguing alliance of Aboriginal women have kept the voice alive in Friday night zoom meetings after successive governments said no to a referendum.

Bridget Cama, Pat Anderson and Megan Davis. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

An intriguing alliance of Aboriginal women kept the voice alive in Friday night zoom meetings after Malcolm Turnbull, then Scott Morrison, said – in short – no way to a referendum.

The collective – some grandmothers, some young and single, some living in remote central Australia and some in Sydney’s inner-west – plotted their path and regularly assessed their progress. Their sights were not on the government of the day but on building a people’s movement that could not be ignored.

Young mum Bridget Cama helped form the Uluru Youth and hosted pop-up stands at NRL matches: she and friend Allira Davis gave away Uluru Statement from the Heart caps and T-shirts and answered questions that league fans had about the voice.

Former health official Pat Anderson, 79, came out of retirement to effectively campaign full time.

She and Cobble Cobble woman Megan Davis, who was raised in public housing but is sometimes maligned as an elite because of her stellar career as an authority on constitutional law, paired up for lobbying that was both thorough and effective.

When The Australian went to key independents and Teal candidates before the 2022 election to ask for their views on the voice, they were all in favour of a referendum in the first term of the next government. Davis and Anderson had begun quietly talking to them some 18 months earlier.

Constitutional law expert Gabrielle Appleby. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

Davis and Anderson’s group, now called the Uluru Dialogues, counts among its senior members Indigenous men and non-Aboriginal constitutional law expert Gabrielle Appleby. Professor Appleby’s latest project is ReferendumQAndA, which allows any Australian to have their questions about the voice answered by experts in public law, parliamentary and government practice, electoral law, referendums, human rights and Indigenous rights.

And while Uluru Dialogues members are busy holding community forums around Australia – in town halls and online – they continue to talk to parliamentarians.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has had three meetings with women from the Uluru Dialogues. “In fact, I have Megan’s number on speed dial,” she said.

Senator Jacqui Lambie. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“There were holes in my knowledge and I needed her to go right back to the beginning and she was great ... she just gave me the facts. The work that they have done is really impressive and I am very grateful for the time they have spent with me.”

While polling suggests young voters are especially receptive to the voice, older Australians – Baby Boomers in particular – have been the biggest group at the organisation’s recent information sessions in Queensland and NSW. The Uluru Dialogues has found them to be largely in favour of an enshrined voice.

The North Ryde Rotary Club in Sydney’s west put the Uluru Statement from the Heart logo on its website after members spoke about the voice with Wiradjuri woman Julia Bennison.

“We know Julia because she does acknowledgement of country for us and she buys our fundraiser puddings,” said club president Bob Selinger. “She is a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and even though Rotary overall doesn’t take a position on the voice, we wanted to show our support.”

Dr Jackie Huggins.

Aboriginal author Jackie Huggins sees the work of the women as part of a proud tradition of Indigenous women involving themselves in Indigenous rights.

“It is women’s labour and love for their communities and families that drives them to do this work,” said Dr Huggins, whose mother, Rita, worked with Australia’s first Indigenous MP Neville Bonner on the yes campaign for the 1967 referendum.