By Alexandra George
This month, the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law launched ASK US FIRST, a video campaign advocating for a YES vote in the upcoming referendum on the Voice.
ASK US FIRST centres First Nations voices in the debate and encourages non-Indigenous Australians to respond generously and from the heart to their invitation. The Uluru Statement from the Heart invited all Australians to walk together for a better future, and to start that process by enshrining an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the Constitution.
However, polling suggests that the question undecided voters need answered is not really whether to but why Australia should enshrine this Voice. The data shows that many are looking for the right information to justify their YES – and the devastatingly simple answer is because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples asked for it.
With just a month until the vote on Saturday 14 October, the referendum conversation must return to what First Nations Australians, as the people who will be most impacted by this change, have asked for and why.
Asking First Nations peoples first
I came to law after a career in film, so it is not entirely surprising that it was an artist who led me to intern at the Castan Centre. Leah Purcell AM, proud Goa, Gunggari, Wakka Wakka Murri stage and film actress, writer, director and novelist, promoting her television series The Legend of Molly Johnson last year, said something that stuck with me:
“If you are true about wanting to join and understand the plight of your Indigenous First Nations people, then be a part of that discovery.”
The series was Purcell’s decolonised reimagining of The Drover’s Wife, a classic 1892 short story by Australian bush poet Henry Lawson. It exemplifies what Purcell’s craft is most celebrated, for allowing white audiences to see from a First Nations perspective.
ASK US FIRST, the Castan Centre’s 11-minute film is designed to restore fact, nuance and personal perspectives on the Voice. It features a roll call of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advocates, and gets right to the heart of the why question. Like the referendum proposal, the idea is simple: before you vote, Australia, ask First Nations peoples first.
Together with three other Monash University law students, we created ASK US FIRST while taking part in the Castan Centre Voice to Parliament Clinic. Our brief was to develop an impact project that advocates for YES by utilising our skills and knowledge as law students. ASK US FIRST pitches itself as a blend of ‘You Can’t Ask That’ meets ‘Celebrities Read Mean Tweets’, featuring First Nations peoples across Australia responding to the nation’s questions and concerns about the Voice.
Like Purcell’s acclaimed stage and screen dramas, ASK US FIRST platforms the voices of First Nations peoples, who lend this film their truth and teach us that our advocacy can take many forms when we get creative about it.
Created to be factual, accessible and personal, ASK US FIRST reflects why we should have the Voice. It also demonstrates the rich, experiential possibilities the Clinic offered for understanding social justice advocacy in practice. It’s because we get meaningful insights when we work collaboratively and create space for First Nations peoples to speak. Mirroring the Voice Co-design principles of self-determination and representation, the film was developed out of careful consultation with its speakers. It asks all Australians to first listen to the diverse perspectives and lived experience of First Nations peoples on what really matters to them, so that we all can finally affect meaningful change.
Take the step
The work of the Yes campaign is only just beginning. Now is the time to actually start having the conversations with the people in our lives who are unsure.
A simple way to start that conversation is to share this video. Sit yourself, your parents, grandparents, friends, colleagues, footy team, online communities down and have them actually listen to First Nations peoples speak!
As Monash University Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous), Professor Tristan Kennedy tells us in the video:
“When we’ve got everybody at the table having discussions about our own future, about everything we can contribute together—Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives, of migrants, young people, older people, people from so many diverse backgrounds—we get better results.”
It’s simple. More than 80 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples support the Voice. This has been fact-checked.
If you want to know why Australia should enshrine this Voice, then be a part of this discovery and watch ASK US FIRST. Like Jill Gallagher AO says, “It’s your backyard too”.
Right now, we all have agency in this process of who we become. If you support the Voice but don’t feel confident talking about it yourself, take that step and allow First Nations Australians to speak for you: share ASK US FIRST.
Alexandra George is a final year Juris Doctor student at Monash University and worked as a film producer for a decade. Special thanks to Thomas Ponissi and Chloe Hunt.
ASK US FIRST was created by Monash University law students Alexandra George, Chloe Hunt, Meghna Mitra and Rose Russell in the Castan Centres Voice to Parliament Clinic.
Share ASK US FIRST by re-sharing the Castan Centre’s posts on the following platforms: Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
This post was originally published on Castan Centre for Human Rights Law .