The Voice – Lean a little on the side of love

That lovely song was written and performed by Leanne Murphy, partner to poet Frank Prem. I’ve been singing along with it ever since I heard it. Yet as much as I love the melody and the gorgeous harmonies, it’s the lyrics that bring me out in goosebumps:

It doesn’t take much to show we care

It doesn’t take much to show we hear

It doesn’t take much to make a start

It doesn’t take much to hear the heart

For those not in Australia, ‘the heart’ is the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ in which our First Nations people got together and asked us, the people [not the bloody politicians] to listen so we can all heal from the ravages of the past.

But we can’t listen if our First Nations People don’t have a Voice. Yes, there are lots of small voices, desperately trying to be heard, but they get lost in the noise. One Voice, that cannot be silenced by either political party, would finally give the First Nations Peoples of Australia a say in what happens to them. Not us. Them.

I was born in Hungary and came to Australia in 1957, just after the Hungarian Revolution in which people like my Dad chose to fight back against the Russian occupiers. Imagine if we’d been told, ‘yes, you can come to Australia, but you have to give up everything that makes you who you are – language, history, culture, cuisine, pride – because they’re no good. And after all that, we will decide what help you need. And when. And how.

There is a world of difference between choosing to learn a second language, choosing to learn a second history, choosing to become part of a new culture versus being forced into it.

Yet choice is exactly what Australian governments have always taken away from our First Nations People.

Yes, a lot of money has been spent on the ‘Aboriginal problem’, but where did most of that money end up? Are First Nations People living in McMansions with swimming pools and three car garages?

Excuse me while I laugh.

The truth is that most of that money ended up in the pockets of white contractors, white businesses, white people living a long, long way away from First Nations communities.

Was this just the result of blind paternalism? As in…’Daddy knows best’?

Or were successive governments trying to do something about the appalling life expectancy of First Nations people while at the same time stimulating our economy? Money, money, money…

The trouble with all the interventions we have made in First Nations Peoples’ lives is that they simply didn’t work. And they didn’t work because no one in power ever bothered to listen to what First Nations People were trying to tell them.

“Daddy, my feet are bleeding. I need new shoes.”

“No you don’t, you need this nifty toy truck.”

We haven’t made things better. Instead, we’ve done the same things, in the same ways, over and over and over again. And then we’re surprised when we keep getting the same poor result. Duh…

Isn’t it time to try something different? Isn’t it time to finally listen?

Voting ‘Yes’ in the Voice referendum will not hurt White Australia one little bit.

We won’t lose anything.

Instead, we’ll finally have a way of making Daddy listen. We will finally have a way to give our First Nations people what they need instead of what we think they need.

All we have to do is give First Nations People a Voice.

One small ‘Yes’ can do so much.

By contrast, what will a ‘No’ accomplish?

How is business as usual going to make anything better?

Surely a small start is better than no start at all?

Meeks