We wholeheartedly support Indigenous Australians having a Voice to Parliament.

We believe that all Australians will benefit from having a First Nations Voice included in the Constitution, ensuring Indigenous Australians have an effective say on the policies, programs and issues that affect them.

CLIMARTE has been fortunate enough to both learn from and exhibit art by Indigenous artists whose work expresses the complex, beautiful, deep knowledge of their traditional lands, waters and culture.

Voting YES in the Referendum for a Voice to Parliament is about us:

•  honouring 65,000+ years of caring for Country in ways that profoundly intersect culture and community.

•  increasing pressure on the government to fast-track indigenous led policies that will deliver transformative change to the lives of First Nations people.

•  increasing momentum towards achieving First Nations justice, treaties and truth telling.

•  better enabling indigenous leaders who are boldly envisioning a fair, socially and ecologically sustainable future based on respect and reciprocity.

•  responding with basic decency to the gracious and generous invitation that is the Uluṟu Statement from the Heart seeking Voice. Treaty. Truth.

In determining our position we understand that there are different perspectives and conversations must be gentle, nuanced and respectful.

Disinformation Behind the NO Campaign: Countering the Fossil-Fuelled Lies

Particularly given the hostile tone of much of the ‘No’ campaign, we also feel compelled to help people better understand the sophisticated and aggressive tactics (and seemingly unlimited funding) behind it.

The first step in addressing any problem is to understand it.

As Dr Jeremy Walker’s report Silencing the Voice: the fossil-fuelled Atlas Network’s campaign against constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australia shows, the ‘No’ campaign is using the classic neoliberal Atlas Network (global infrastructure of 500+ think tanks) playbook.

It reveals the ‘No’ campaign’s history, motives and powerful capacities to mobilise seemingly unlimited amounts of ‘dark money’ from global fossil fuel companies and their allies – those most responsible for the converging climate, biodiversity and inequity crises that threaten Everything.

Should the Atlas Network’s ‘Vote No’ campaign shout down a profoundly important constitutional vote through racial provocation and ubiquitous disinformation, Australians will have conceded yet more power to the most powerfully-organised opponents of national self-determination and parliamentary sovereignty, to those who would, in pursuit of temporary riches for a tiny elite, render the Earth progressively uninhabitable. If Australians continue to turn a blind eye to the shadowy, far-right political infrastructure of the Atlas think-tanks and campaign organisations, which exert considerable influence over elections and public life without transparency or accountability, Australians may find themselves increasingly voiceless in the illiberal democracy of a petro-state.

You can read Jeremy’s report here, and listen to his RN interview here.

Please share this information, particularly with anyone who you think may be feeling confused.

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