Australia is to hold a referendum on whether to give explicit recognition to Indigenous people in its constitution. Reformers want descendants of Australia's first inhabitants to have a greater voice in decision-making.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/T. Trewin
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Australia will hold a national vote on whether to recognize Indigenous people in its constitution within the next three years, a government minister said on Wednesday.
While Australia's first settlers arrived on the continent some 50,000 years before European colonialization, the status of their descendants has never been enshrined in law.
Making the announcement, Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt said the referendum would take place before the next general election in 2022.
Wyatt, himself the first Aboriginal Australian to be given the ministerial brief for Indigenous Affairs, said it was important for the community to have a say in decision-making.
"What I want is recognition that strengthens this nation, that places us on the birth certificate of our country, because we do have a future, we do have a past and we do live and walk together."
"Even the most well-intentioned modern policies and programs have still tended to take a top-down, command and control approach," he said. "As if Aboriginal people didn't know what they needed or wanted."
Wyatt said Indigenous people needed to have a local, regional and national voice. But he also said time was needed to ensure that constitutional change was successful.
"Constitutional recognition is too important to get wrong, and too important to rush," said Wyatt, adding he has already started to seek counsel from Indigenous leaders on the details.
Wyatt said he would seek inspiration from the country's 1967 referendum, when Australians voted to amend the constitution to include Indigenous people in the national census.
Celebrating January 26, best known as Australia Day, has become increasingly controversial in recent years. DW looks at the different issues surrounding the contentious date.
Image: Getty Images/C. Bennetts
January 26
January 26 is Australia's national day. It marks the arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson in Sydney in 1788. The Australian government describes Australia Day as a day to "celebrate all the things we love about Australia." But for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, January 26 marks the beginning of the loss of their culture, people and land.
Image: Getty Images/C. Bennetts
'Invasion Day'
The movement to change the date of Australia Day is continually growing in Australia. This year, tens of thousands of people attended rallies across the country in support of Indigenous Australians and to call on the government to change the date. January 26 is often referred to as Invasion Day or Survival Day by Indigenous people and those who support moving Australia Day to a different day.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Hunt
Citizenship ceremonies
January 26 is also the day that thousands of people across the country become Australian citizens. The biggest ceremony was held in the city of Parramatta in Sydney, with 1,450 people. New citizen James Golestani, 52, told Australian broadcaster SBS that he came from Iran and is of Persian ethnicity. "I feel really, really on top of the world. All of my dreams came true today," Golestani said.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. De Marchi
'Change the date'
A number of councils had their power to hold citizenship ceremonies revoked in 2019, after they voted to change the January 26 date for their citizenship ceremonies out of respect for Indigenous Australians. This led Prime Minister Scott Morrison to devise an Australia Day plan that would oblige all councils across Australia to hold citizenship ceremonies on January 26 from the year 2020.
Image: Reuters/S. Nicol Bikes
Alternative dates
A number of alternative dates have been put forward as replacements for January 26. One is May 27, the date in 1967 that Australia held a referendum to include Indigenous Australians in the census. March 12 is another, on this date in 1913, Australia's capital city Canberra was officially named. A popular one is also May 8, due to it sounding similar to one of Australia's most used words — "mate."
