A great sorrow is upon our land.
The week of silence after rejection of the Voice is now over, but the grieving doesn’t end there.
Will Peter Dutton and his Liberal-Nationals coalition members now seek a rapprochement with First Nations people after the ‘victory’ in convincing fellow Australians to slap away the generous hand of friendship?
It seems not. Having used disinformation to demonise the Voice, supported eagerly by his allies in the Murdoch media, he appears to want to double down on his negativity, judging by his actions in parliament last week.
Former PM Tony Abbott, Dutton’s old boss and now Murdoch lackey, applauds Dutton’s ‘brave decision’ and in an article in The Australian, insists we now need a full policy reset.
British-born Abbott says, ‘Meanwhile, if the people’s vote is to be respected, it should mean abandoning or at least scaling back, recent concessions to separatism: such as flying the Aboriginal flag co-equally with the national one (as if Australia is a country of two nations); and the routine acknowledgement of country by all speakers at official events (as if those whose ancestry stretches beyond 1788 are more Australian than everyone else).’
If Dutton has his way in the future, there will be no truth telling, no treaty and of course no voice. As with Abbott, assimilation would still be the order of the day.
Small consolation
It was a small consolation to learn that 67 per cent of the people of Byron Shire voted ‘Yes’ to the Voice. The ‘Yes’ vote went to a high of 75 per cent in enlightened Suffolk Park. The more conservative areas of the Richmond electorate dragged us down into a majority ‘No’ vote.
So, what happens now? Politically perhaps not very much. Anthony Albanese has expended a lot of political capital and many millions of dollars courageously fulfilling his promise to bring the Voice to a referendum.
It may well have succeeded if Dutton hadn’t used First Nations people as political pawns. The blizzard of lies from the ‘No’ side would not have been as heavy if it had been bipartisan.
Shrill campaign
Pauline Hanson and virulent racists would still have run a shrill campaign, and perhaps Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart would have funded it, but the Murdoch media would have been more circumspect.
Now there’s an urgent need to pass legislation to ensure truth in advertising, particularly during publicly-funded election campaigns.
Those saddened by the result can take some comfort from knowing 40 per cent of Australians weren’t fooled by the lies, including the spin that First Nations people didn’t support the Voice when the results clearly show the majority did.
It’s up to us as a wider community to listen to our Aboriginal sisters and brothers and acknowledge how deeply damaging this has been for them.
We can start the healing right here in Byron Shire, by listening and acting.
Changing inappropriate names could be a start. Byron Bay is actually Cavanbah, meeting place, and was for thousands of years.
It has only been named Byron Bay officially since 1894. Captain Cook named Cape Byron, as he passed in 1770, after fellow global navigator Captain John Byron, grandfather of poet Lord Byron.
Julian Rocks were supposedly named after Captain Cook’s nephew and niece, Juan and Julia.
This is an important Aboriginal sacred site and is actually Nguthungulli (Father of the World).
Cape Byron is really Walgun.
It’s time to dump these old colonial relics of names and return to their real names. Cavanbah was and is a peaceful meeting place for many people who travelled, and still travel, great distances to experience this healing area. There’s a desperate need for peace in other parts of the world right now.
The significant Israeli population in Byron Shire is in agony over the slaughter that has taken place in Israel and now in Gaza.
I have talked with local Israeli friends whose families have been impacted by the tragedy. The shocking massacre by Hamas is now leading to another huge slaughter of innocent Palestinians, who just want to live in peace like everybody else.
Collective punishment, which is evidently happening right now in Gaza, is a war crime. Western leaders, including President Biden and Anthony Albanese, are caught in a cleft stick. They have supported Israel in their right to defend themselves, but they surely cannot now support the mass killing of civilians. It’s an impossible situation with no obvious solution. There’s a desperate need for peacemakers, not warmongers.
We can start a healing process with our local First Nations people, and each other, straight away. Let’s meet at Cavanbah and discuss what we share and start to heal our differences, peacefully. Let us all come together as a community. We all need to be friends, regardless of widely varying opinions. Let us listen to and respect each other.
♦ Richard Jones is a former NSW MLC and is a ceramicist.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
