When: Thursday 24 October, 5pm - 6.30pm
Where: Online series
Cost: Free
Bookings here
One year ago, the referendum for an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament failed.
La Trobe University’s Ideas and Society this month delves into what the referendum campaign and its result revealed about the contemporary attitude of non-Indigenous Australians to the Indigenous peoples.
What can now be done to advance the decades-long struggle for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians?
The Ideas and Society Program at La Trobe University is delighted to be able to invite you to join a discussion between two people at the very centre of the "Yes" campaign, both of whom have recently published important books that represent the first drafts of the history of the struggle for the Voice and its failure.
Thomas Mayo, a leader of the "Yes" campaign and author of Always Was, Always Will Be.
Thomas is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander man who lives on Larrakia land in Darwin. He is the Assistant National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, an award-winning author, essayist, orator and a signatory to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
His advocacy and leadership in the push for the rights and recognition of Indigenous peoples spans over 20 years. Thomas is currently on the board of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition and the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. He is also on the steering group for the First Nations Clean Energy Network.
Dr Shireen Morris worked closely with another leader of the "Yes" campaign, Noel Pearson, and is the author of Broken Heart: A True History of the Voice Referendum.
Dr Morris is a constitutional lawyer, senior lecturer and director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School. She has spent the last 12 years working with Cape York Institute and Indigenous leaders like Noel Pearson, devising and advocating the concept of a constitutionally guaranteed Indigenous Voice, which was the subject of her 2017 PhD thesis.
Since 2020, Dr Morris has been particularly focused on building multicultural and multi-faith support for the Voice. Dr Morris publishes widely in academia and mainstream media and often appears on TV and radio. Her books include Statements from the Soul: the moral case for the Uluru Statement from the Heart (2023), A First Nations Voice in the Australian Constitution (2020), A Rightful Place: A Roadmap to Recognition (2017), The Forgotten People: Liberal and Conservative Approaches to Recognising Indigenous Peoples (2016).
The event will be introduced by Professor Julie Andrews, Academic Director of Indigenous Research at La Trobe University. Professor Mark McKenna, historian from the University of Sydney, will facilitate the discussion.
A recording will be available three hours following the event on this link.
Click the “book now” link and enter your email (if you have already registered) to access the recording. If you have not registered, you can log in via the “book now” link to view the video.
Email the media contact if you require a transcript following the event.
Contact details:
Elaine Cooney
e.cooney@gmail.com or 0487 448 734