Perhaps if I had been following the polls I would have been more prepared for the result. Or if I was in another electorate perhaps. At least I am not alone in my despair. More than 1000 people had volunteered in the ‘Macnamara for Yes’ campaign and there was a tiny sliver of relief that we are in the top 5 electorates in the country who voted Yes. But, it is not enough. It is not enough to lessen the shame that I feel for my country. It is not enough to lessen the heartbreak I feel for our First Nations people.
While the federal member for Macnamara, Josh Burns asked us to remain gracious in loss, I don’t know how to do that. I don’t have thick enough skin. And I am upset both as a human being and as an English teacher.
As a human being who has benefited from the systemic racism that runs through Australian society I am shattered. While it is possible that some white Australians were genuine in their belief that they, individually, had no reason to support the Apology because they had not personally done anything wrong, they can’t claim that here. Every one of us is responsible for this result. Every one of us is responsible for the shame we have brought on our country. Even if the Yes vote had passed, we were still going to be the last of the colonised nations to recognise our First Nations people in the constitution. And we have failed. On the world stage we must hang our heads as we have definitively sent out the message that white…
