Sign our Open Letter Women For Yes and show your support for an Indigenous Voice!
On Sunday 13 August, we issued an Open Letter to the Australian people — Women For Yes — stating our reasons for voting Yes in the upcoming referendum. All Australians are invited to join with Women For Yes. Show your support. Sign today!
To the Australian People:
We are from all walks of life and experience. We speak with our own voice.
We understand as women what it means to struggle for our human rights. And we know from the public record that women have made lasting differences on much-needed social and democratic reform.
We acknowledge the historic wrongs committed against Australia’s First Nations people over two centuries and more. We pay tribute to the past and present leadership of Indigenous women across Australia in their long, courageous struggle for justice for their families and communities.
Most of us can only imagine what it has been like for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families — dispossessed of traditional lands and brutally killed in large numbers; adult men and women removed to reserves; children taken away, removed from family; children jailed for minor offences; language and culture destroyed.
Generations of ongoing trauma, discrimination and hardship play out today, affecting the lives of too many Indigenous Australians, their children, and grandchildren.
Trust has been broken. We can rebuild it.
The Uluru Statement From The Heart graciously invites us to walk with Indigenous Australians toward a better future for all. We ache to do so. We take pride in what Australian women have achieved in terms of civic action and nation-building. But we can do so much more.
We want to be part of a hopeful, forward-looking Australia, a nation prepared to forge a new compact between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We want to be part of a new understanding and practical approaches that are underpinned by recognition, respect, and fairness. Such a new accord starts with the meaningful recognition of First Peoples in the Australian Constitution; and enshrining a Voice to Parliament.
We see the Voice to Parliament as a simple, positive, and practical proposal. When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a say in policies affecting their lives, we can be more confident that their experience, knowledge, and wisdom will be heard, valued, and fashioned into more appropriate policies and programs which make a real difference to their lives as well as benefitting our entire nation.
We see the forthcoming referendum as a once in a lifetime chance to bring about an historic reform, by voting Yes in the referendum. Women for Yes. Let’s make it happen.
Acknowledgements
Women For Yes is a women-led campaign in support of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, created by Together, Yes with Yes 23. We are energised by generations of women and gender diverse people working together for social change.
We give thanks to our campaign partners, Yes 23; Victorian Women’s Trust; Koorie Women Mean Business; Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania; Shabbat Table Talks; IWDA (International Women’s Development Agency); and our business partners Verve Super; and Your Creative. We also acknowledge the support of The Wood Foundation and The Felton Bequest. Heartfelt thanks also go to our volunteers — we couldn’t have done this without you.
Together, Yes is a harm prevention campaign by the Victorian Women’s Trust as Trustee of the Dugdale Trust for Women & Girls. Authorised by Mary Crooks AO, Victorian Women’s Trust, 137A Queens Parade, Clifton Hill, Victoria.
Artwork by Alkina Edwards for Koorie Women Mean Business and the Victorian Women’s Trust (2022). Used with permission.