Let's Make Our Voices Heard

Among many other notable shifts in society this year, 2023 marks a moment in Australian history that will (we hope) be a major turning point in the history of this nation that will be remembered for generations to come. Before the end of the year, we will face a nation shaping referendum regarding an Indigenous Voice to the Federal Parliament. We don’t hold many referenda in Australia; when we do, some momentous ones are successful while many others don’t get up.

In 1967 there was a referendum of national significance when Australians overwhelmingly voted for Australian citizenship to be granted to First Nations peoples. Yet in 1999 the majority of voting Australians at the time elected for us to remain tied to the British monarchy, rejecting the chance for us to become a parliamentary republic with an Australian head of state.

On the successful referendum in 1967, it’s hard to believe it took so long for Australians to recognise First Nations peoples - the oldest living culture on Earth - as ‘Australian citizens’. The response to the referendum, winning in all six states with around 90 per cent of the nation-

Australia’s First Nations peoples are deservingly over-represented on our sporting fields due to their hard work, talent and skills. Just look at iconic athletes like Catherine Freeman, Adam Goodes and the first Indigenous captain of an Australian national sporting team, the late Arthur Beetson.

More and more, as our nation has grown we have also started to delight in the cultural contributions to Australia from First Nations artists, musicians and thought leaders, including Christine Anu and the late Archie Roach in the field of music, the amazing Albert Namatjira - possibly the most famous Australian artist of all time - and the thought-provoking and eloquent intellectual Marcia Langton. We have been enriched and we are blessed with these fellow Australians.

At the same time - and this is the crucial point - First Nations peoples are still massively under-represented in the decision-making processes and the machinery of governments. Many feel that decision-making, shaping our nation and, most critically, shaping their own self-determination, is hard to achieve when there is a lack of voice and sovereignty in decision-making.

Overall, our public servants, public advocacy bodies and parliaments do their best when it comes to providing a stable and prosperous society, but at the same time many are left behind. None more so when looking at statistics around health, education, economic opportunities and even basic life expectancy of First Nations peoples in Australia.

The Voice to Parliament is long overdue. It will establish a viable and much-needed mechanism for First Nations people to contribute to their own destinies and to enrich our overall Australian way of life. Yet it is also an exciting opportunity for us each to play a part in creating an important moment in our history if you support The Voice, regardless of your background or culture.

Not every generation gets the opportunity to shape and change a nation for the better. We live in a time when we do have that opportunity. The Voice referendum is really quite a simple concept. A Yes vote simply means the Australian constitution will be amended to create a body known as The Voice, which will be able to make representations to government on matters affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. That’s it.

In 1967 we found it hard to believe that First Nations people were not regarded as Australian citizens and we voted overwhelmingly for change. Can you believe in 2023, as it stands, First Nations people do not have a guaranteed constitutional pathway to make representations about their own lives to our nation’s parliament?

Going back in time again to the 1980s when I was a kid, like most Aussies, I loved that John Farnham anthem, You’re the Voice. It was, and still is, an inspiring song. In thinking about The Voice referendum and what it means, I think about that song. This referendum really does give all Australians the opportunity to have their voices heard. Your voice can advance and shape our nation’s future.

I’ll be very proudly and enthusiastically using my voice to vote Yes, so that all of our First Nations sisters and brothers across Australia can finally have their voices heard.

Hunting in the High Country

There’s no doubt that we are all living in an age of debilitating convenience, a time where as little as the press of a button will bring practically anything you could desire right to your door. Combine this with our incessant digital addiction, where scrolling through kilometers of content is the daily norm, and you can begin to question whether humankind is such an intelligent species after all. But don’t get me wrong, that late night pizza I got delivered the other night tasted bloody beautiful as I scoured my Instagram feed. But, refreshingly, there are still ways to seek some wholesome refuge from all of this modern day noise.

Perhaps one of the better examples of this more primal way of life is North Bondi’s Ethan McDonald, aka the trout guru. Give this bloke a fishing rod and bow, then drop him in the bush, and not only would he find his way home, but he’d have a month’s worth of fish and meat filleted and ready for his family when he got there. When Ethan isn’t fishing the local rock platforms for a feed of drummer and blackfish, or casting in the harbour for kingfish and flathead, he’s usually off somewhere remote on a strike mission. He recently set out on a solo adventure to the High Country in pursuit of his beloved trout, taking advantage of the annual spawn run. I was lucky enough to receive a detailed account of his antics over a few post-trip beers in his backyard in Bondi.

The spawn run is a time when brown trout chase the incoming freshwater up through feeder streams to lay their eggs, and it can make for some epic fishing. Using the standard (but deadly) euro-nymph rig on his fly rod, Ethan set about peppering every bend and hole the river had to offer. After catching a handful of smaller browns and rainbows he suddenly came tight on something big and heavy. Initially it felt like one of the many snags that had been pestering him all day, but once the ‘snag’ started pulsing through his rod in a series of textbook trout rolls he knew he was into a proper one. In a matter of seconds, the repetitious calm of fly fishing gave way to chaos as the fish forced Ethan to scramble down through the river rapids in pursuit. He’d lost a fair few bigger fish in the late stages of some previous fights and this time he was adamant he was not going to fall victim to the same fate. Following a lengthy struggle, the fish finally tired and he was able to net a huge brown he’d only ever dreamed of up until this point. In the trout world a fish of 8lb is a genuine trophy and many anglers never get the chance to hold one. He savoured the experience by holding the trout in the water within his net while he set up his tripod to capture the moment. When Ethan finally sought refuge by the campfire after the day’s fishing, he said the beers certainly tasted all the sweeter.

After a few days of plucking various brown and rainbow trout from the freezing cold stream and camping in sub-zero temperatures out of his Hilux, Ethan decided to make a move. With the esky chocked up with fillets, his next mission was to harvest some wild caught venison using his compact bow on a mate’s farm. Deer are an invasive species in Australia and cause a lot of damage to the native flora and fauna and, although I am not a hunter myself, I can definitely support humanely taking a deer for its meat. The property was a huge, barren expanse that would take multiple days to traverse on foot. Peppered with large boulders and studded with dilapidated trees, it was a very harsh landscape. There’s no doubt that the deer had the upper hand against his two legs, and that’s where the finesse and skill of a hunter comes in. After clocking up countless miles across the land, he departed less than a week later with a stack of fresh meat, headed for home feeling an unwavering sense of renew.