More Aboriginal rights: Senate of Australia also agrees to referendum Tank stops at Ukrainians, suddenly there is a “huge explosion”

On Monday, the Senate gave the green light for a corresponding referendum, which must now be held within six months. Observers expect October as a possible date.

At the end of May, the House of Representatives had already voted with a large majority in favor of the much-discussed referendum, which has the motto ‘Voice to Parliament’. The question at stake is whether a group of Indigenous Australians will in future advise the government on issues affecting Indigenous people. Members must be nominated by Aboriginal officials and not by the government.

After the vote, applause broke out in the Senate. Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said the inquiry would be about finally recognizing 65,000 years of Aboriginal history in the Constitution. “Indigenous Australians have fared consistently worse than non-Indigenous Australians for far too long,” she said. “It’s a broken system.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has led the referendum since winning the May 2022 election, said: “I say to my fellow Australians: parliaments make law, but people make history. This is your time, your chance to be a part of history.”

Of the approximately 26 million Australians, almost a million are Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders – as the indigenous people of the islands of the same name are called. The country is very divided on the issue of the referendum. A constitutional amendment also requires a “double” majority: not only must more yes than no votes be obtained at the national level – a majority of the six states and territories must also be in favour, that is, at least four.

The government in Canberra is currently trying to approach and reconcile the indigenous population at various levels. The world’s largest sand island, Fraser Island, off the coast of Queensland, was officially named just under two weeks ago. She is now going back to her original name, K’gari (pronounced Garrie). The word means paradise in the language of the Butchulla people.

However, large parts of the white majority continue to exclude the indigenous population, even though they have settled in the country for tens of thousands of years. The indigenous people are not mentioned in the country’s constitution, adopted in 1901. They were not granted civil rights until 1967.

After the arrival of the First Fleet from Britain in 1788 and the colonization that followed, Aboriginal children were snatched from their parents for decades. The “stolen generation” had to grow up in homes or with white families. (saw/sda/dpa)