Built on the land of the Wakka Wakka people, Cherbourg\u2019s modern motto of \u201cmany tribes, one community\u201d reflects the varied origins of its 1,700 residents, descendants of people once forced to live there under laws of segregation. <\/p>\n
Between 1905 and 1971, more than 2,600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were forcibly moved from their land to Cherbourg, then known as Barambah, according to the Queensland government. <\/p>\n
Some were marched barefoot through the Australian bush by colonial settlers under a law that called for the removal of Indigenous people from their traditional lands to be housed and educated in colonial ways. <\/p>\n
Today residents live in neat rows of single story houses, their rent paid to a council that\u2019s determined to turn the former government reserve into a thriving community where people want to live \u2013 and it seems to be working. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got around 260 people waiting on our waiting list,\u201d said Cherbourg Council CEO Chatur Zala. \u201cThere\u2019s a huge demand for social housing because our rent is pretty reasonable. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe rent in the big cities is so expensive, people can\u2019t afford it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Life has changed for people in Cherbourg, but a divide still exists in Australia between non-Indigenous and Indigenous people on a whole range of measures \u2013 from infant mortality to employment, suicide and incarceration. <\/p>\n
Indigenous people have proposed an idea they say may help close the gap, and on October 14 the entire country will vote on it. <\/p>\n
A Yes vote would recognize First Nations people in the constitution and create a body \u2013 a Voice to Parliament \u2013 to advise the government on issues that affect them. A No vote would mean no change. <\/p>\n
So how does Cherbourg, a community created from policies of segregation and <\/strong>assimilation, feel about what\u2019s being billed as an historic step forward for Indigenous reconciliation? <\/p>\n \u201cMy community is very, very confused,\u201d said Mayor Elvie Sandow, from her air-conditioned office in the center of Cherbourg. \u201cThey\u2019re confused with the Voice, and then the pathway to [a] treaty.\u201d <\/p>\n The mayor said residents will vote because if they don\u2019t, they\u2019ll be fined under Australia\u2019s compulsory voting laws, then she immediately corrects herself. <\/p>\n \u201cWell, they probably won\u2019t vote,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ll just go out and get their name ticked off the [electoral] roll, so that avoids them getting a fine.\u201d <\/p>\n A record number of Australians \u2013 some 17.67 million of a population of 25.69 million \u2013 have registered to vote in the country\u2019s first referendum in almost 25 years, according to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). <\/p>\n Early voting has already started in remote communities, with AEC staff traveling vast distances by 4WDs, helicopters, planes and ferries to reach them. <\/p>\n Campaigners for both sides \u2013 Yes and No \u2013 have also been traversing the same routes, speaking to locals, organizing rallies and spending millions of dollars on radio, television and online advertising to win their votes. <\/p>\n \u201cI think this is one of the most important events of my life,\u201d said Erin Johnston, who was among thousands of people marching at a recent Yes rally in Brisbane, organized by the charity Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have an opportunity to right a big wrong,\u201d Johnston said. <\/p>\n But with two weeks to go before the vote, polls are showing that the referendum is on track to fail, a potential blow for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who made it an election pledge. <\/p>\n The prime minister has stressed that the Voice is not his idea but a \u201cmodest request\u201d made by representatives of hundreds of Aboriginal nations who held meetings around the country in 2017. <\/p>\n Together they agreed a one-page statement called the Uluru Statement from the Heart which calls for \u201ca First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.\u201d <\/p>\n When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. <\/p>\n Uluru Statement from the Heart <\/p>\n \u201cWe seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n Aunty Ruth Hegarty remembers her early days as a child in Cherbourg. There, children did not flourish, they did not walk in two worlds, and their culture was not seen as a gift but something to be erased. <\/p>\n Now 94, Aunty Ruth has written an award-winning book about growing up in the settlement. She was just a baby when her parents moved there from the Mitchell district in southwest Queensland looking for work during the Great Depression. <\/p>\n On arrival, the family was separated into different areas of the settlement. Then they realized they couldn\u2019t leave. <\/p>\n The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 (Qld) allowed authorities to remove Indigenous people to government reserves and govern almost every aspect of their lives. <\/p>\n Aunty Ruth was allowed to stay with her mother in the women\u2019s section of a crowded dormitory until she was 4-and-a-half years old. <\/p>\n But after her first day at school, she was told she wouldn\u2019t be living with her mother anymore. \u201cYou\u2019re a schoolgirl now,\u201d she was told, before being directed to the girls\u2019 section where she shared beds, baths, towels and meals with other students. <\/p>\n \u201cWe were not allowed to cry,\u201d Aunty Ruth wrote. \u201cCrying always resulted in punishment.\u201d <\/p>\n Punishment meant being caned, having their heads shaved, or being locked alone in a wooden cell at the back of the property, she wrote. <\/p>\n Mothers were sent to work as domestic staff for settlers while the men did manual labor, and when she was 14, Ruth was also sent away to earn money. At 22 she applied for permission from the state to marry, and when restrictions eased in the late 1960s, she moved with her husband and six children to Brisbane to start a new life outside the settlement. <\/p>\n Sitting beneath a pergola surrounded by flowers in her garden, Ruth still has the energy of an activist who has spent much of her life working to improve the lives of her people. <\/p>\n She wears an orange Yes badge and says she hopes the referendum will produce change. <\/p>\n \u201cAll I want is my constitutional recognition for me and my kids,\u201d she said, leaning forward. \u201cWe need a change. We need change.\u201d <\/p>\n Sitting to her right, her daughter Moira Bligh, president of the volunteer Noonga Reconciliation Group, <\/strong>said, \u201cWe\u2019ve overcome disadvantage, but unless we\u2019re all at our stage, we won\u2019t stop.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t stop,\u201d Aunty Ruth added, \u201cbecause I think it\u2019s the right thing for us to do.\u201d <\/p>\n Across town on a Wednesday night, an audience of No voters at an event organized by conservative political lobby group Advance gives an indication of why this referendum is so contentious. <\/p>\n Wearing No caps and T-shirts handed out at the door, they cheer loudly as the leaders of the No camp urge them to reject division. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Yes campaign focuses on the past. We focus on the now and the future, the making of Australia the envy of the world,\u201d said Nyunggai Warren Mundine, a member of the Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr and Yuin people. <\/p>\n We focus on the now and the future, the making of Australia the envy of the world. <\/p>\n Nyunggai Warren Mundine <\/p>\n Sitting in the back row, carpenter Blair Gilchrist says Indigenous people wouldn\u2019t need a Voice if politicians were doing their jobs properly and spending money where it was needed. He\u2019s not a fan of Albanese\u2019s Labor government. <\/p>\n \u201cMoney has got to be scrutinized better. I think that\u2019s probably the main thing. That the money is spent well,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Successive governments have spent billions of dollars to close the persistent gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in national health and welfare statistics, yet many targets aren\u2019t being met. And on some measures, the gap is widening \u2013 including rates of incarceration, suicide and children in care. <\/p>\n The Voice seeks to give non-binding advice to government about what might work to end the disparity \u2013 but critics say it\u2019s not needed. <\/p>\n \u201cInfant mortality has dropped, life expectancy has increased, it might not be at the levels we need it, but it\u2019s heading in that direction,\u201d Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a descendant of the Warlpiri people, told the audience. <\/p>\n The death rate for Indigenous children ages 0-4 was 2.1 times as high as the rate for non-Indigenous between 2015 and 2019, according to government figures. On average, non-Indigenous men live 8.6 years longer than Indigenous men \u2013 for women it\u2019s 7.8 years. The gap\u2019s even wider in remote communities, statistics show. <\/p>\n \u201cThe Voice, it suggests that Indigenous Australians \u2026 are inherently disadvantaged, for no other reason but because of our racial heritage,\u201d Price said. \u201cIt\u2019s suggested that every one of us needs special measures and [to be] placed in the constitution. That again is another lie. I mean, look at me and Warren, we\u2019re doing all right, aren\u2019t we?\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Both <\/strong>the Yes and No camps want more accountability \u2013 some proof that the billions of dollars spent each year on Indigenous programs are being used to help the most vulnerable. And both want a brighter future for the most disadvantaged Indigenous people, though they disagree about how to get there. <\/p>\n It\u2019s suggested that every one of us needs special measures and [to be] placed in the constitution. That again is another lie. <\/p>\n Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price <\/p>\n Many in the Yes camp say that future needs to start with recognition that, as the world\u2019s oldest continuous civilization, First Nations people occupied the land for 60,000 years before the arrival of British settlers just over 200 years ago. <\/p>\n The official No camp believes nothing separates Australians \u2013 from First Nations people to new migrants \u2013 and changing the constitution embeds division. For the Yes camp, Indigenous people do hold a special place in the country\u2019s history and their existence must be acknowledged, along with a permanent body that can\u2019t be dissolved on the political whim of future governments. <\/p>\n Other Indigenous people are voting No because it\u2019s not enough \u2013 they want treaties negotiated between the land\u2019s traditional owners and those occupying it. <\/p>\n Back in Cherbourg, visitors walk through the old ration shed, where people from hundreds of Aboriginal nations once queued for their weekly allowance of tea, sugar, rice, salt, sago, tapioca, slit peas, porridge, flour and meat. <\/p>\n It\u2019s now a museum, where elders share stories of life in those days. <\/p>\n Zala said Cherbourg Council has made gains in recent years, since Mayor Elvie was elected in 2020. The number of council jobs has doubled to 130, mostly filled by local staff, Zala said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe highest employment rate of any Indigenous community,\u201d he boasted. <\/p>\n They\u2019ve opened the first recycling center in an Indigenous community, which handles waste from surrounding areas; and the first Digital Service Center staffed by Indigenous workers, who gain experience and qualifications. <\/p>\n Plans are afoot to expand the water treatment plant beyond upgrades unveiled last year. But most of all, the council is working on ways to provide new homes for the hundreds of people wanting to move there. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a tough task \u2013 Cherbourg still operates as a Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT) community, meaning it relies on government funding. There\u2019s very little private ownership \u2013 almost all homes there are owned and maintained by the council. <\/p>\n For years, the council has encouraged residents to buy the homes their families have lived in for decades, but few financial incentives exist \u2013 there\u2019s no market for houses, meaning no capital gains, and some prospective homeowners balk at the cost of private upkeep after so many years of council support, Zala said. <\/p>\n As a lifelong resident, Mayor Elvie knows the issues well. Her mother lived in the Cherbourg dormitory until she was old enough to marry. By the time the future mayor was born in the 1970s, restrictions were being phased out. <\/p>\n She is not afraid of change, but she doesn\u2019t see how a Voice to Parliament in Canberra is going to help address the daily challenges she faces to keep her community employed, housed and educated. <\/p>\n For that reason, she\u2019s going to vote No. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t make my decision lightly,\u201d she said.\u201dI have had a number of conversations with different mayors and communities and some mayors are for the Yes vote. It\u2019s very divided right up the middle. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going No because I just feel it\u2019s a duplication. At the end of the day, I am the voice of Cherbourg because I\u2019m the elected mayor for this community.\u201d <\/p>\n I am the voice of Cherbourg because I\u2019m the elected mayor for this community. <\/p>\n Mayor Elvie Sandow <\/p>\n Zala is one of the newer Australians the No camp says would be done a disservice if the country\u2019s Indigenous population was given special recognition in the constitution. Born in Gujarat, India, he moved to Australia in 2006 and has been working to close the gap in Cherbourg since 2011. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s still my motivation every day when I come here. I don\u2019t accept why we have to be different than any other community. I always believed that we don\u2019t want to create a community which is so much behind,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Of the Voice, he said he\u2019ll be voting Yes. <\/p>\n \u201cAt least by voting Yes, you have hope. We don\u2019t know the detail [of] what\u2019s going to happen after the Voice, but it\u2019s best to get it through and see if there might be something good come to the community,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think lots of people are going to do the same.\u201d <\/p>\n\n Built on the land of the Wakka Wakka people, Cherbourg\u2019s modern motto of \u201cmany tribes, one community\u201d reflects the varied origins of its 1,700 residents, descendants of people once forced to live there under laws of segregation. Between 1905 and 1971, more than 2,600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were forcibly moved from their land <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} The Voice referendum<\/h2>\n
A childhood in Cherbourg<\/h2>\n
The argument against the Voice <\/h2>\n
Push for progress <\/h2>\n