Kamilaroi man Uncle John Delaney sits on the porch of his Campbelltown home, reflecting on his years on this earth.
"It's been a happy life, a sad life and a disappointing life. I've been around for 90 summers and I've seen a lot come and go," he said.
During his life, the 89-year-old has experienced many of the challenges that often plague his people.
The resounding defeat of the Voice referendum is one in a long line of setbacks he has witnessed.
For many elders like Uncle John, the inclusion of First Nations people in the country's founding document will never be realised.
"We were hoping against hope. We thought Australia can't be this bad."
Born in 1934 on Burra Bee Dee mission in north-western New South Wales, Uncle John was seven years old when he narrowly escaped being taken from his family under the Aborigines Protection Act 1909.
"They just think we’re a mob of whingeing blacks, because they don’t know about the trauma and dispossession that we’ve been through and are still going through," he said.
Uncle John's son died while incarcerated and he's suffering from lung cancer, one of the biggest killers of Aboriginal people.
Uncle John has dedicated his life to First Nations people. As a former ATSIC commissioner, he pushed for the government to adopt the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
"Those documents have all the questions and all the answers … and yet they are just gathering dust on the shelves of bureaucrats' offices," he said.
Uncle John reminisces about sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Black activists who paved the way for change — an opportunity that was promptly rejected by the Australian people at the weekend.
"I feel for the young people and grieve for the elders who brought us this far," he said.
"We didn't expect to win the referendum anyway, but we didn't expect it to be so devastatingly unequal."
'We're just devastated': Aboriginal communities lament the referendum result
In many regional areas across the country, where Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians live alongside one another, voters overwhelmingly said no to constitutional change.
In Eden-Monaro, on the New South Wales South Coast, more than 60 per cent of locals voted against the Voice.
For Yuin leader Wally Stewart, the result was heartbreaking.
"We're just devastated. We put out the olive branch and invited [Australians] to come and work with us and they knocked it back."
"A Voice means something but Australia's not ready for it," he said.
On Minjerribah, North Stradbroke Island, the crushing defeat feels like it has pushed the fight for Indigenous rights back decades, said Quandamooka and Wiradjuri man Darren Burns.
"I've been working on the front line [for] the Aboriginal cause forever," he said.
"I've heard some elders say it puts us back 40 to 50 years."
In his view, Australians do not fully understand the disadvantage that First Nations people are suffering.
"The suicide rates in Aboriginal communities, the life expectancy … Some people in government don't understand [how to close] the gap and what is killing our people.
"What is killing our people is waking up every day knowing that your land is full of people who stole that land off you and walk around pretending nothing is wrong."
Hope for a new movement
Uncle John has hope the next generation will bring with it more change, but he knows their fight won't be without challenges.
"Australia is one of the most racist countries in the world for Indigenous people," he said.
"Hang in there, the things that happened in my lifetime were extremely depressing but because of family around us and our community, we all survived."
For Wally Stewart, the time for "peaceful" negotiation is over.
He now wants to see First Nations people united in their pursuit of treaties and truth commissions, but he says it won't be easy.
"The way to move forward is we need to regroup … Treaty for everyone is how to accomplish that."
"The only way Aboriginal people have ever made progress in Australia is on protest.
"We might have to go back to them old days, because it's the only way that seems to make a difference is when we make a noise and they start to listen."
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiUmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIzLTEwLTE4L2VsZGVycy1yZWFjdC10by1yZWZlcmVuZHVtLWRlZmVhdC8xMDI5ODYyNTDSAShodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTAyOTg2MjUw?oc=5
2023-10-17 19:22:52Z
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