A guarantee that traditional owners will always speak for country-Warren Mundine

“The push for recognition needs to capture the hearts and minds of Indigenous Australians. It must not be framed around the way others have looked at us, but how we look at ourselves; it must not be about recognising a race of people, but about recognising the First Nations of our country and the mobs to which each of us still belong.”-Nyunggai Warren Stephen Mundine AO

Indigenous politician Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO speaks at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015. Source: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Nyunggai Warren Stephen Mundine AO calls for a constitutionally guaranteed Indigenous voice to parliament in the publication of his essay Practical Recognition from the Mobs' Perspective-Enabling our mobs to speak for country.

In a timely address at University of Melbourne Law School Warren Mundine raises the idea on how empowering grassroots local First Peoples with a voice instead of a national voice is the way forward in reform for Constitutional Recognition. 

Mundine says "The proposal is in sync with the strong message from the recent Referendum Council regional dialogues where Indigenous leaders Australia-wide overwhelmingly rejected symbolic or minimalist recognition, and called for a structure to empower grassroots First Peoples. Many of the dialogues insisted that such a structure must be bottom up, not top down, and must ensure that local voices take primacy."

The essay Practical Recognition from the Mobs Perspective-Enabling out mobs to speak for country. Launched by Warren Mundine 19/05/17. Source: SBS Radio Living Black Radio

The essay is published by Uphold & Recognise. An organisation that proposes An Australian Declaration of Unity alongside Constitutional reform.

An Act; The Commonwealth of Australia. Constitution the Commonwealth of Australia. Source: peo.gov.au