Australia's constitution is a "whitefella rule book" and changing it to recognise indigenous people must come from the rule makers, Senator Nova Peris says.
The Olympian made an impassioned speech as part of a panel discussion on constitutional recognition at the Garma indigenous festival in Arnhem Land on Monday.
Australia's first people are omitted from the constitution, and the Recognise movement has bipartisan political support to mount a referendum to change it.
Only eight of 44 referenda in Australia's history have been successful, requiring a majority of votes in a majority of states to pass.
Senator Peris says the movement is trying to convince a nation to recognise two per cent of the population, who are enormously over-represented in prisons, rates of alcoholism, poor health, social dysfunction and low educational outcomes.
"Everyone gets sick and tired of discussion about Aboriginal people and this is the problem we're going to face because white Australia thinks we get too much," she said.
"But every single day we are going to need a helping hand because for too long we have been squashed from the earth we came from.
"(We must) truly shift the mindset of white Australians and make them realise you've all benefited from 200 years of systemic injustices that have occurred in this country."
The constitution is "a whitefella rule book", so change needs to come from the rule makers, she said.
"This movement can't come from Aboriginal people who constantly don't have a voice; this movement needs to come from whitefellas because you need to realise you are here in this country, and we Aboriginal people are prisoners in our own country," she said.
Senator Peris said she sometimes felt that seeking recognition from the wider population was hopeless.
"I don't want to be an Aboriginal politician going out there, as a traditional owner, begging white people to recognise us, because you're killing us. You're killing our spirit."
Recognise chief executive Tanya Hosch said: "There are people in this country who don't want us to be hopeful about our future and they will say whatever it takes to scare people away from this conversation."
Former deputy prime minister John Anderson said research had shown older Australians were better acquainted with the issue and more supportive of the campaign than younger Australians.
Work would have to be done with 20- to 40-year-olds, said Mr Anderson, who is part of a constitutional recognition federal review panel.
"We are all losers if we don't recognise the dignity and worth of all Australians equally."
Share
