Congress joins the journey to Indigenous recognition

The movement to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution is making its way around Australia.

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The National Congress board joining the Recognise movement

The Congress of Australia's First Peoples have joined forces with the Human Rights Commission to run a series of educational events around the country.

The latest forum for constitutional recognition was held at Cairn's Tjapukai Cultural Park.

These forums are being held to give both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians the technical details of what is involved in changing the constitution, and to gain support for a future referendum.

"You know, we need to build that momentum and let everyone know what the changes mean because you need the majority of Australian people to vote yes to make the changes, so we really at this stage need to get out there and let people know what it means to change the constitution," says Congress Director Vanessa Curnow.

"[The changes mean] we’re going to take out the clauses in the constitution that means that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples votes won’t be counted, we’ll take out the parts of the constitution that are racist pretty much,"

To be successful, a referendum needs to have the majority of Australia’s support in all states and territories.

Apart from the 1967 vote to include Indigenous Australians in the census, not many referendums have been successful.

For 11 years, Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda was not counted as an Australian.

"There've been other referendums that talked about things like the retiring age of judges, which is really mechanical stuff," Mr Gooda says.

"Again this referendum will go to the heart of the nation, how do we acknowledge the first peoples, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and what that will do for us as a country when that recognition happens."

The Recognise movement want section 5126 of the constitution abolished.


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Source: NITV News

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