| The statistics are clear. Indigenous Australians on average die eight years earlier than the average Australian, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. They’re twice as likely to die by suicide, and 12 times more likely to be jailed, according to research by the Economist. Signatories of the Uluru statement say life chances for the country’s 983,700 Indigenous people are below those of the wider community, because of the government’s failure to consult Indigenous people on policies that affect them. “Non-Indigenous people [are] making decisions about communities they have never visited and people they do not know,” Prof Megan Davis, an Uluru Statement signatory, said. “This is why so many communities are not flourishing. This is why so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are struggling. The decisions made about their lives are crafted by people in Canberra or other big cities.” Why did the nation vote no? The no campaign leaned heavily on the slogan “If you don’t know, vote no”, which Australia’s former high court justice Robert French described as an invitation to “resentful, uninquiring passivity”. “The Australian spirit evoked by the ‘don’t know’ slogan is a poor shadow of the spirit which drew up our constitution,” he said. “It invites us to a resentful, uninquiring passivity. Australians, whether they vote yes or no, are better than that.” Proponents of the no campaign, including the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, called on the public to vote against, claiming that the proposal had not been properly explained. “It’s divisive. It’s permanent once it goes into the constitution.” They claimed that rather than bringing people together it would “permanently divide” the country because it would give some Australians greater rights than others. However, legal experts – including the federal solicitor general – disputed that, saying the voice would not have had any power to veto legislation. The no campaign had been spearhead by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the shadow minister for Indigenous affairs, who describes herself as a Warlpiri-Celtic woman. During the campaign, when asked if Indigenous people were suffering negative impacts of colonisation, she said no. “I’ll be honest with you, I do not think so. A positive impact? Absolutely. I mean, now we have running water, readily available food.” Lorena Allam, Guardian Australia’s Indigenous affairs editor, says Price’s comments “erupted an intense debate”. “The debate was not whether she was right or wrong, it was more about all the different ways she was wrong,” says Allam, who is descended from the Gamilaraay and Yawalaraay nations of north-west New South Wales. “But it shows in hindsight that truth-telling should have come first. “Australia is coming to terms with its history, but for that to really seep into the suburbs where we wanted people to vote, truth-telling is an essential part of what we need to do. “The country is divided by this, people have been scarred by the experience. Truth-telling is the way we lead the nation to some place of healing – we can’t avoid it any longer.” | 