The failed referendum is a political disaster, but opportunity exists for those brave and willing to embrace it

By Bhiamie Williamson, Research Fellow, Monash University

October 14, 2023 will be remembered by many as the day reconciliation died.

The defeat of the referendum may not have surprised many of us, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. After all, we have become accustomed to disappointment. Nonetheless, it is a devastating and demoralising blow.

We must take stock of this political disaster and consider where it leaves us as a nation and a society of people and in what direction we walk from here.

A political disaster

I have published extensively on the impacts of disasters on Indigenous peoples, such…

Read complete article

~	Mali’s military leader is consolidating power. Why this is dangerous

~	Labour in crisis: whoever is prime minister, voters expect politicians to use the language of populism

~	Death penalty in 2025 – Facts and figures

~	Raghu Rai: the trailblazing photographer who documented the vast diversity of a changing India

~	Why European households throw away so much food – and how to curb the waste mountain

~	The Pennine hills are full of holes – here’s how they’re helping fight climate change

~	Ebola outbreak declared a global health emergency – what you need to know

~	Xi warned Trump against the ‘Thucydides Trap’ – here’s what ancient Greece can tell us about US-China relations

~	Human rights concerns abound over China’s ‘state secrets’ regulation in the Uyghur region

~	What you need to know about the Ebola outbreak that has the WHO concerned