Voice from the heart of Australia

As the 'yes' and 'no' camps settle into their corners, the women at the heart of the campaign for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament answer our most pressing questions and talk us through its rollercoaster ride to a referendum.

- SAMANTHA TRENOWETH

There were four women - all respected artists from the local town of Mutitjulu - sitting on the red earth, in the shade of desert oak trees, painting their sacred and powerful tjukurpa stories onto the border of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Rene Kulitja - Anangu Elder, painter, weaver, singer, community leader and grandmother - had gathered the group. The others were Kunmanara Happy Reid, Christine Brumby and Rene's daughter Charmaine. Behind them rose the iconic 550-million-year-old rock that sits at the heart of Australia.

The air smelt of canvas and fresh paint - bright purple, orange and yellow - desert colours, as the artists painted around 250 tightly packed signatures, which represented thousands of First Nations people. Earlier, on behalf of Uluru’s traditional owners, Pitjantjara Elder Sammy Wilson had presented Referendum Council leaders with a Piti (vessel), a Tjutinypa (digging stick) and a Tjara (shield) to carry, defend and protect the Uluru Statement. Everyone who was there felt the gravity of that day, May 26, 2017. There was a sense of hope that this extraordinary, generous statement from the heart of Australia could unite a nation.

Six years later, as the conversation quickens around the approaching referendum on a First Nations Voice to Parliament, The Weekly meets some of the women who have shepherded this idea through its sometimes exhilarating, occasionally rocky 12-year road to resolution. They are a remarkable bunch – brilliant, feisty, driven, warm – Aussie battlers every one, and this is the battle of their lives. The Voice means the world to them and they want Australia to understand why.

“The people were saying, ‘No one ever listens to us’,” Professor Megan Davis explains. “That’s why Uluru is important, because we did listen.”