I challenge any scientist, educator, business person, celebrity, politician, astrologer, physicist - anyone actually - to explain to me how life can work for life itself - for every human being and the earth - without each of us placing conditions on our expression and demands.
Referendum– What Lies Beneath
This piece is not so much about ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but about the truth of what has taken place beyond sides and proposals.
Beyond the referendum itself there is much to learn about where Australia is at socially, culturally and politically.
The gap between everyday Australians, many who are struggling amid difficult times, and those who present themselves as leaders, could not be more distant.
To front up before the Australian people and say, ‘follow us’, and then fail to provide sufficient details and logistics of what they are meant to follow and support is disrespectful.
But then to use name-calling and mockery, along with deceit and manipulative tactics to force the hand of the people you claim to care about and represent, and to overwhelm them with feelings of shame and guilt, makes what we have witnessed even more sinister.
If the proposition behind any referendum is so critical, and worthy of inclusion in a nation’s constitution, then it deserves better.
It deserves details.
It deserves truth.
It deserves respect.
And it deserves to convince the sacred people – that’s all Australians – it intends to represent on its own merits.
Not on the back of big business, celebrities and donations.
If a proposal is truly worth its salt, it would not need games or any of the strategies listed above.
And if those who represented it, valued and cherished it, they would welcome any questions from anyone. And they would answer them truthfully.
No question would be too stupid, no one opposing it would be made to feel dumb and no sense of fear or doubt in anyone would be trivialised or dismissed.
The proposal deserved better.
As did the Australian people.
And to say, ‘It’s just an advisory board’, is also misleading.
‘Just an advisory board’, is a statement that raises a multitude of questions that could sway a person’s vote.
Is it a full time position?
Can it just interfere for the sake of interference?
Is it only called together when the government of the day feels it needs advice?
Is advice solicited or unsolicited?
Who has been employed in a workplace that created a ‘new body’ to deal with something but then made life more sufferable because they had to justify the role?
Is there a definitive list of ‘indigenous concerns’ to which the advisory board can speak?
Can ‘treaty’ suddenly become an indigenous concern?
Land claims?
Financial compensation?
Greater power?
Is the board just a step in a certain direction? Or an end game?
I don’t raise these considerations as good or bad.
But everyone should understand the true nature, form and function of the proposed board.
In business, any contract that has certain details left out or includes other falsehoods designed to encourage a certain party to agree to the proposed terms is illegal.
When I read things like, ‘if they are for treaty, tell them the referendum is just a step, and if they aren’t, tell them it’s just an advisory board’, I am reminded of this fact.
If there is an intention to take this further then anyone who has declared, ‘It’s just an advisory board’, is guilty of spreading misinformation.
In fact, anyone who makes this statement without being certain this is the case has spread misinformation.
This is constitutional change.
There is a saying, ‘the devil is in the detail’, for a reason.
I remain gobsmacked anyone in any situation relating to constitutional change would ask the nation concerned not to worry about the details.
That should set off alarm bells for anyone -regardless of their position on an issue.
To say ‘don’t worry about the details’ is like saying, ‘don’t worry about the devil, I’ll introduce you to him once you agree to my offer or sign the contract’.
To say there is ‘nothing to fear’ in a political move that lacks any substance at all is errant and negligent.
I think history shows how often we are lied to by leaders – even with the details.
‘Just trust me’, when evoked with political agenda could perhaps be best understood as, ‘don’t trust me!’
Let alone when it is said by someone unable to articulate why they should be trusted.
The ‘heart’ behind the ‘yes’ campaign has been there for all to see.
And it’s been nasty and sinister.
The onus is on them. They want the nation’s support so they must win us over. And they must respect all of us.
There should have been care, compassion and honesty in all their communications. Even if the opposition went into the gutter, the ‘yes’ campaign had to stay out.
You will never win people over by calling them names.
Their campaign has had an ‘I am better than you’ and a ‘you should be ashamed of yourselves for not being like me’, vibe.
In that way it is disrespectful to the humanity of all - including their own - and the true nature of who we are as human beings.
Love is not on either side of this referendum.
It is in how we treat those who think differently to us.
To say indigenous Australians stand no chance without ‘the voice’ or that they do not have one is also misleading and deceitful.
Indigenous people do have voices.
We have witnessed a recent example – who was represented, how they were represented and how this representation was received.
Our nation watched as Jacinta Price stood before Canberra representing indigenous women and children who experience and suffer from high rates of domestic and sexual violence.
Women.
Children.
Bashed.
And raped.
She had victims of abuse with her.
She spoke to their suffering.
And she spoke of the backs and deaf ears with which their voices have been historically received.
She was their voice.
And how was this voice received by those who claim they are the only chance indigenous Australian’s have?
She was called a traitor to her people and treated like a criminal.
There was no, ‘tell us more!’
Or, ‘what can we do to help? What do you need from us?’
No - let’s attack the messenger.
Let’s attack a voice already dedicated to keeping the lives of indigenous woman and children sacred.
That’s our country.
We say we want ‘a voice’ to represent marginalised indigenous Australians then when a voice speaks up for those in genuine need - a marginalised and vulnerable voice - it is dismissed as treacherous.
This very real voice showed its face and was dismissed in preference of a power push.
That’s the ‘heart’ of the voice.
Even if one thinks it is a good idea, the lack of attention to detail and the disrespectful treatment of the Australian people, including those I just mentioned, should tell us it is in the wrong hands anyway.
Our nation is just this.
A nation.
And where love exists there is no separation.
Love sees ‘our’ people.
If the human dignity of all Australians is to be held sacred by those who seek to lead them, then it should not matter what anyone else believes, says or does.
Everyone’s dignity should be safe in a leader’s hands.
‘Follow us because you’re garbage if you don’t’, is not a style of leadership our nation should embrace.
And we would not have to if love and care for all truly lies in the heart of those who seek to lead.
The land upon which we all walk is not ours.
We belong to it.
It does not know the difference between your skin colour or mine.
It does not know where we were born or where we are from.
We do not need any political body, nor do we need constitutional change, to treat one another better.
We blame politicians for everything.
But they cannot stop us being kind and respectful to one another.
They cannot stop us taking better care of those in need.
We don’t need policies to love and care more for each other – and especially for those to which we stand opposed.
Our power and freedom to care for and listen to one another - and then to respond - is ours.
Quite rightly, many have little faith in political bodies and institutions.
But we should never lose faith in our own capacity to be loving and caring human beings - even when it’s hard.
All marginalised and vulnerable Australians don’t need more voices.
They need our ears.
Not just for the words they say.
But for the bruises and violated bodies.
The self-harming.
The crime.
The stabbings.
The suicides.
We have known about the excessive suffering experienced by indigenous women and children for a long time.
Regardless of whether we talk about it, we know.
And recently, their ‘voice’ came to Canberra and was dismissed once again.
I saw someone of high profile ask on a news program the other day, ‘if the voice loses, what next?’
That’s easy.
We stop fighting over who gets ‘the voice’ in Canberra and start listening to the voices that are already speaking.
We turn our backs to Canberra so we can see and hear the truth of those who are suffering.
It is hard to hear what your audience needs when you’re fighting to get on the stage.
And it is hard to listen when one is more focused on doing the talking.
Our inability to accept someone else as they are– even when they stand opposed to us - says nothing about them.
And everything about us.
Regardless of what happens on October 14th, high profile people and politicians should be quiet.
Go silent.
And listen.
Not to the architects of the referendum.
But to the people who are suffering.
Take the competition, force and intensity out of the picture and fill it with genuine care.
And love.
We are one body of life, walking on one land.
All human.
All negotiating a messed-up world to the best of our ability.
At a time when we need a sense of global oneness more than ever, I’m not sure making two nations out of our own is the best example to set.
Do you want to know something?
Reconciliation, here in Australia, can just happen.
If love is guiding the process, then there are no conditions required.
Just an offering of, and an acceptance of, forgiveness.
I will finish with one last comment that I believe true, regardless of the referendum.
There can be no greater freedom for any human being, than liberation from the chains of victimhood.
When those are broken one gains full autonomy over their own expression and behaviour.
They are no longer controlled by the ideas, voices and labels that sit outside them.
Or that others may attempt to attach to them.
Such a person can achieve because they are free to achieve.
Such a person can be kind because they are free to be kind.
And such a person will never rely on policies and politics to become one who holds all life sacred.
They know these freedoms and powers can never be taken from them in the first place.
And they certainly don’t need anyone cutting a deal in order for them to access them.
This liberation - this freedom - is the only freedom we never lose. No matter what the world does to us.
We can believe them lost.
But they aren’t.
And I would hope there is a part of us all that not only knows this but believes it.
With love to all.
Tim
By Timothy Guthrie
One voice our world neglects and dismisses is the voice of life and the voice of the land. They have spoken. They ask for two things. That we love. And that we take care of our children.
The foundation of this piece you have just read is their voice, a voice recorded here: 'When Tears Fall on the Red Dirt'.
For more writing like this click here: 'It is Love that Heals'.
I challenge any scientist, educator, business person, celebrity, politician, astrologer, physicist - anyone actually - to explain to me how life can work for life itself - for every human being and the earth - without each of us placing conditions on our expression and demands.
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