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In 2017 SEARCH committed to supporting the Uluru Statement from the Heart. We joined with others in the Yes campaign for the Voice Referendum, and shared the grief of the loss in that vote. For SEARCH members the night of 14 October 2023 was not the moment for snap judgements. A deep and considered analysis would be needed - but after the loss and grief of a respectful silence.

In early 2024 we undertook research, conversations, survey responses, and interviews with campaigners involved at all levels of the Yes Campaign; activists living and working in metropolitan, urban, regional and rural cities and towns and in First Nations communities. The result was the 66-page   “After the Referendum: Learning from the Fight for Justice for Australia’s First Nations people” (AtR), published in 2024 online and in hard copy.

We also undertook to write a shorter form of the analysis, which we now publish as After the Referendum: One Year On. You can download it for free here (web viewing optimised version) or to print for yourself here.

You can also buy a hard copy for just $5 by clicking here.

The SEARCH Voice Treaty Truth Working Group has written this introductory letter to After the Referendum: One Year On

This short pamphlet is a companion piece to our comprehensive analysis of the 2023 Referendum on the Voice to Parliament, AFTER THE REFERENDUM: Learning from the Fight for Justice for Australia’s First Nations People, published in October 2024.

It summarises key arguments of Learning from the Fight for Justice, especially the reasons for the failure of the Yes Campaign and its consequences.

It includes the most recent reflections of prominent First Nations leaders on the Referendum, and their heartfelt call to Allies to now actively speak up and rejoin the struggle.

We outline the essentials of a progressive response, and the vital steps towards achieving justice for all Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander peoples.

Recent disturbing developments sharpen the urgency of our cause. Peter Dutton will reverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait public policy should the LNP win the federal election. Mimicking the populist right in the US, New Zealand, the LNP will return us to Australia’s catastrophic assimilationist past.

In summary, read with the more comprehensive Learning from the Fight for Justice; One Year On offers an informed analysis of the failure of the Yes Campaign and the political options towards achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders' self-determined –justice and rights. Simple actions now, for example, include mobilising resistance to the abolition of Welcome to Country proposed by some state, territory and local governments.

We hope that the political analysis of One Year On will stimulate the important conversations and activism our nation must now have - After the Referendum.

Please share it widely, with family, friends, civil society and your political networks - and urge all to action. 

Voice Treaty Truth Working Group of the SEARCH Foundation, March 2025