This guide highlights resources on recent campaigns for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander constitutional recognition, and the 2023 Referendum regarding a Voice to Parliament.
To find further material relevant to this topic, try searching with these subject headings in the State Library catalogue:
For more assistance, talk with staff at the State Library Information Desk or Ask Us.
The State Library has a number of eResources that are useful for finding articles relating to Aboriginal history and contemporary events. Become a State Library member to access many of these from home.
Newsbank features local, regional and national newspaper coverage, including The Advertiser and The Australian.
In July 2022, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese proposed a referendum question and constitutional amendments, as the next step in the discussion about constitutional change.
The Bill was passed in the House of Representatives on 30 March 2023 and the Senate on 19 June 2023.
Find relevant Hansard transcripts on the Parliament House website.
You can read the wording of the Bill, and an extensive history of the passage of the legislation here.
Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023
The vote was held on Saturday 14 October, 2023 and the results can be viewed on the website of the Australian Electoral Commission.
Australian Government. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Official Government website for the referendum.
'Yes' campaign official site.
Overview of some of the groups campaigning for a 'No' vote. SBS Australia, including the Fair Australia group, Recognise a better way, and the Blak Sovereign Movement.
The Official Yes/No Referendum pamphlet can be found on the website of the Australian Electoral Commission.
These relate to recent campaigns for constitutional recognition and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to parliament.
Material relating to earlier campaigns for political and civil rights can be found on the page relating to the 1967 Referendum.
Brennan, Frank. An Indigenous voice to parliament : considering a constitutional bridge, 2023.
Davis, Megan. Voice of reason : on recognition and renewal, 2023.
Davis, Megan and Williams, George. Everything you need to know about the Uluru statement from the heart, 2021.
Davis, Megan and Langton, Marcia (eds). It's our country : Indigenous arguments for meaningful constitutional recognition and reform, 2016.
Freeman, Damien (ed). The forgotten people: liberal and conservative approaches to recognising indigenous peoples. 2016.
Grant, Stan. The Uluru Statement and the end of history : 21st annual Hawke Lecture. 2018.
Johns, Gary (ed.) Recognise what? : arguments to acknowledge Aborigines, but not recognise Aboriginal culture or rights, in the Australian Constitution, 2014.
Mayo, Thomas and O'Brien, Kerry. The voice to parliament handbook : all the details you need, 2023.
Mayo, Thomas. Finding the heart of the nation : the journey of the Uluru Statement towards voice, treaty and truth. 2019. Also an eBook (membership required).
Morris, Shireen and Freeman, Damien. Statements from the soul : the moral case for the Uluru Statement from the Heart, 2023.
Morris, Shireen (ed.) A rightful place: a road map to recognition. 2017.
Mundine, Warren and Kurti, Peter (eds.) Beyond belief : rethinking the Voice to parliament, 2022.
Pearson, Noel. It's time for true constitutional recognition: a keynote address.... 2021.
Pearson, Noel. A rightful place : race, recognition and a more complete commonwealth, 2014.
Reynolds, Henry. Truth-telling : history, sovereignty and the Uluru Statement, 2021
Online resources relating to earlier recent campaigns for Constitutional recognition
Calma, Tom and Langton, Marcia. Indigenous Voice Co-design Process Final Report to the Australian Government. 2021.
2017 First Nations National Constitutional Convention. Uluru statement from the heart. Statement prepared by delegates.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Act 2013 committed Parliament to placing before the Australian people at a referendum a proposal for constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Final report of the Referendum Council, 2017.
The website of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Includes, Interim, Progress and Final reports (2018), submissions to the inquiry, and media releases.
The 'Recognise' campaign was wound up in 2017 shortly after the constitutional summit that rejected the campaign's goals, and produced the Uluru Statement as its preferred model. A snapshot of their website from 2013 has been preserved on Pandora.
