Uluru Statement from the Heart

From the Heart is a campaign designed to increase awareness and understanding of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and a constitutionally-enshrined Voice to Parliament and to show that it is a fair and practical reform.

In keeping with the tradition of the Yirrkala bark petitions and the Barunga statement the Uluru Statement was made in the form of a work of art.

The artwork tells the story of two Tjukurpa creation stories of the traditional owners of Uluru the Aṉangu people. One tells how the Uluru landscape was shaped by a fight to the death at the Mutitjulu Rockhole between Kuniya the woma python with eggs from the north east at the top left and Liru the poisonous snake from the south west at the bottom left.

The other tells the story of the Mala people represented by the Rufous hare-wallaby who while holding a ceremony at the top of Uluru became involved in a dispute with men who came from the west. The men left and created Kurpany the devil dingo represented by the dog prints.

The text of the Statement is as follows:

Statement from the Heart

We gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention coming from all points of the southern sky make this statement from the heart:

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did according to the reckoning of our culture from the Creation according to the common law from 'time immemorial' and according to science more than 60000 years ago.

This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land or 'mother nature' and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom remain attached thereto and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil or better of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.
How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?

With substantive constitutional change and structural reform we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia's nationhood.

Proportionally we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.

We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.

We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.

Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.

We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.
In 1967 we were counted in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

Uluru Statement from the Heart

The Uluru Statement from the Heart was released on 26 May 2017 by delegates to the First Nations National Constitutional Convention held over four days near Uluru in Central Australia.

The Convention was held after the 16-member Referendum Council appointed in 2015 had travelled around the country and met with over 1200 people.

The statement was issued after the Convention and calls for a "First Nations Voice" in the Australian Constitution and a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of "agreement-making" and truth-telling between the Australian Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Makarrata is a Yolngu word that translates to treaty: a process of conflict resolution peacemaking and justice.

The Final Report of the Referendum Council was published on 30 June 2017 and sent to the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the leader of the opposition Bill Shorten.

On 26 October 2017 Prime Minister Turnbull issued a joint statement with the Attorney-General George Brandis and the Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion rejecting the statement. The statement said "The government does not believe such a radical change to our Constitution's representative institutions has any realistic prospect of being supported by a majority of Australians in a majority of states".