Around 150 people packed the pews of St Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Bendigo on Tuesday, September 26 to hear community leader Tim Costello and Dja Dja Wurrung Corporation CEO Rodney Carter share their thoughts on the Voice to Parliament.
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While the mood was somewhat sombre, with Costello describing the situation as "disheartening", he nevertheless believed in "keeping hope alive," the Baptist minister said.
Many of those present were upbeat anyway and pleased to be part of a local movement of support.
Among them was 99-year-old Diana Collier.
"According to my mum, I've been protesting since I was very young," she said.
Audience member Trish Trackingwolf, who described herself as native American by marriage, said she supported the Voice because she was very passionate about equality and believed the wisdom and knowledge of Indigenous peoples was vastly undervalued.
Her friend Andrew Cowell felt strongly about Australia's need to acknowledge its history of institutionalised racism and take a step in the direction of redressing it.
"We took Indigenous children away from their mothers; up until 1967 we said they weren't even human," he said.
"When are we going to recognise that we have had our own form of apartheid in Australia and are judged that way by the rest of the world?"
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But realist Ken Kelleen pointed to the difficulty of success for the Yes camp.
"I think it's going to be hard with the need for a double majority [nationally and in each state] and this is the first referendum in the era of social media, which has a negative power," he said.
City of Greater Bendigo Mayor Andrea Metcalf, who acted as facilitator of the discussion, said it had played a valuable educational role.
"I think most people in the audience indicated they'd learnt something from what Tim and Rod said. This is the purpose of it. It's an educational process," she said.
She also hoped the polls might be wrong.
"They've been wrong before," the mayor said.
Chair of Bendigo Interfaith Council Judy Causon described the evening as an "excellent" one and said she very much appreciated the clarity of Costello's contributions.
"When you listen to him, you think, 'Of course!'," she said.
Bishop Matt Brain was very pleased his church had played host to the event, the audience of which was made up of parishioners from around Bendigo and a broad cross-section of the community, he said.
Bendigo for Yes volunteers were looking forward to the visit of Indigenous Affairs minister Linda Burney to the town the following day.
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