30/03/2023

Cheryl Axleby admits she struggles to describe how she felt when the First Nations Voice Bill passed the House of Assembly after a special sitting of South Australian Parliament on Sunday 26 March 2023.

“It was a combination of feelings,” our Head of Aboriginal Housing said.

“But I was very privileged to be there in the company of Elders and leaders who have been advocating for a very long time. I also had my family, my Aunties and the Elders. They were very overwhelmed because we can actually move forward as a state.

“Because of all of their experiences, they never even thought that we would get to this point.”

Cheryl, a proud Narungga women, was inside Parliament House when the Bill passed the House of Assembly and joined the State Government when SA Governor Frances Adamson AC proclaimed the Bill on North Terrace.

Cheryl said she had been involved with the movement to establish a Voice to Parliament since about 2017, when she was helped organise a delegation of 12 South Australian leaders to attend the Uluru Statement from the Heart in the Northern Territory.

“But before that there was a gathering of about 120 people in Adelaide and that’s where this conversation about establishing a Voice to Parliament really got started,” she said.

Cheryl said the years since had involved a number of discussions, predominately focussed on how a Voice would look and work.

“It’s all been worth it because this is something that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been calling for since colonisation… because, really, right up until now our lives have been impacted and controlled largely through various commonwealth and state legislation and decisions they have made, for largely without any of our input.

“Having a Voice, we will now have the really important ability to talk directly through Parliament about the needs of our communities through the elected voices/members our own people have elected from their own communities.

“This puts Aboriginal communities and organisations as equals at the same table as governments.”

Representatives for the South Australian Voice will be elected across communities over the coming months, with the mechanism expected to be running before the end of the year.

“That will be the first challenge to overcome, because we have lots of people not on the electoral roll which is an impact of the Stolen Generations or births not being recorded in remote communities.  We need to ensure our Aboriginal peoples of SA have their voices included in the voting process.

“We will then be able to move on to working towards addressing the systemic changes and policies and practices that need to change to ensure we reach the outcomes our peoples need.”

More information about the First Nations Voice to South Australian Parliament is available here.