Hear Uncle Glenn Loughrey reading the Statement from the Heart
ABM is privileged to share this video recording by the Rev’d Canon Glen Loughrey of the historic 2017 Statement from the Heart, which forms the basis of the Yes argument for the upcoming “Voice” referendum.
Uncle Glenn says of his recording, “I believe it is important people listen to the source document within which the referendum for Recognition and Voice is one of the four aspirations of those who participated in the Dialogues in 2016.
“The Statement from the Heart signed at Uluru is a gentle and absurd document of transformational forgiveness and restorative justice. It contains no demands and doesn’t attempt to blame or guilt others. It simply offers the opportunity to walk together for a ‘better future for Australia’.”
The Statement begins: “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 60,000 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…
And it concludes: “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.”
You can see the Statement here: https://ulurustatement.org/the-statement/
Watch the recording of Glenn reading the Statement here: youtu.be/MIBb7XbaNrM
The Public Affairs Commission of the Anglican Church of Australia has also just released these resources for understanding and responding to the Voice Referendum.
Reading from the Statement from the Heart
