Wrong use of correct information, and outright misinformation, skewed the public's view of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament proposal. Too few people actually sought out the facts. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
As Australians begin an election year, Indigenous activists and communities are asking questions about our progress towards treaty and truth-telling processes.
After the defeat of the Voice referendum in 2023, the federal government has remained largely silent, but some of the state governments took truth-telling into their own hands in 2024.
And some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are coming up with solutions themselves.
Pat Turner, the CEO of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organizations and chair of the Coalition of Peaks, the representative body of more than 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island community-controlled peak organisations, tells ABC's Speaking Out that the group had been left in the dark.
"Very sadly, the referendum to establish the constitutionally enshrined Voice was defeated and the Coalition of Peaks is not its replacement," Ms. Turner says.
CEO NACCHO, Pat Turner has been involved in a number of significant moment in Indigenous Affairs.
"Especially when there was nothing to follow from the government, apart from their commitment to continue working with us."
More than a year on, many First Nations peoples continue to feel rejected and as if they're going backwards in the fight for Indigenous rights.
So, what direction is Australia heading in when it comes to establishing a treaty and a national truth-telling body?
Some movement in the right direction
In March 2024, South Australia established its own Voice to Parliament, just four months after the referendum for the national Voice failed.
New South Wales has also started a 12-month consultation to inform a pathway to treaty.
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And Victoria established its own truth-telling inquiry, the Yoorrook Commission, in 2022.
Gamilaraay and Yawalaraay journalist and Indigenous Affairs at Guardian Australia Lorena Allam says communities are using the failure of the federal referendum as an opportunity to start these processes on their own.
"Communities are having their own conversation about how we do treaty and truth-telling, not waiting for governments to do these processes," Ms Allam says.
"Victoria has done a lot of work around this stuff where people descended from perpetrators from colonial people have reached out and tried to do that work. There's nothing stopping us from doing that, we don't need permission."
Ms Allam says having these conversations more organically makes truth-telling more meaningful and has encouraged more people to want to participate in this process.
Lorena Allam says organic truth-telling by local communities can be very meaningful. (Supplied)
"Talking about how they do this stuff, independent of any official process, I think is so much more meaningful.
"Because they're place-based with local people who are involved and have a personal stake in this."
Yet, as Professor Lindon Coombes from the Jumbunna Institute says, there has been silence from the federal government about how they intend to move forward after the referendum.
"It does feel like there's a bit of a vacuum nationally, that the current government is sort of stepping away from its ambitions around Indigenous affairs," Professor Coombes says.
He says First Nations communities are having to rely on themselves to help push forward truth-telling processes.
"In this past year, I've seen communities being more insular, in taking care of each other and taking stock of where they are," Professor Coombes says.
Queensland backtracked on truth-telling
While most states are moving ahead with their commitment to Indigenous affairs, moves toward truth-telling inquiries and a Voice to Parliament in Queensland have been shelved.
Queensland's historic Pathway to Treaty was set up in 2023 and included a Voice to Parliament and an independent truth-telling commission.
The commission was something Indigenous Queenslanders were readying themselves for expecting the state's dark history to be exposed and for those responsible to be held accountable.
However, the government changed just weeks after the inquiry started in July 2024, and it was then shut down under the Liberal government led by Premier David Crisafulli.
Ms Turner says the shutdown of the inquiry and the state government's "tough on crime" agenda is devastating for the First Nations community in Queensland.
"Queensland and [Northern Territory] have the same sort of issues with young people that we are yet to see play out, but it's not good as far as youth justice is concerned," she says.
Although the treaty and inquiry have been abandoned, Ms Turner says that Indigenous people are continuing to stand up to government processes.
"It was good to see Queenslanders standing up. People need to continue to do what they can without government constraints," she says.
However, Professor Coombes believes this kind of racist discourse by the government has a concerning impact on people's attitude towards the Indigenous community.
"Recent developments in Queensland around treaty and other things related to justice indicate that side of politics has been emboldened," he says.
Professor Lindon Coombes, here with ABC senior reporter Isabella Higgins, says the state government's racist attitudes have embolden some people. (ABC Indigenous: Jai McAllister )
"There's a prompt for people to revert to these ideas, I think there's a natural attraction towards to do that, so nationally, it's not looking great."
Ms Allam agrees that some governments are using the failure of the Voice referendum to further push policies that disadvantage First Nations peoples.
"We're receiving blows of resentment around things that weren't ever really part of the vote, like arguing whether a Welcome to Country is a valid response. Local councils are repealing the need to do that," Ms Allam says.
"People conflating all sorts of racist grievances with the vote, and that wasn't about any of those, it was about enshrining a Voice to Parliament into the constitution."
What's next for truth-telling and treaty?
After the disappointing Voice referendum result, many Indigenous peoples felt rejected and questioned their path forward.
Ms Turner says the federal government has been at a standstill when working with the Coalition of Peaks on the Closing the Gap targets ever since.
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However Aboriginal Community Controlled Organizations (ACCOs) have pushed forward in working towards those targets.
"The people feel, post referendum, that there's been a bit of stagnation, but it's certainly not the case," Ms Turner says.
"The people have been so committed to these issues, they're working hard to close the gap."
Professor Lindon Coombes says the government's silence on the issue hasn't gone unnoticed.
"We've been waiting for them to bounce back from the referendum, and it just hasn't happened," he says.
"I think there's a frustration in the community that they voted for change, but they're waiting to see that change."
Ms Allam says the lack of action by the government on treaty or truth-telling talks could potentially hurt them in this year's election.
And so the community is still waiting for government action.
"We're in a time where there is kind of a vacuum in our leadership, people are taking stock and the federal government has in a sense, emptied the space," she says.
"They don't want to talk about truth-telling or about treaty making, they keep saying it's a state's responsibility."
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