The Indigenous Carbon Industry Network is grateful for the opportunity to support constitutional change to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of Australia, and to establish a dedicated Indigenous advisory Voice to Parliament.

Our Network includes 29 Indigenous organisations who seek to use carbon markets to support their efforts to care for country. We are united by our support for the principle that Indigenous Australians have a right to directly inform the policies that affect them, and that this right needs to be constitutionally enshrined.

Our own experience in seeking to support Indigenous-led policy development on issues related to the carbon industry over the past five years is that government policy processes are often inaccessible to many Indigenous communities, which often creates perverse outcomes as a result.  

Voting ‘YES’ for a dedicated Indigenous advisory body to Parliament will support greater opportunity for Indigenous Australians to inform government policies. This can only be a positive change that will lead to better outcomes for all Australians.

The opportunity for Australians to make this change for recognition and healing has been a long time coming. We pay our respects to the great number of Indigenous leaders who have advocated tirelessly for this change over many decades, some of whom have sadly passed before their time.

We would like to thank leaders within our own network who have invested time and energy into educating the wider community about why a vote ‘Yes’ for change is so important.

"This is an opportunity that won’t come again for 50 or 100 years, maybe never,” Dean Yibarbuk, Traditional Owner of Djinkarr, Co- Chair ICIN and Karrkad Kanjdji Trust. 

“We are about to vote on a yes or no, let’s ensure that decisions we make about Indigenous interests and rights today are decisions we can be proud of into the future,"Suzanne Thompson, Iningai woman and ICIN Director.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been asking for representation in government for over a century,” Tyronne Garstone, Kimberley Land Council CEO and ICIN Director.

ICIN is proud to share this video by one of our founding members, the Kimberley Land Council, with the voices of Traditional Owners across the Kimberley explaining why voting Yes is so important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaMmJtXG-CY

If you seek further information and understanding, please read the Uluru Statement from the Heart and consider the materials available here.