The time is as right as it will ever be for a referendum on First Nations’ Constitutional Recognition, an Uluru Statement of the Heart Dialogue meeting decided. 

The meeting was held earlier this month in Cairns and Yarrabah, and included a youth forum, the largest gathering of senior First Nations leadership since the Uluru National Convention in 2017 and a visit to the birthplace of the 1967 referendum campaign – the Tree of Knowledge in Yarrabah. 

The call came less than a week after Uluru Dialogue co-chair Noel Pearson told former Prime Minister Paul Keating at the Judith Neilsen Institute there had not been a public policy issue as protracted and as involved as constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians. 

The end result of the far north Queensland gathering was the leaders, including Mr Pearson and youth, agreeing on the Yarrabah Affirmation which reaffirmed their commitment to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and called for a constitutionally enshrined Voice…