Teela Reid, Columnist

Australia’s First Nations Vote Is Coming Down to Love Against War

The fate of Indigenous recognition depends on electors who have never even met an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person.

October 9, 2023 at 8:00 PM UTC

By Teela Reid

Teela Reid is a senior solicitor practicing in Aboriginal Land Rights litigation and is the current practitioner-in-residence at Sydney Law School. She is a campaigner for the Uluru Statement from the Heart and a member of one of the working groups for the Voice to Parliament referendum.

Landmark referendum.
Photographer: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images AsiaPac

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For First Nations people in Australia, this week’s vote on our recognition in the constitution is starting to feel like a choice between love and war.

The debate on this landmark referendum has intensified, and the polarization between the hard “Yes” and “No” cases means that 28% of Australians are still yet to decide how they will vote.