Aboriginal Australians may at last be given a say in their own affairs

Beginning in 2016 thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from hundreds of communities across Australia came together in regional dialogues culminating in a constitutional convention. The consultations were impressively inclusive—far more so, for instance, than for white Australians when the country’s constitution was agreed on in 1901. Out of the convention came an “Uluru Statement from the Heart”. It identified structural failings ruining indigenous lives. It called for an advisory body, a “Voice to Parliament” to be enshrined in the constitution. Its aim is to improve outcomes by giving indigenous Australians a greater say over laws and policies that are foisted on them.