TGV supports Yes. We didn’t rush to this position. We listened deeply. We talked to our First Nations friends and colleagues and shared similarities and differences about the horror of having our validity and human rights being subject to national debate.
“The Uluru Statement of the Heart was developed after years of meaningful consultation with Community. Keeping in-step with the Uluru Statement of the Heart’s Community roots, VACCHO reasserts that it must be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at the forefront in leading the design of the Voice to Parliament.”
“At VACCA we breathe the Uluru Statement of the heart: “When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.”
TGV is founded on core values of connection, compassion and mutual respect and we welcome all of our diverse intersections. We know that trans and gender diverse communities have complex lived experiences, and that sometimes when we live with multiple forms of marginalisation and stigma, we experience the alienation of being the only person ‘of our kind’ in the room. TGV is committed to ongoing anti-racist learning and allyship, and realise that a trauma-impacted mix of white, BIPOC, settlers, convicts, and immigrants working with and alongside trans, gender-diverse and queer mob will often need to work hard to understand our various complexities. As new arrivals we pay our respects to the unceded land we are privileged to work and walk on, and acknowledge that the sky, air, waterways and country always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
Today, we stand alongside our friends and colleagues at VACCA, VACCHO and the 83% of Aboriginal people across so-called Australia who agree that, while it may not be enough ‘Yes’ is better than ‘No’. We share this position with our peers at BlaQ and LGBTQI+ orgs across Australia.
“In partnership with BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation, 22 LGBTIQ+ groups from around Australia on Wednesday joined together in support of the Yes campaign for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander constitutional recognition.” Equality Australia
Yes is a good place to start the deep and ongoing work that needs to be done.
Art by Wurudjeri and Birpai man, Wayde Clarke. Also known as Alejandro Lauren, @alejandro_lauren_
