Delivering the 2022 Higinbotham Lecture, activist and constitutional law expert, Professor Megan Davis, laid out the significance of the upcoming referendum on a Voice to Parliament and the impact of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
A renowned constitutional lawyer and public law expert, Davis is Pro Vice-Chancellor Society, and Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law, at UNSW Sydney and a Cobble Cobble woman of the Barunggam Nation.
Speaking at RMIT's annual law and human rights lecture, she explained the long road that has already been taken to get to the threshold of a constitutional change to recognise First Nations' people.
"There has been support amongst all sides of politics for constitutional recognition since the referendum on the republic in 1999," she said.
"The problem has been that no one really knew what recognition meant. In the media and public discourse, there has been too much focus on the dictionary definition of recognition: acknowledgement. There is too much acknowledgement in Australia.
"First Nations people in Australia, from day one, were seeking substantive - not symbolic - recognition.
"Substantive recognition requires a redistribution of public power and can compel the state to act."
