A Voice for Australia’s aboriginal people?

Uluru at sunset, at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in Australia’s Northern Territory. A referendum to set up an Indigenous advisory body in Parliament was envisioned as uniting Australia, but the opposite has happened. — ©2023 The New York Times Company

IT was billed as a modest proposal that would help heal the traumas of history and unite the country. Australia would change its constitution to recognise the original inhabitants of the land and enshrine an advisory body in Parliament for aboriginal people, giving them a greater say on issues that affect their lives.

But over the past year, the proposal has exposed racial fault lines and become ensnared in a bitter culture war, in a country that has long struggled to reckon with its colonial legacy.