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Wednesday, October 11, 2023
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BIBLICAL DOWNPOUR HEAVY rain drenched Mansfield last week after weeks of dry weather and bushfire warnings. Read how the shire faired on P4-5. PHOTO: Samuel O’Brien
Voices of Mansfield IN three days, Australians will head to the polls to vote on one of the most significant referendums in contemporary history. Questions around the Voice to Parliament have dominated media discourse, dinner conversations, work events and social catch-ups for the past six months. So how will residents in the Mansfield Shire region vote? When you stroll along Mansfield’s High Street it’s impossible not to notice Ink Bookshop.
it may not be a magic Town remains divided over upcoming p g referendum and wand but I feel it is a step BY HANNAH KENNELLY hkennelly@ nemedia.com.au
The brightly lit window is covered in multi-coloured book titles, boasting a wide array of fiction novels, children books and biographies. In July a new decoration was added to the window – a bright orange Yes sign. Store Owner Charlotte Lindsay decided to display the Yes decal after hearing
Indigenous author Thomas Mayo speak at the Sorrento Writers Festival in April. “Thomas Mayo co-wrote the best-selling The Voice to Parliament handbook with journalist Kerry O’Brien,” Charlotte explained. “The way he spoke about the Uluru statement and the Voice to Parliament was eloquent, succinct, calm and sensible, and also incredibly moving. “When I was doing a window for NAIDOC week at the beginning of
Kemp’s FURNITURE & BEDDING 5775 2688 Highett Street, Mansfield 99 Anzac Avenue, Seymour
July, highlighting all the indigenous books we have at Ink, I thought the Yes decal would be a wonderful and positive addition. “Not just for the Voice but also for recognition of First Nations people generally, the writers and illustrators I stock in particular.” Charlotte will be voting Yes on October 14 - a decision she describes as “fundamentally the right thing to do”. “As an Anglo-Australian I am uncomfortable
speaking on behalf of First Nations people, but as a national electorate we have been asked to provide an answer to a very simple question: about whether we want to alter the constitution to allow a First Nations committee that will give advice, and only advice, to the government on issues that affect their own communities,” she said. “Eighty per cent of Indigenous Australians support this [The Voice]
in the right direction and at the very least, an acknowledgement from the whole of our country that we support our First Nations people.” Charlotte described the referendum as an “uncomplicated and unthreatening question”. “Simply and basically, ‘Yes’, is a positive, hopeful and unifying word,” she said. “Yes is moving forward. No one stops you in your path.” ■ Continued page 2
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