Reading on, the tone and use of labels like ‘elites’ and ‘virtue-signalling’ eroded this to a message that felt disingenuous at best and further divisive at worst.
Echuca is a place steeped in incredible history, of stories that have shaped our nation, birthed extraordinary Australians like Sir Doug Nicholls, Uncle William Cooper and The Sapphires. You need only walk along our beautiful river to find evidence of this from long before we arrived or learn about the Cummerangunja community.
A quarter of this electorate voted Yes in the referendum. A quarter of this electorate wanted to stand with the overwhelming number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who voted Yes across the country for a voice on matters that concern their own lives. An electorate that stands on thousands of years of Aboriginal history that you’d be hard pressed to know about if you walked down any main street.
I cannot and will not speak on behalf of local Aboriginal people, but these many months leading into last weekend have been a damaging, hurtful and distressing experience for many community members right across this nation, no matter how their votes went.
And it won’t end now that the referendum is behind us.
Peter, if your call for unity is genuine and your argument that the No vote wasn’t a vote underpinned by racism, then I call upon you and Sam Birrell MP to show up and demonstrate this through action.
Take a lead on building more pride and connection in this place, to its rich and remarkable history that started well before Henry Hopwood, that we benefit from every day whether you appreciate or acknowledge that or not.
No-one is denying that there are other key issues that sit alongside this that need addressing right now — cost of living pressures, housing, education and regional roads.
But believe it or not, outside the world of partisan, populist politics that our democratic system has been degraded to, the ability for us to address, work on and achieve these at the same time is very possible.
Sharni Wearne,
Echuca
Don’t suffer in silence
We write to your newspaper from the key not-for-profit Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia, with some important messages for your readers.
We know that many Australians have mental health issues. Unfortunately, thousands and thousands of Australians are not getting help for those issues. All too often, people end up in a hospital or an emergency department out of desperation because they just do not know where to go.
Our latest awareness campaign highlights the massive neglect of people in Australia who have a mental illness just has to stop. We specifically want to highlight to readers that if you know somebody having difficulties with mental health issues, the first key thing to do is accept there may well be a problem and then reach out and see your GP.
Your GP will be able to give you all kinds of practical suggestions on how to best handle complex situations.
We would also like to let readers know that we have a special not-for-profit network called Finding North. Put simply, it is a growing community on the internet that links people with mental health issues with others in a similar situation so that they can share their experiences.
To get information, just go to www.findingnorth.org.au
It is estimated there are at least 154,000 Australians with a severe or complex mental illness.
We specifically highlight to readers, please do not suffer in silence. Ask your GP for support and help and visit Finding North. It is free for all readers to visit and can make a world of difference.
Tony Stevenson,
Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia national chief executive officer
