• George Williams

15 September 2010It’s time we had a constitution founded on equality that recognises our Indigenous history with pride, writes George Williams in the National Times

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JULIA Gillard has pledged a referendum on whether to recognise indigenous peoples in the constitution. She will be fortified in this by a move last week to achieve the same outcome in NSW. But federal change will be more difficult.

Aborigines have long sought recognition in our national and state constitutions because these fundamental laws have either ignored their existence or permitted discrimination against them. They also argue that the story of our nation is incomplete without the histories of the peoples who inhabited the continent before white settlement.

An unsuccessful attempt was made to recognise indigenous peoples in the constitution at the 1999 republic referendum. The states then took the lead, bolstered by…

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George Williams is Professor of Law at the University of NSW