Why Worimi author Paul Callaghan will be voting "yes" in the Voice to Parliament referendum

Worimi author Paul Callaghan talks about why he will be voting "yes" in the Voice to Parliament referendum. His prize-winning book, The Dreaming Path: Indigenous thinking to change your life, was awarded Small Publisher's Adult Book of the Year in the Australian Book Industry Awards, and has made the bestsellers list twice since, which he says gives him faith in the future.

Related: 'We have done it': Voice to Parliament bill passes Senate

"It gives me hope that the country is maturing and that we are at a stage where we can start to actually be unified and push back on what some of the hysterical politicians are saying in terms of how the Voice will create disunity," Paul said.

"Australia is absolutely not united at the moment at all. And I have hope that one day it will be and if I can be part of that transition, then it's an amazing privilege.

"The essence of the Voice, to me, isn't the articulation and architecture of how this will all work. I find that relatively unimportant because we are such a small part of the population, having a voice won't destabilise anything. It'll be like yelling at Central Railway Station when a train comes through. It might be heard by a few people near you, but it really won't cloud out the voice of the totality.

"So for me, all the people jumping up and down saying how it will destabilise government and create more tension is totally untrue.

"My argument in terms of logic is, let's just say in any country in the world if there's a part of that population that is severely disadvantaged, and the disadvantage (for Australian First Nations people) is evidence based - we die younger, we're sicker, we're 16 times more likely to be in prison, we're 10 times more likely to have our children stolen, an Aboriginal woman is 34 times more likely to end up in hospital from domestic violence, we're far less likely to be employed and far less likely to have housing - if any group in any community at scale was suffering that kind of disadvantage, then you would think that fair-minded people would want resolution so those people no longer were disadvantaged in the longer term.

"And the only way for those people to be no longer disadvantaged would be for them to generate the solutions within their community with support from those that can help make the change.

"That makes sense, inherent sense that a voice of any one disadvantaged group needs to be heard.

"One of the problems we have at the moment for those who are saying we've already got a voice through the different channels in government, that's not quite true. Government will go out and consult with Aboriginal people, but then it has gatekeepers who will shut it down and not create the changes that are needed because they're inherently expensive, they're inherently long term, and they're politically risky.

"So we don't really have a voice even though Warren Mundine and others say we do.

"From an ethical perspective, and a fair minded perspective, the start of the Voice says, 'To be recognised'.

"The reason I had my breakdown was that I felt invisible in the country that my mother's ancestors come from. And I felt marginalised and I felt hated, and I still to this day feel victimised because I see all the stuff about the Voice, see the all the stuff about Latrell Mitchell, I see all the stuff about Stan Grant and it's all based on mistruth and hatred and anger.

"And so my question to anyone is, would a fair minded person think it is reasonable to give the First Nations people of this country recognition and just say I see you, you're real? Rather than say who do you think you are? You're nothing but a problem and a troublemaker trying to destabilise me.

"There are many Aboriginal people saying they don't support it because they don't believe it goes far enough and that sovereignty was never ceded and that government can't be trusted. And I I understand that, and really a part of me wishes I could click my fingers and say that we do have sovereignty.

"But the reality is, wearing my rational hat, we will never have sovereignty. We don't have the power base. We'll never be able to achieve those things. It'd be like trying to jump five metres high from a standing point, it can't be done. It has to be done a step at a time.

"I think the Voice is a great step forward where as Aboriginal people we can we can feel safe, we can feel seen, and it opens up a dialogue where we can be heard and bypass the gatekeepers in government and hopefully see some real change that creates better futures for our children."

"I interviewed a person I know at the University of New England, a PhD student, about reconciliation and I asked her about the Voice and she had a really interesting thing to say as an Aboriginal person.

"She said it's really complex and she said, 'I'm not sure how I sit but then I asked myself how will I feel if I woke up after the referendum and Australia has voted no'.

"And when she said that I started to cry, because I thought if it comes back as no, that's Australia confirming that they hate me and they don't want me here.

"That sounds emotional and emotive and socialist, but that's how I feel.

"I'll say, there you go. All my life I've grown up with people staring at me saying I'm not good enough. judging me, stereotyping me, thinking I'm a thief, thinking I'm lazy. And voting no has just confirmed that. What a hostile place I'm living in. Where the hell can I go to escape this?

"All these people saying that there's this secret agenda to take the beaches and steal people's houses, take all this money - it's an impossibility. It's crazy talk.

"The Voice makes good economic sense, and makes good social sense. It makes good humanity sense, it makes good justice sense. It's the right thing to do.

"Maybe I'm naive and optimistic. I'm hopeful that Australia will start to understand what this is about.

"And I'm hoping that it will get up, because I think we need it to get up so we can all become one, because I don't think Australia is well as a totality."

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