How history can help shape the debate about an Indigenous voice to Parliament.

In the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are calling for an Indigenous Voice to parliament. While they haven’t set out how that would work there are models we can look back on.

Ever since the referendum of 1967 federal governments have attempted and failed to set up administrative organisations to give Indigenous Communities a say in their own affairs.

As we once again debate how we acknowledge Australia’s first people - what if anything can we learn from those past attempts?