The undermining of Aboriginal self-determination will be hindered by a constitutional enshrined Voice to Parliament, Uluru Statement advocate Thomas Mayor will say on Friday.
Delivering the annual Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture, which honours the Gurindji hero and the Wave Hill Walk-off, Mayor will say the progress from such political movements, which has historically been "hobbled by paternalism", would be protected.
"If people learn about what happened after the handful of sand [from Gough Whitlam to Lingiari], they would understand the practical reason a Voice to Parliament is so important," Mayor will say.
"Government-appointed advisors were forced on the Gurindji Company... They faced strictly imposed laws and policies.
"The Gurindji Cattle Company folded in the late 1980s... This is the sad, mostly unknown story of what happened after the handful of sand."
'We have been silenced'
Mayor says it is a pattern that has repeated itself through modern political history.
"Every time Indigenous people have built a political Voice on our own - representation that has been capable of speaking up collectively and unapologetically... we have been silenced.
"From the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association in the 1920’s... through the Aboriginal Advancement League, the NAC, the NACC, FCAATSI, to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission... All of them split up, ignored, defunded or destroyed.
"There should have been a political cost for such a heinous act. But as always, the cost was ours alone."
With the establishment of the Voice to Parliament, which would be constitutionally enshrined and protected from the vicissitudes of politics, First Nations people would have a representative body immune from government intervention.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need a Voice that is protected from being silenced by hostile governments.
"In a representative democracy, being heard transparently in the centre of decision making is the most practical thing we can do. And there is nothing more lasting and powerful than establishing a representative body by a vote of the Australian people at a referendum.
"There can be no greater mandate. "
Mayor will be delivering the memorial lecture, which honours the historic protest against wage theft and lack of Aboriginal land rights, on Gurindji Country, the first time it has taken place there.
Some 'trying to confuse Australians'
Mayor, the National Indigenous Officer at the Maritime Union of Australia, travelled around Australia for more than a year carrying the Uluru Statement from the Heart canvas, in an effort to gain grassroots support for the campaign.
He is confident the referendum will succeed but warns advocates must learn lessons from the polarising politics surrounding the 1966 strike, to ensure extremist views don't dominate discussion on the referendum.
"We've got people that are trying to confuse Australians about this," Mr Mayor said.
"People that oppose it (are) saying that this is not going to provide practical change for Indigenous people, ignoring that we're in a representative democracy and one of the most practical things you can do is ensure people are heard in the centre of decision making.
"I think though there is so some work to do to inspire people to have the courage to get out there and really do the hard work to achieve this."
