Paper short abstract:

On Oct 14, 2023, Australians cast a largely No Vote in a national referendum calling to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to the Australian Parliament. This paper examines how a ‘habitus of ignorance’ (Jeon 2019) infused the framing and particularities of this referendum

Paper long abstract:

Voting No: Denialism, Racism and a politics of ignorance in an Australian Referendum

On Oct 14, 2023, Australians cast a largely No Vote in a national referendum calling to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to the Australian Parliament and the executive Government. This referendum came afoot of the Australian Government's commitment to implement the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart-one which asks for Voice, Treaty, and Truth telling to be made more central in Australian every-day and political life and many years of campaigning by Indigenous Australians. Anecdotal evidence pointed to heightened experiences of racism by Indigenous Australians in the lead up to the referendum. Further, denialism and a politics of ignorance infused much of the NO campaign in spite of many years of work on reconciliation and reparation. The 1967 referendum also featured in discussions in the lead up to the 2023 referendum, much of it, however, tethered to discourses of misrecognition and misrepresentation (Goot and Rouse 2023). This paper will take as its starting point the question of how a politics of ignorance, even a ‘habitus of ignorance’ (Jeon 2019) infuses the framing and particularities of a given referendum. It will reflect on how the social production of ignorance can be hardened by framing techniques which plays into amplifying discourses anchored in racism and denialism-particularly visible in this most recent of referendums in Australia in 2023.