The Voice Referendum Compared: Comparative Attitudes Toward Indigenous Political Issues and Peoples
By: Raymond Foxworth, Carew Boulding
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What explains how Indigenous peoples and political issues are understood by the non-Indigenous public? This chapter brings together findings from original surveys and other new research in the United States and Canada to offer some comparative context for thinking about public attitudes about the Voice referendum in Australia. We highlight several important findings. First, Indigenous issues and politics are generally very poorly understood by the public. Non-Indigenous people are often starting with very low factual knowledge and heavy reliance on stereotypes. Second, even though many people report positive and warm attitudes towards Indigenous peoples, we find that anti-Indigenous hostility (sometimes referred to as Indigenous resentment) is a real and persistent attitude for some, and different from attitudes about other minority groups. Finally, we show that attitudes about Indigenous peoples are correlated with attitudes about other policy issues. This comparative perspective on attitudes towards Indigenous peoples and policies helps make sense of the defeat of the voice referendum by suggesting several ways anti-Indigenous policies can gain traction in public opinion.