A book described as a "call to action" for all Australians to support the Uluru Statement has been launched in Tasmania, coinciding with an October ban to stop tourists climbing Uluru.
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Author of Finding the Heart of the Nation Thomas Mayor said the idea behind his book was to help Australians - both black and white fellas - understand why constitutional change of the Race Power in Australia is necessary.
Mayor speaks to key indigenous people around Australia for his book, including Northern Aboriginal woman Darlene Mansell, to assist an understanding of why the Uluru Statement From The Heart, which was signed in 2017, is important.
He said many Australians are not even aware of the Race Power, which gives parliament special powers to make laws about different races, but has oly been used to pass laws relating to Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people.
At the heart of the Uluru Statement is a desire to give indigenous Australians a voice in the making of law and policy affecting their own people.
This would be achieved by having a First Nations Voice advisory body stated in the constitution, but the powers of this body and whether its advice would be binding, and whether it would sit separately with Parliament, are yet to be established.
"The special powers have been used detrimentally in the past. We are only three per cent of the population, and less than those three per cent actually engage, not because we don't want to but because of poverty, or because we live in remote areas," Mayor said.
"The enshrinement of the First Nation voice would balance that disempowerment, which is the the root cause of statistics involving Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders that we should all be ashamed of ... the Uluru Statement and the First Nation voice is very much about addressing those issues."
Darlene Mansell said she sees the Uluru statement as a guiding light for all Australians, and a mission statement for First Nation youth.
Her parents were born at a mission on Cape Barren island, and she was born on Flinders Island before relocating to Launceston at age 4.
She is an activist for Indigenous and women's rights,
"You don't have to be an Aboriginal person to support Aboriginal rights," she told Mayor.
"We're getting some good leverage with non-Aboriginal people really supporting us, from unions and other organisations, all sorts of people who realise we need to right the wrongs.
"The Uluru Statement is inspiring ... its moved both black fellas and white fellas."
Mayor will return to Tasmania to launch his book in Launceston in November.
