Booroondara for Yes is a community-focused group of local residents in the city of Boroondara in Naarm (Melbourne)’s East. We live, work and play on the land of the Wurundjeri Woiwurring people of the Kulin Nation, who have never ceded their sovereignty to their country.  We have been initiated by the Boroondara Reconciliation Network, a member of Reconciliation Victoria. 

There is another Yes campaign being run here, Kooyong for Yes, initiated by supporters of Dr Monique Ryan, the Federal member of parliament.  The two campaigns are run independently and are in periodic communication to minimise double-work.

We believe that a Voice to the national parliament and executive government is the best available way of maximising the likelihood that the voices of First Nations mobs across the country will get to decision-makers and of increasing the probability that they will be listened and responded to; and being enshrined in the Australian Constitution is the only way to make sure that the Voice has a reasonable chance of continuing to exist over successive governments.

To those who say we need treaty, we say yes, the Uluru Statement from the Heart pleads for that and for a Makarrata truth-telling commission, but right now we must work with what is in front of us. Insisting on treaty first increases the risk of the referendum failing. That would, in the context of the misinformation spread by the No campaign and the current increase in racist communication fomented by it, further retraumatise and do a great deal of other harm to First Nations people. So we have no choice but to campaign for Yes.

Therefore, we are passionately committed to supporting the Yes vote in the referendum. Our priorities are dialogue and unity. We want to propagate respectful conversations in our community about the Voice, helping voters understand why a Yes vote is the best and now the only way forward; and we aim to unite people of all beliefs, cultures and walks of life in this endeavour.

We warmly invite you to join us.

Your help is needed. We’re inviting individuals and groups to assist in a multitude of ways, from door knocking to social media engagement to staffing polling booths and helping with pre-polling to convening information sessions, staffing street stalls / community conversations, and informing people within your own circles and more widely too.  We also ask you to volunteer separately for itemised roles/jobs/tasks - of course without obligation - we are all volunteers with lives to lead apart from this, important as it is.

PLEASE CONSIDER AND VOLUNTEER FOR PARTICULAR SORTS OF JOBS HERE

Every bit of help is significant and valued.

If you or your group are in are associated with Boroondara and can help build the Yes Vote in some way, please fill in your details in the form on this page.  

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to finally recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution and to give mobs a say in what the Australian government does about matters that affect their lives. We’re working for ‘Yes’, and we are confident you would like to help in some way. If not, you would not be here. So THANK YOU!!