About 400 writers have signed up to support the Yes campaign in the upcoming referendum on an Indigenous Voice to parliament.
Literary agent Jane Novak was sitting with a friend at Sydney Writers’ Festival waiting for Richard Flanagan’s closing address. But what was really occupying the two women was not the imminent talk, but the lack of involvement of Australia’s literary community in the campaign for an Indigenous Voice to parliament.
They had seen various sporting codes come out in support, but were surprised writers had not made a similar commitment to back the Yes vote in the upcoming referendum.Janie Barrett Late last week, the Writers for the Voice website went live and already about 400 writers have added their names to it. “I got about 200 emails over the weekend,” Novak said. Among the signatories are Helen Garner, Anna Funder, Stan Grant, Shankari Chandran, Peter Doherty, Richard Flanagan, Tom Keneally, and many other writers.
Novak says her friend told her, “if you do something, I’ll help you,” and that’s how it started. They spent a lot of time talking about what they could do and how, and paid for the development of the website, which includes background information explaining the long lead-up to the referendum, the proposed changes to the constitution, and information about how the Voice will operate.
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