Like a lot of other First Nations people and our allies, since 14 October 2023 I’ve tried not to overthink the overwhelming No vote, instead focussing on ways to deal with the fresh, deep, profound grief ossifying my bones and marrow.

I feel it was important for the whole nation to sit for a while with what happened, and for mob especially not to drift automatically to ‘We’re fine; nothing can hurt us.’ It did hurt… a lot.

Maybe we’ll never get a firm handle on the exact recipe for the dish served to the nation near 12 months ago. But its base was undoubtedly the early withdrawal of once prized political bipartisanship. This was blended with low civics awareness, poor awareness of Australia’s history and understandable cost of living anxiety, and then oversalted with various kinds of mischief, lies, fearmongering, and racism.

And all of this was in the context of an often one-step-forward-two-steps back relationship between First Nations people and non-Indigenous Australians, a mere three decades into focussed efforts to ‘reconcile’.

Well before the referendum, critics of reconciliation had held that the process lets the Australian state off the hook for its own violent and racist policies, and in the wake of last year’s ballot, some immediately declared reconciliation ‘dead’.

That the reconciliation process begun in 1991 has been imperfect is not a toss I would even begin to argue.

But to me, that’s not something to be in denial about or a reason to abandon the journey we’ve begun. Rather, the Referendum and all it entailed demands gutsy, pragmatic and continual review of the reconciliation movement and greater effort to improve and bolster it.

And I’m dead certain that the YES vote count would have been a mere fraction of the 6,286,894 officially recorded, had it not been for decades of dedicated efforts by the former Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and now Reconciliation Australia, the various state and territory bodies, and the 2500+ schools and early learning services with a Narragunnawali RAP and the 3200+ other RAP organisations which together impact five million Australians.

Add those Yes voters (including 60,000 organised, informed and enthusiastic campaign volunteers) to those No voters still genuinely supportive of First Nations advancement and that – right there – is some pretty mighty potential for reconciliation.

To me at least, it’s enough to crack on with. And that’s what I’ll do, together with fellow travellers – all the while trying not to sweat the small stuff and to recognise any nefarious efforts to distract from the main game for what they are.

To invoke the theme of National Reconciliation Week 2024, Now More Than Ever reconciliation should be a non-partisan ‘people’s movement’ taking its cues from First Nations peoples and aspirations.

We should understand that any First Nations policy not informed by mob and any solution not led by mob is just a failed experiment in waiting.

And as we advocate for First Nations self-determination, we should get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable and put the pedal to the metal on justice, anti-racism and truth-telling.

Have a thoughtful anniversary, Australia.