By PETER ROWE
Persuading remote indigenous communities to vote at elections has been a labour of love for Neville Khan since 1996.
The proud Noongar man now lives in the Northern Territory, but grew up in south-west WA, listening to his parents and grandparents talking about recognition and the right to be as equal as anyone come election time.
It’s those yarns that drive him to spend months on end traversing remote parts of Australia talking about the electoral system and why it is so important to register.
Since April Neville, 54, and five other members of the NT Electoral Commission team have used planes, trains and automobiles to get their message across.
The message that it is important to register and it is equally important to vote as well.
Currently, enrolment levels sit at about 90 per cent, but enrolling and then voting is a challenge Neville is trying to persuade communities to understand.
“Many do not understand the consequences of not voting once you have enrolled,” he told Ibnews.com.au
Neville and his work partner Michelle Connolly do their best to explain the system to communities.
“They don’t get it when they are fined for not voting and many also do not understand the voting procedures, the preferences, formal voting and donkey votes. We teach and explain all those issues to them, so they are better informed when they do go to vote.”
Neville says the reaction to their visits, as he travels from Alice Springs in the south to Darwin and Arnhem Land in the north – and all communities in between – is generally positive.
“There is a bit of a hangover from the referendum last year, but many don’t know what they are missing out on by not voting,” he said.
There is a little resistance from some centres around the narrative that ‘nothing changes anyway’, but Neville and his work partner Michelle Connolly do their best to explain otherwise.
“We travel in pairs, one man and one woman, for gender balance to listen to them and to explain. What we are all about.”
And Neville’s argument is strong.
“A lot of people ask why I do this and it’s simple. My parents, grandparents and great grandparents fought the these rights, for the opportunity to have a say, to vote. So I owe it to them to carry on that message.
“I’m fulfilling the elders’ wishes, doing what’s right by them.
Neville has been ‘doing’ this job for both State and Territory – and Federal – electoral bodies since 1996.
He’s travelled the length and breadth of the country taking up First Peoples rights. He will be at the Garma Festival in Arnhem land this weekend.
“Yes, we will have an information booth there, explaining the voting procedures ahead of the Territory election on August 24.
“Remote and mobile polling is very important in these regional and remote areas.
“Our job is to explain and educate people about the voting system and get them to participate.”
Neville’s family business in Alice Springs in 100 per cent Indigenous owned.
When he’s not on the election participation trail, Neville helps out at the family business in Alice, Territory Jerky, a 100 per cent Indigenous-owned business that sells its beef products around Australia.
The business also recruits unemployed men and women in the town, giving them work and a sense of being.
“It’s important we do that,” Neville says. “It’s all about community.”
https://territoryjerky.com.au/
But for the next three weeks Neville and his five co-workers will continue in their quest to engage with communities to get them to be part of democracy.
