News / Referendum

Banner spreads the Yes message to Sydney Road

The artwork features handprints by dozens of Brunswick residents
• Where to vote early for the referendum

Mark Phillips

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INDIGENOUS-owned fashion enterprise Clothing The Gaps has come out in support of the Yes campaign at next month’s referendum in the most visible possible way: with a large artwork adorning the side of its Sydney Road building.

The vibrant banner, measuring 3 metres by 2.8 metres, was hung on the southern side of the building on Friday afternoon, following a community event in a nearby park where dozens of people planted a print of their hand on the artwork.

It has replaced the “Free(d) The Flag” mural which had occupied the same position for the past couple of years.

Clothing The Gaps chief executive officer Laura Thompson, a Gunditjamara woman, said the business could no longer be silent on the referendum as public polling shows support for a Yes vote slipping behind No.

She said she hoped the banner would help demonstrate to non-Indigenous Australians that the vast majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people back a Yes vote. With 201,000 followers on Instagram and 47,000 on Facebook, Clothing The Gaps is an influential voice among both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, particularly young people.

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Thompson said when the referendum was first announced, Clothing The Gaps produced t-shirts with the messages “Voice”, “Treaty” and “Truth” but not one saying “Yes”.

“We weren’t telling people what our position was [because] we weren’t at that point really comfortable about telling people how to vote,” she said.

“But as the campaign got further along and as we started to see a decline in the polls and the support for Yes, it really was the big worry that we can’t sit on our hands anymore. People want to know what Clothing The Gaps thinks and feels about this issue.

“We need to be proud and bold in our statement, because this is our chance, and it’s really important that people know that we’re supporting Yes.

“We didn’t think we’d have to come out as hard and as strong as supporting Yes. I thought that Australians would get there naturally themselves. And I actually thought that more businesses and retailers would be more public in their support.

“But in the absence of that, we really have to step it up.”

Clothing The Gaps will release polling next week that Yes is supported by 87% of Indigenous Australians. The poll was conducted nationally with 1600 participants after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the date of the referendum last month.

“I think a lot of people think, ‘Well, I’ve heard Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who don’t support it’, and I guess I’d like to sort of say what about all the Aboriginal people that do?” Thompson said.

“In any nationality or any group, you’re never going to have 100% consensus, but all the polls have over 80% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people support the Voice.

“And I think with those sort of numbers and support from the Aboriginal community behind this, all Australians can vote knowing that they’re voting in a way that supports the first people of the country.”

The idea for the banner came together in just a few days following a discussion on Tuesday this week between Thompson and her co-CEO, Sarah Sheridan, and John Burgess, the head of Indigenous marketing agency Little Rocket.

Burgess, whose mother and grandmother as Gurindji women in the Northern Territory were both members of the Stolen Generations, recently moved his business offices from Collingwood to Brunswick and wanted to make a significant statement in the local area in support of the Voice.

“We were talking with the team at Clothing The Gaps originally about the Free The Flag campaign, and we were so impressed by how that took place,” he said.

“So where better than in the heart of Brunswick to erect a new poster that reflects a really important message to the community around here.”

The banner was designed by Little Rocket’s in-house graphic artist Ben Tan.

An essential part of the design was to have hundreds of handprints in the colours of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags, so an event was planned at short notice in Warr Park, behind the Clothing The Gaps store, at midday on Friday, where people of all ages could dip their hands in paint and leave a permanent mark on the banner.

Some of activity at the community event before the banner was erected in Sydney Road.

Speaking at the community event on Friday, Andrew Gargett, the chief executive officer of the First People’s Assembly of Victoria, said the Yes campaign could still win the referendum despite the poor polling.

He said many people still did not understand what the referendum was about, but once it was explained to them that it was a simple act of recognition and getting better outcomes for Aboriginal people, they often switched to voting Yes.

Gargett urged Yes supporters to join grassroots campaign activities in their community such as phone calling and door knocking.

“This referendum can and will be won through all of our actions,” he said.

“And if we all speak to 10 people, and if they speak to 10 people, and if they speak to 10 people, you create an army.”

Read more:

Yes campaign looks to win over voters in Wills and beyond

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