in the church who will fight the good fight with us. There are some, let me be clear, and for those good people we are profoundly grateful. Without them, very little of what we aspire to would ever reach the attention of bishops, councils or Synods. But the vast majority of our fellow Anglicans either ignore us completely, or else express the kind of sympathy that communicates, at one and the same time, that nothing can be done and we should just accept our lot. The latest iteration of this colonising logic occurred at a Synod meeting of the diocese of Melbourne, held on the eve of the Referendum. Our allies put forward a motion seeking to progress proposals that had already been tabled with the Archbishop’s Council in 2018, and with a previous Synod in 2019. The motion was immediately amended by conservative caucus leaders to gut the motion of its force. We ended up with a sweet little piece of colonial mythology about reconciliation and charity towards Aboriginal people. On the eve of the Referendum. Here the church told us what the Referendum would tell us the next day. That the white establishment does not care for us, or what we think, and that we will never be given a seat at the table. At present I, along with a number of my Indigenous colleagues, are contemplating whether or not it is wise to stay within such a brutal and uncaring branch of empire. Stay tuned. 93
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