Inclusion and developing an organization’s inclusive culture is a journey; sometimes, it can be two steps forward, one step back. However, we continually learn and mature as we progress.

Australia has a national decision to make this year; after hundreds of years of exclusion and paternalistic policy-making, the Australian public will be asked to vote on a voice to parliament enshrining an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice into the constitution. This will pave the way for self-determination and progress towards closing the social and economic gaps within Australian society.

In our view, the voice is a reasonable ask from our First Nations communities. However, with only 3.8 percent of the Australian population being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and more than 50 percent of the vote required in the majority of states, it will need strong allies and the non-indigenous Australian community to support it.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart and Yes23 is being supported broadly in the corporate world, with many large organizations, including my own, publicly putting their support behind the voice.

This momentous and important decision for our nation allows diversity and inclusion professionals to a reflection on our own organization’s power, whether we always include minority voices in decisions that affect them and the critical role allies play in ensuring that voices are heard. Diversity and inclusion is always considered when business decisions are made.

The ‘nothing about us without us’ principle, originating from the South African disability rights movement in the 1990s, stems from the premise that policies, procedures, rules, and regulations should not be created without explicit input from the very population that the rules and guidelines will be affecting.

Applying this alongside the human right of self-determination to any diverse group is key to inclusion and progress, and for Australian organizations, ensuring that we amplify the voices of First Nations employees will be the cornerstone of reconciliation in corporate Australia.

How can we amplify voices within organizations to ensure we meet our inclusion goals?

• Employee Resource groups (ERGs) are critical to grassroots inclusion, providing an opportunity to consult and provide a voice. Sharing our business and HR strategies and garnering their views on any policy or action that may affect them and their community is a must. At Origin, we are reviewing this, particularly with our indigenous employee network. Today the chairs of this employee network sit on our Reconciliation Steering Committee to steer our reconciliation progress and decisions. However, we will continue to review how we can keep First Nations voices at the center of everything we do in reconciliation.

• Executive sponsorship of your ERGs is a model that is working well in my organization and the groups are creating the ultimate champion and ally of their executive through their regular connections, coaching, and strategy support.

“Employee Resource groups (ERGs) are critical to grassroots inclusion, provide an opportunity to consult and provide a voice.”

• Amplifying ERG voices and lived experience at your Inclusion and governance councils. Ensuring your employees and ERGs have a direct connection with your decision-makers and governance councils, such as Inclusion Councils and executive meetings, is essential. The one question our CEO always asks at our Inclusion Council is, 'Where are we on our inclusion journey?' hearing lived experiences from employees directly is one way this helps our organization understand our maturity and help drive the focus for our culture.

• Storytelling is so important in diversity and inclusion to build knowledge and empathy. It is impossible to understand how everyone works in the world and what their lived experience is unless you ask and share stories. Holding storytelling sessions within groups or across the business is one way of amplifying voices and considering intersectionality more fully.

• Really listening and learning. Make no assumptions. Asking individuals what they need and how best they can be supported.

• Active allyship. Allies are so important in inclusion and ensuring allies are in your ERGs or setting up ally networks is essential.

Once we have the voices there, it is so important that we listen. CEOs and c- suite executives can achieve true diversity of thought by being open and listening to diverse groups and people.

Australia has an opportunity for genuine reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the oldest continuous surviving culture in the world, and a group of people we can learn so much from. I will be voting yes, and as a diversity and inclusion practitioner continuing to challenge and ask myself, am I always applying the principle of 'nothing about us without us'?