The overwhelming "no" vote in the Voice to Parliament referendum has devastated Indigenous leaders and activists.
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Wiradjuri Elder Uncle Hewitt Whyman said the result had erased history.
"Apparently we're all one unified country now. Does that mean I'm no longer black?" he said.
"Sixty-five thousand years of history, just erased. What will become of the 3 per cent of our First Nations people? Will we fade away and be consumed?"
Referendum results data from the Australian Electoral Commission shows Aboriginal Australians were more likely to support "yes" than "no".
This was not unanimous. For some the campaign itself was the problem, not the result.
Senator Lydia Thorpe, who voted "no" in the referendum, said it had been a bruising experience for First Nations communities.
"It was ugly. The hate speech that came out, the fear mongering that came out, the land grab debate reared its head," Senator Thorpe said.
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"Putting that kind of fear out there really gets people's back up, especially working class mob who've been struggling to pay their homes off, or even get a home. Then they hear this rhetoric of 'now the blacks are going to come and steal it all back'.
"The 'yes' campaign are guilty of spreading false hope that this was going to solve everything. As a politician, an activist and someone who's worked in community most of my life, those things were never going to happen."
Senator Thorpe said the "yes" campaign overestimated the empathy for Aboriginal Australians in the wider community.
She said the campaign was doomed to fail from the start.
"The scars are still there from people like Howard and the Liberals of that time telling people we're going to take their backyards and creating this real hate or distrust that we're going to take everything back that they stole," she said.
"That's not the reality. We can't take everything back that's been stolen."
Uncle Hewitt believes the only way forward is more truth telling, a sentiment expressed by other Indigenous leaders around the country.
"History is still calling - let's not give up," he said.
"We need time to heal and figure out what the next steps are, but this has exposed a lot of racism.
"There will be a mountain of argument ahead, not only in Australia but internationally. I hope Albanese doesn't throw the bat away and leave the game."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government needed time to regroup but was not giving up on reconciliation.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has walked back an earlier commitment to hold another referendum on symbolic recognition of Aboriginal Australians in the constitution.
"Yes" campaigners are calling for a week of silence following the referendum defeat.
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