Hub Student Leaders Keshi Moore & Maggie Blanden Nominated for Human Rights Awards

Naarm Students on Voice leaders Keshi Moore and Maggie Blanden nominated for the 2023 Australian Human Rights Award, Young People’s Award, hosted by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Two Naarm Students on Voice student leaders who championed the impartial information student-led campaign Naarm Law Students on Voice have been nominated for a 2023 Australian Human Rights Award, Young People’s Award, hosted by the Australian Human Rights Commission, with winners announced at ceremony in Sydney on December 8.

Keshi Moore and Maggie Blanden partnered with the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub earlier this year to offer neutral, fact-based community legal-information sessions to address misinformation surrounding the design and purpose of the proposed Voice referendum.

The Naarm Law Students on Voice campaign included the coordination of over 90 MLS students to deliver a community legal education program on the 2023 Referendum. The campaign involved working with legal experts and in consultation with the Hub, to develop a twenty-minute presentation  with the primary goal being to assist the community to have culturally-safe and accurate conversations with friends, family and colleagues prior to the Referendum.

These sessions have provided community attendees with a “crash course” in constitutional law concepts, allowing them to understand what the Referendum is all about. Student facilitators explain the proposed constitutional amendment and step the audience through an explanation of why the country is being asked to vote on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament this year. Audience members are also able to ask questions and allowing facilitators to play a valuable role in correcting factual inaccuracies.

More than fifty sessions were been delivered by the group throughout Australia in the lead up to the referendum, reaching voters from all walks of life.

Some of the Naarm Law Students on Voice in their custom t-shirts.

Well done Maggie and Keshi!