Aboriginal Christian leader Brooke Prentice is visiting the Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands to offer an independent First Nations perspective on the Voice referendum.
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Attending as a guest of the Uniting Church, Ms Prentice is speaking at the Berry Uniting Church's Sunday worship service at 9.30am on May 21, followed by a question and answer session, before giving a lecture at the Kiama Uniting Church at 7pm that day.
There will be another lecture at the Bowral Uniting Church at 7pm on Monday, May 22, before Ms Prentice returns to the Berry Uniting Church for a half-day workshop on Saturday, May 27.
All sessions will not only look at the Voice referendum, but also the Uluru Statement from the Heart that was part of the process leading up to the referendum.
Ms Prentice said the Uluru statement was a key dfactor, pointing the way forward, yet many people commenting on the Voice referendum had never read the Uluru statement and did not understand it.
"I'm coming to engage people across the Shoalhaven on listening and responding to the Statement from the Heart as we approach the referendum on the Voice to Parliament," she said.
"I am concerned with the referendum that people are going in not knowing anything or being led by conversations with their friends, instead of actually understanding the process."
Ms Prentice said the process leading up to the referendum had been going on for "many decades".
And she said pat of her role was "educating people around how we've got to this point as a nation".
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She also wanted to inform people about "the reality of the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia today".
"Our people are still dying too young and too often," Ms Prentice said.
A recent Nowra forum on the referendum heard concerns from Jerringa community members that the Voice would take away their sovereignty.
Ms Prentice said that was a common concern among Indigenous communities all over the country.
She said what impact the Voice to Parliament would have on sovereignty was one of the topics she would be discussing during the local sessions.
While all Australians are being asked to vote in the referendum later this year, Ms Prentice said the outcome would have no impact on non-Indigenous Australians.
She said the Voice to Parliament would only have a say on issues directly relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
And Ms Prentice was hoping to a yes note at the referendum, she said she would leave it up to each individual to decide what they wanted to do.
"I'm not here to tell people how to vote, I'm just making sure people are equipped with all the information that often doesn't come from the mainstream media," she said.
