“6.2 million Aussies voted yes.”

These are the hopeful words of Professor Megan Davis, a Cobble Cobble woman and the first person to read aloud the Uluru Statement from the Heart seven years ago.

A key part of the Uluru Statement was the request to add a Voice to Parliament to Australia’s Constitution, which does not currently recognise First Nations People.

On Monday, it will be one year since the majority of the Australian public voted ‘no’ to that request.

The result raised many complex feelings around the country. There was despair for those who’d spent years advocating for the constitutional body, and perhaps restrained glee for those who barracked against the proposal.

As we approach the anniversary of the failed Voice vote, we’ll revisit the campaign, what has happened in the year since, and what happens to the other reforms contained in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

An Indigenous Voice to Parliament was a proposal to create an official representative body to give First Nations people a say in laws and policies that affect them.

The idea came from the Uluru Statement from the Heart, a message delivered by nearly 250 First Nations leaders in 2017. It called for “constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country.”

The Constitution can only change when we have a national vote, known as a ‘referendum’.

A successful referendum isn’t easily achieved – there needs to be a ‘double majority’. That means a majority of states (four out of six), and a majority of the country’s overall voting population.

On both metrics, the Voice failed. Every state voted ‘No’, and 60% of the overall population cast a ‘no’ vote.

I asked one of the key architects of the Voice, Professor Megan Davis, what this past year had been like.

“Most of our people have really been grieving the result over the past year. I think people were devastated that night,” she said.

One of the purposes of the Voice was to improve the lives of First Nations people in Australia. Even though it didn’t happen – we still need to know, are the lives of First Nations people improving?

One way to measure this is through the Productivity Commission’s ‘Closing the Gap’ targets.

The latest update revealed only five out of 19 targets are on track. This includes areas of healthy birthweights of babies, children’s enrolment rates in early education, adult employment levels, and the proportion of land and sea under Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal rights and interests.

It also showed that outcomes in four areas are actually worsening. This includes the rates of incarceration, suicide, out-of-home care, and childhood development when starting school.

Five of the other targets are improving but not on track, and one target has shown no change. The other four targets did not have updated data in the latest report.

Professor Davis said one of the key aspects of the Closing the Gap report noted there’s “no legitimate Voice that actually speak in an authoritative way on behalf of communities that’s guiding this work”.

The Voice to Parliament was the first of three “substantive” requests for reforms that the Uluru Statement called for.

After a Voice is established, the statement calls for a Makarrata Commission – a body tasked with setting up and overseeing truth-telling and treaty processes between First Nations communities and governments.

Makarrata is a Yolngu word from Arnhem Land which means “coming together after a struggle”.

The three stages – Voice, Treaty, Truth – were meant to follow one another in order.

A treaty would be an agreement between groups to establish the terms and conditions of peaceful co-existence. While some colonial powers signed treaties with their First Peoples, Australia never did. In fact, Australia is one of the only Commonwealth countries that has never signed a treaty with First Nations people.

Truth-telling would reveal historic and ongoing injustices faced by First Nations people in a formal setting.

With the first step falling through, what does that mean for the next two steps?

Professor Davis said the Uluru Statement is not an “a la carte menu”, where the next idea is put on the table to replace one that’s been taken off.

“The broader framework of the Uluru Statement from the Heart stands.”

So, what now?

In response to a question about whether he would set up a Truth and Justice Commission on ABC’s Insiders program earlier this year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “That’s not what we have proposed”.

Since then, the PM has faced a barrage of questions about whether he’s ditched his election night commitment, which was to “commit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full”.

Indigenous Australians Minister, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, told Parliament the Government is not committing to implementing the Makarrata Commission “without the support of the opposition”, having learned from the “pain and hardship” that came from an adversarial Voice referendum.

So does the Opposition want to give support to Makarrata?

No. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has said he won’t go through with a Makarrata Commission if the Coalition wins the next election – due by May next year.

“Under a Government I lead, there will be no Makarrata and there will be no revisiting of truth-telling,” Dutton said in August.

Does that mean hopes for a Constitutional Voice and Makarrata are over?

Certainly not for Professor Davis, who, as a little girl (and self-described “nerd”), carried around a copy of Australia’s constitution bought from a second-hand book shop.

The ideas driving past unsuccessful referendums, like turning Australia into a Republic and extending parliamentary terms from three to four years, aren’t dead and buried.

“I don't think that constitutional recognition can be off the table for a country like Australia,” Professor Davis said.

“The constitution is built to change. We can't be intimidated by it.”

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In this week's wrap of good news, we discuss Australia's top scientists, Nedd Brockmann’s inspiring run, the Nobel Prize winner breaking new ground, and a long lost wedding video.