![Musician Shane Howard is performing at a Vote Yes campaign concert on September 29 at Purnim. Picture file Musician Shane Howard is performing at a Vote Yes campaign concert on September 29 at Purnim. Picture file](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/224474250/47ac52f6-7827-43a5-b7af-292e8465199b.jpg/r0_0_4801_3201_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Goanna frontman Shane Howard is among a number of south-west musicians lending their voice to the Yes campaign ahead of the October referendum.
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A Community for Yes Concert will be held at the home of south-west Indigenous elder Uncle Lenny Clarke on September 29.
Shane Howard, the mainstay of folk rock group Goanna, features on the bill alongside a number of household names, including Lake Bolac singer-songwriter Neil Murray and Gunditjmara songman Dave Arden.
It's been 40 years since Mr Howard wrote the popular hit Solid Rock, which earned its place in rock history with its take on Indigenous land rights.
"I still try to live what I wrote then," he told The Standard.
"There's been change but life is still too hard for our Aboriginal brothers and sisters. Justice and equality are still beyond reach."
Australians will head to the polls on October 14 to vote on whether to include an Indigenous voice in the constitution.
Mr Howard said he was born and raised in the western district where his ancestors "arrived in this colony as Irish 'famine' exiles in the 1850's, after 600 years of brutal colonial occupation by England".
"They got to survive here and make a life," he said.
He said the western district was "one of the highest concentrations of massacre sites in the country".
"Aboriginal people were brutally dispossessed, and no treaties were ever signed. Justice remains elusive. We can no longer sweep these major nation-defining events under the carpet. They diminish us."
![The line-up for the Uncle Lenny Clarke and the Community for Yes Concert, to be held in Purnim/Framlingham on September 29. The line-up for the Uncle Lenny Clarke and the Community for Yes Concert, to be held in Purnim/Framlingham on September 29.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/jessica.howard/fb9c93e3-0c3c-4b98-b6a5-c62bb56c9ff2.jpeg/r0_0_960_1200_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Mr Howard said the nation's prosperity came on "a tidal wave of misery" for Indigenous people in the region.
"How do we respond to what we did to First Nations people?," he said.
"The Voice is a way to say 'let's find a way to keep the conversation going and get the healing done'."
The Yes Concert will kick off at 10.30am at 180 Kirrae Avenue, emceed by former Wannon candidate Alex Dyson and the Australian Workers' Union Indigenous officer Guyson Baker.
Uncle Lenny will speak alongside Port Fairy author Jock Serong.
Uncle Lenny said he was pleased with the number of performers devoting their talents to the event, which he hoped would encourage people "to get together and learn more about the campaign in a time when misinformation was circulating".
"We want people to come, enjoy the music, camp, get to know the community, walk on country and listen to our stories of what it is to battle within the Aboriginal community and how The Voice can create positive change," he said.
Mr Howard said he was shocked at what the referendum had revealed, with aggression and racism thrown at him on social media "just for Uncle Lenny's little concert".
"I can only imagine how hard it must be for First Nations people," he said.
"I thought we were further down the road to reconciliation, truth-telling and treaty making.
"The Voice is about an advisory body. The hysteria is completely irrational. It's racist. This is not a political issue, it's an ethical and moral issue for our nation and I was disappointed that the (Liberal National Party) chose to go down the same low, adversarial road as One Nation."
Hundreds of people have already RSVP'd to The Community for Yes Concert.
Entry is by gold coin.
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