"No" voter Fred Hooper stood up from among the audience during the Yes23 forum in Tamworth, holding an empty cup to illustrate what a constitutionally-enshrined Voice would look like.
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Mr Hooper, from the Murrawarri nation, said people do not know what the cup will be filled with - referring to the details of the Voice that will be later legislated via parliament.
"We don't know whether it's going to be filled with coffee, tea, borax, hot water or cold water or if there'll be holes in the cup," Mr Hooper said.
He said, "it will be decided by the government of the day".
Gomeroi woman Rachael Phillips responded, saying "my hope is that no matter what it's gonna be, I'm not going to die of thirst, because there's something to drink."
A couple of hundred people turned up to watch in-person and online the Understanding the Voice information event that was held at the Tamworth Town Hall on Monday, September 25, and organised by Yes23 volunteers.
Local Gomeroi man and Tamworth Regional Council councillor Mark Sutherland emceed the event, which featured speakers with a variety of expertise, ranging from politics, constitutional reform, Indigenous Australian history and community issues spoke about the Voice to Parliament.
The panel included Ms Phillips and Mr Sutherland, former executive officer of the Referendum Council, Geoff Scott; Northern region Local Aborignial Land Council representative Charles Lynch, and former Chief Minister for the ACT Kate Carnell.
Mr Sutherland said he believed having safe spaces to have mature conversations was always a good thing."
"We've seen the impact of government policy since the inception of the Federation, where those policies have had a negative impact on Aboriginal people.
"Aboriginal people have been asking for recognition, not only recognition, but for the ability to be able to have a say on issues that impact Aboriginal people."
On October 14, Australians will be asked to vote yes or no, on whether to "alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice".
The details of what the constitutionally-enshrined Voice to Parliament will look like - such as how many representatives it will include and how they will be selected, its internal processes and how it will interact with the executive and parliament - will be decided later via parliamentary legislation.
It has been said that the Voice will not have veto power.
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Audience reactions
Speaking after the event, audience member Nick Brown said he arrived with low expectations, after attending the "No" forum on March 31, headlined by Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, One Nation's Pauline Hanson, former Labor minister Gary Johns, and former radio personality Alan Jones.
"What I came away with tonight was a sense that all people were very respectful of other views," Mr Brown said.
"I didn't get that sense when I came to the "no" event, and I probably feel a lot more informed of what the voice is about [after attending this Yes23 event]."
Cath Hastings said she thought the forum was "fantastic, really informative, [with a] really good historical perspective".
"I actually commented to a friend sitting next to me that I thought it was one of the best history lessons I've ever had," Ms Hastings said.
Tamworth man Kelvin Allen, who attended with his two children, said he thought it was "a very good and clear, concise workshop in relation to what The Voice actually is".
"I think there's so much hype and misinformation out there. Most of it is ludicrous. That is, they're just purely designed to scare people."
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