Each year the Great Hall at the University of Sydney fills with a crowd gathering to celebrate the life and legacy of one man, Dr Charles Perkins.
While Australia remembers him as on of the country's most prominent civil rights activists, Rachel Perkins knew him as a father.
"In this moment as we stand on the brink of a referendum... I miss him most acutely. His leadership, his fearlessness, and his ability to touch the Australian people with his words," the Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman told the crowd at the 22nd Dr Charles Perkins Oration.
Around 300 people gathered in the hall as Ms Perkins addressed the crowd, reflecting on her father's legacy.
Dr Charles Perkins dedicated his life advocating for the rights of First Nations people.
He was the first Aboriginal man to graduate from University in Australia.
He went on to become a pivotal force in the yes campaign of the 1967 referendum that saw Indigenous people counted in the census.
Dr Charles Perkins with his family and a young Rachel. Source: Supplied
It's her father's fight that keeps her going.
"The vision my father believed in still lives. The Australia he believed in was a reconciling, feeling-equal country.
"This is on the ballot paper for the first time in more than a century. That's what Australia is converging on, on October the 14th.
"I'm here to continue his fight."
While using her address to rebut key issues raised by the No campaign.
"The no campaign says the voice lacks clarity. People don't know what they are being asked to vote for, they say," she said.
"Well if this is so then I would beg them to read the words that I have just quoted to every audience they address, hand out the words in text, point out to them the words that constitute a threat to power of Federal Parliament. '
"It is just not there."
Rachel delivering the address at the University of Sydney. Credit: Bill Green, The University of Sydney
"It's pretty rich after subjugating generations to racial policies, racial laws, and racial jibes for Indigenous," she said.
"Now, to be accused of racialising the country, we must take a very deep breath. And stay focused in our aspirations when we hear such commentary.
"Whatever we're doing now, is not working because we've wasted the talent and energy of so many people. There's a dynamic to the Voice that might compel us, as never before, to realise and seize opportunities to get our collective act together."
Ms Perkins said the "story so far" as been one of "tragic failure, and disabling anger, denial and guilt".
"We need to break this recurring nightmare," she said.
"The aim of the voice is ultimately one of reconciliation. It will not fix every failure and it will not fix anything overnight.
"In less than 30 days, we ask the patriots of Australia to rise together to consider a better future for our nation. Not just its first peoples, but a nation that is united for generations to come."
