17 August 2022

PDF Version [741KB]

Emma Vines
Social Policy Section

Contents

Introduction

Recent background to Voice, Treaty, Truth

Truth-telling at the national level

Committee inquiries
A Makarrata Commission and a process of agreement making
Acknowledging massacres–mapping and memorials
Truth-telling through education
A National Resting Place

Truth-telling at the state and territory level

Victoria

Yoorrook Justice Commission

Queensland
Northern Territory
Tasmania

Closing the Gap Implementation Plan
Apologies for cultural theft

Western Australia

The Aboriginal Empowerment Strategy and Closing the Gap

South Australia

Conclusion
Milestones in Australian governments’ truth-telling initiatives since 2015

 

Introduction

In 2017, the Uluru Statement from the Heart called for three things: an Indigenous Voice enshrined in the Australian Constitution, a Makarrata Commission which would oversee a process of agreement-making and a process of truth-telling. This third element seeks to ensure the stories and histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are preserved, understood and acknowledged, thus informing and driving structural reform.[1]

Since the Uluru Statement from the Heart, proponents of reconciliation[2] have frequently based their programs upon the call for ‘Voice, Treaty, Truth.’[3] While there is division over the order of the reforms, for some prominent Indigenous advocates, such as Teela Reid, the three elements represent ‘sequenced reform’, with the order of the three crucial to substantial, structural change.[4] Thus, for many Indigenous peoples, the placement of Truth as third in the Uluru Statement from the Heart is not an accident and stems, according to historian Kate Fullagar, from the belief ‘… that a fresh approach to truth can only emerge after Indigenous people have secured a greater level of political assurance’.[5]

There have been over forty truth-telling processes established worldwide, all reflecting their own political and social context, but generally driven by a belief in the need to record and reflect upon the treatment of Indigenous populations and, from there, seek to redress racial divisions and past, present and future injustices.[6]

This publication considers the role of truth-telling in Australia, looking at how it has manifested across different levels of government both within and outside of formal reconciliation processes since the Uluru Statement from the Heart.[7] At the national level, inquiries have considered each element of Voice, Treaty, Truth; while at the state and territory level, there have been moves towards treaties in some jurisdictions and the creation of Australia’s first truth commission – the Yoorrook Justice Commission – in Victoria.[8]

While Voice and Treaty have commanded the most political attention to date, Truth presents a complex step towards the structural reform called for by the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Recent background to Voice, Treaty, Truth.

Truth-telling has a long history. In Australia, reports such as Bringing Them Home and speeches including Prime Minister Paul Keating’s 1992 ‘Redfern Speech’ and the 2008 National Apology all evoked the notion that telling the truth of history is necessary to move the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples forward.[9]

While mindful of the history of truth-telling, this chronology begins with the Referendum Council, focusing on moments of truth-telling that follow from the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

In December 2015, the Referendum Council was jointly appointed by then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and then Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten to advise on progress towards constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.[10] The Council held consultations with Indigenous Australians and the broader community and, between December 2016 and May 2017, 13 Regional Dialogues were held across the country.[11]

Dialogues of up to 100 people were held, hearing from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, traditional owner groups, community organisations and key individuals. The Dialogues focused on a discussion paper which outlined possible constitutional reforms, including five key proposals:

• drafting a statement acknowledging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians, and inserting it either in the Constitution or outside the Constitution, either as a preamble in a new head of power or in a statutory Declaration of Recognition
• amending or deleting the ‘race power’, section 51 (xxvi) and replacing it with a new head of power (which might contain a statement of acknowledgement as a preamble to that power) to enable the continuation of necessary laws with respect to Indigenous issues
• inserting a constitutional prohibition against racial discrimination into the Constitution
• providing for an Indigenous voice to be heard by Parliament, and the right to be consulted on legislation and policy that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• deleting section 25, which contemplates the possibility of a State government excluding some Australians from voting in State elections on the basis of their race.[12] [emphasis in original]

While not listed as an element of the Discussion Paper, also emerging from the Dialogues was the need for truth-telling. Megan Davis and Gabrielle Appleby wrote of truth-telling rising ‘organically but undeniably from the dialogues themselves’:

Most powerfully, the need for a truth-telling and remembering emerged on the first day of the dialogues, when delegates were asked, if meaningful reform was achieved, what might it mean on the ground in their communities. Delegates addressed this question by first explaining what had happened to them, thus themselves performing a truth-telling exercise to lay the foundation for a discussion about what meaningful reform might be able to achieve.[13]

Davis and Appleby reflected on the narratives that emerged from the Dialogues, noting the sophisticated approach to truth-telling and the need for the process to include both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.[14] Quoting from the Record of Meeting from the Brisbane Dialogue (held 21–23 April 2017) the authors noted:

Members of the group felt that, in order for meaningful change to happen, Australian society generally needs to “work on itself” and to know the truth of its own history. “They see us as disadvantaged, but the white people are more disadvantaged because they live in a country that is not their own. They’re living a lie”.[15]

Education and reverting place names back to Indigenous names were common themes, as was the need to allow truth-telling at the local level. Regarding the preservation and collation of any archives generated by a truth-telling initiative, a Makarrata[16] Commission (discussed below) was considered an ideal home.[17] 

Following the conclusion of the Dialogues, on 30 June 2017 the Referendum Council handed down its Final Report, which included the Guiding Principles which had provided a framework for the discussions and reforms at the National Constitutional Convention at Uluru. These principles said that:

… an option should only proceed if it:

1. Does not diminish Aboriginal sovereignty and Torres Strait Islander sovereignty.

2. Involves substantive, structural reform.

3. Advances self-determination and the standards established under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

4. Recognises the status and rights of First Nations.

5. Tells the truth of history.

6. Does not foreclose on future advancement.

7. Does not waste the opportunity of reform.

8. Provides a mechanism for First Nations agreement-making.

9. Has the support of First Nations.

10. Does not interfere with positive legal arrangements.[18] [emphasis added]

Drawn from this platform the Uluru Statement from the Heart (released on 26 May 2017) called for:

… constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.

We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.

Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.

We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.[19] [emphasis added]

Here, truth-telling is presented as a third, necessary process and, as seen through the Dialogues, one that is imperative to a repaired relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians: ‘We want Australia to take a giant leap in humanity. This is about truth-telling. Whether it is constitutional change or Treaty. It is not about colour. It is about truth-telling and justice’.[20]

That truth-telling must be coupled with justice is something the Victorian process, described below, has addressed. For some, an absence of commitment to justice renders truth-telling incomplete.

Megan Davis, for instance, argued:

The idea that truth automatically will lead to justice is fraught. It is illusory. It is an ahistorical belief that is simply not borne out by the evidence. It defies the demands we have made as Aboriginal people for rigorous evidence-based thinking and public policy in Indigenous affairs. Beware the ally spruiking truth.[21]

Truth-telling without constitutional, political, or structural reform is thus considered insufficient:

Take note of those who are spruiking truth without constitutional voice. Notice who is not advocating for political power and structural reform.

We have been here before, and we should see through the preference of those in power for performative storytelling over long-awaited and much-needed structural change. It's why in the '90s we got the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation instead of Treaty. The pithy tagline for the Uluru Statement from the Heart – "Voice, Treaty, Truth" – in some ways invited this. It gives the false impression that change is an a la carte menu and one can simply pick what suits, even though these three proposals are connected, meaningful and not interchangeable. The reform is Voice: Makarrata.[22]

Additionally, truth-telling in a formalised process, such as those seen in Canada and South Africa, must be led by, not forced upon, Indigenous people:

Truth-telling must be bottom up, led by First Nations in their communities. The vision of truth determined by the First Nation Regional Dialogues, which led to the Uluru statement, captured this dynamic: localised and featuring understandings of a shared history within communities. Few wanted a framework or institution to regulate this activity. The notion of a commission to animate the process of Makarrata was supported, but communities would still decide whether they want to connect to this, if at all.[23]

On this issue, Appleby and Davis highlighted evidence by Penelope Edmonds that many individuals avoid government-led reconciliation initiatives for fear of programs which may in fact ‘reinforce colonial hegemonies’.[24] Chapter 6 of the Final Report of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples also noted that local truth-telling may be the most important to many communities.[25]

There are numerous local projects already underway, such as the work to repatriate the paintings of the Carrolup Nyungar children, who were part of the Stolen Generations.[26] However, it is beyond the scope of this paper to capture more than a few examples of these many different local actions.

While truth-telling may be implemented primarily at local, community and regional levels, its inclusion in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, addressed to the Australian people as a whole, called forth government responses at both Australian and state and territory levels.[27] This paper outlines Australian and state and territory-level initiatives, seeking to capture the ways in which these governments have responded to, and understood calls for, truth-telling.

Truth-telling at the national level

The initial Australian Government response to the Uluru Statement from the Heart dismissed the document, primarily because of the call for a Voice. The Turnbull Government considered this would ‘… inevitably become seen as a third chamber of Parliament’—an idea which ran counter to Australian principles of democratic equality and could not be won at a referendum.[28]

Since then, however, there have been attempts to define what a Voice, constitutional recognition, and the corresponding referendum could look like, and the Australian Labor Party has committed to implementing the Uluru Statement in full. This commitment includes a Voice to Parliament and a Makarrata Commission to work with the Voice to design a national process for Treaty and Truth-telling.[29]

Committee inquiries

During 2018, the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples was tasked with considering the recommendations from recent inquiries and processes and developing proposals for constitutional recognition.[30] The Committee focussed its Final Report on the proposals set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, stating that it considered this to be a ‘… major turning point in the debate’ which ‘… rejected much that had gone before in terms of proposals for constitutional recognition’.[31]

While much of the Committee’s report focussed on options for a First Nations Voice, it also discussed Makarrata and agreement-making (chapter 5) and truth-telling (chapter 6).[32]

During its inquiry, the Committee felt:

… there is a desire among Australians for a fuller understanding of history, including the history, traditions and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and contact between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and settler communities.[33]

Other observations made by the Committee included that truth-telling is crucial to the ongoing process of reconciliation in Australia, and that contested history should not be considered a barrier, but rather an opportunity to ‘… provide an honest account of history from all perspectives’.[34]

The Committee also flagged that ‘There is some urgency in having these stories told, to avert the risk of the history being lost through the passage of generations’ and suggested that local Voice bodies, once established, could be a potential avenue for truth-telling in local communities.[35]

Chapter 6 of the Committee’s Final Report also contained two of the Committee’s four recommendations which gave some guidance as to the nature and importance of truth-telling:

Recommendation 3: The Committee recommends that the Australian Government support the process of truth-telling. This could include the involvement of local organisations and communities, libraries, historical societies and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander associations. Some national coordination may be required, not to determine outcomes but to provide incentive and vision. These projects should include both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and descendants of local settlers. This could be done either prior to or after the establishment of the local voice bodies.

Recommendation 4: The Committee also recommends that the Australian Government consider the establishment, in Canberra, of a National Resting Place, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remains which could be a place of commemoration, healing and reflection.[36]

As outlined below, Recommendation 4 has been actioned, with a Ngurra Cultural Precinct to be built within the Parliamentary Triangle.[37]

There continue to be inquiries on exactly how truth-telling should take place. On 16 February 2021 the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs tabled its final report, Nationhood, National identity and Democracy.[38] Chapter 3 dealt, in part, with the question of ‘Truth-telling and recognition’, noting that ‘A large number of participants in the inquiry … argued that the time is right to start a national conversation aimed at resetting the relationship between the nation-state and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians’.[39]

Education was cited as an avenue for engagement and truth-telling and is discussed below.[40]

The chapter also contained a relevant recommendation:

Recommendation 4: The committee recommends that the Australian government prioritises engaging fully and respectfully with the calls of the Referendum Council and the Uluru Statement from the Heart.[41]

Senator Patrick Dodson spoke to this recommendation: ‘First Nations peoples have expressed their formula for nationhood, for national identity and democracy, and it's called the Uluru Statement from the Heart’.[42]

Senator Dodson continued:

Much has been promised; little has happened. Uluru was no really revolutionary document. It sought constitutional reform to empower First Nations peoples to take their rightful place in this country. It called for a First Nations voice to be enshrined in the Constitution. It sought a makarrata commission to supervise a process of agreement making between governments and First Nations and truth telling about our history. It talked about voice, treaty and truth. As modest as this agenda is, its implementation would go a long way to bringing a new peace to this nation, a new enrichment of our identity. As I said in this place yesterday, may those opposite open their hearts and embrace the Uluru statement. This is the gap that has to be closed.[43]

A Makarrata Commission and a process of agreement making

Truth-telling initiatives or processes are linked to the concept of a Makarrata Commission.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart explained that:

Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.

We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.[44] [emphasis in original]

Some interpretive variations of the Yolngu word were noted in Chapter 5 of the Final Report of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.[45]

In its Interim Report, the Committee sought clarification on the ‘cultural context’ of Makarrata,[46] recognising the concept’s importance:

Some evidence suggests that no further progress can be made on any kind of recognition without truth‑telling, and some suggests that agreement making paves the way for more honest interaction between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, including acknowledgement and acceptance of the facts of Australia’s history.[47]

Also recognised was that ‘… much of the debate surrounding agreement making and truth-telling involves some views that the two are interconnected, or inextricably linked’.[48]

While a Makarrata Commission was not covered in the Committee’s final recommendations, evidence given suggests it has important links to truth-telling and reconciliation and may be a consideration for future inquiries.

For example, in its submission to the Committee’s inquiry, Uphold & Recognise sought to provide potential policy options on elements from the Uluru Statement from the Heart.[49] This non-profit organisation ‘promotes discussion of how we can recognise Indigenous Australians without disturbing the way that the Constitution operates’ and was co-founded by Julian Leeser, co-chair of the Committee.[50]

Attachment 3 of Uphold & Recognise’s submission considered the formation of a Makarrata Commission and ways in which Australia could redress its failure to ‘… acknowledge its fundamental unity. It is a trinity consisting of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage, British institutions and a multicultural accomplishment’.[51]

One way in which recognition of this unity could be achieved was through Makarrata:

… this is not merely a process of historical inquiry, but one which aims at strengthening Australia as a whole. As a result of settling differences, Australia will be strengthened by a renewed conception of itself as having progressed towards a final settlement, and reconciliation between Indigenous and other Australians.[52]

Given the connection between Makarrata and truth-telling, the idea is likely to persist in discussions of truth-telling, particularly with the Albanese Government having committed to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full.[53]

Acknowledging massacres–mapping and memorials

Chapter 6 of the 2018 Final Report of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples considered the importance of mapping massacres and establishing memorials to encourage reconciliation, education and healing.[54]

The Committee heard evidence from Lyndall Ryan regarding the development of a digital map of massacre sites which is considered an ongoing ‘process of truth-telling’.[55] Ryan explained the origins of the map, which covers the period of Colonial Frontier massacres between 1788 and 1930:

The idea for the map came as a result of people saying: 'We don't know what happened. How do you find the evidence? Why is massacre so important?' In addressing those issues, I feel the digital map has given us a lot of up-front evidence of some of the violence that took place on the colonial frontier.[56]

Speaking directly to the map’s role in truth-telling, Ryan concluded her opening statement:

… on the importance of truth-telling to the Australian community at large. We're looking at a community that really doesn't know what happened, and I think Australian historians have got a lot to answer for in that way. There have always been a small number of people like Henry Reynolds, who have been very anxious to explain what has gone on, but a number of people have said to me, 'I had no idea this was going on.' I think it's a bit of a wake-up call. So the use of modern technology, Trove and the newspapers have given us far more information about incidents than I had ever possibly imagined.

The fact that we're getting more and more digitised information available from archives across Australia indicates that people can test the information for themselves. It's not what I'm telling them; it's that they can then go and look at it. They can look at the information themselves. I think that's a very, very positive aspect to think about on the road to reconciliation, particularly in response to the Uluru statement.[57]

Another element of truth-telling raised by the Committee was the role of memorials. Of particular significance was the memorial to the Myall Creek Massacre (NSW, 1838).[58] This memorial commemorates the massacre of Aboriginal people by a non-Indigenous person. The subsequent trial was one of few instances of non-Indigenous people being convicted for murdering Indigenous people. The plaque on the stone reads:

In memory of the Wirrayaraay people who were murdered on the slopes of this ridge in an unprovoked but premeditated act in the late afternoon of 10 June, 1838.

Erected on 10 June 2000 by a group of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians in an act of reconciliation, and in acknowledgement of the truth of our shared history.

We remember them

Ngiyani Winangay Ganunga.[59]

Lindon Coombes, Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia, gave evidence to the Joint Committee on the importance of such memorials:

An example of localised truth-telling in New South Wales is the national and state heritage-listed memorial at Myall Creek, which for nearly 20 years has served as an icon for truth-telling in history and a means of encouragement for what can be achieved when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people work together towards true reconciliation.[60] 

Another memorial, recognising the 1928 Coniston massacres, in which dozens of Indigenous people were killed over a period of two months, was established on the 75th anniversary of the killings. The plaque reads:

In 1928 near this place the murder of Frederick Brooks led to the killing of many innocent Aboriginal people across the region.

We will remember them always.

Nganimparlu Kapurnalu-Jana Manngu-Nyanyirni
Taarnngangku-Juku
Nwern Inennhenh Kweteth Iterl-Arerlanetyenh
Aynanthe Atewanthepe Atelarerrantye Intemaperte

24 September 2003.[61]

In October 2014, 19 years after the initial claim was lodged under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, and 14 years after the Aboriginal Land Commissioner recommended the land be returned, the land at Coniston was handed back to Traditional Owners by Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion.[62] The descendants of both victims and perpetrators have attended commemorative ceremonies at Coniston in subsequent years.[63]

Truth-telling through education

Education has been recommended as an avenue for truth-telling. Chapter 6 of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ 2018 Final Report referenced the importance of including Indigenous history in Australian education systems, with education said to lead to far greater understanding.[64]

In 2020, the report Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner included a chapter on learning and education.[65] Through engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls across Australia, the Commissioner heard that education was highly valued, and was considered pivotal for preparing young people for the future. However, there were concerns that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge was undervalued in the education system. Integration of culture was seen as a fundamental way to keep Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children engaged and supported at school and for forming positive, inclusive learning experiences.[66] In relation to the Australian Curriculum, the report stated:

There was one message that girls and women delivered consistently everywhere I went: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and knowledges need to be embedded more comprehensively within the Australian education system and standard curriculum.[67]

The Commissioner heard that ‘… much Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content exists in elective depth studies and content elaborations, which are not mandatory but can be utilised by teachers if it fits into their course organisation’.[68] The variability in delivery led to the impression that there was no Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in the Australian Curriculum or that there was no national curriculum.

The report also considered truth-telling and history in the Australian Curriculum. It reported widespread perceptions that schools continue to shy away from addressing historic injustices and discrimination against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since European colonisation, despite changes to include more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives.[69] The report stated:

For a long time, the presentation of Australian history and culture has relegated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to the margins. The curriculum has predominantly focused on Western development since colonisation, disregarding the value of Indigenous knowledges and our peoples existence in Australia. The idea that Australian history only becomes relevant upon the arrival of white settlers, and that history is continuously relayed through the lens of white people, is frustrating and distressing for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls.[70]

The report argued that it was critical for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ history and culture to become an integral part of the Australian education system to develop a reconciled identity for all Australia.[71]

The National Curriculum has also caused controversy in another direction, with the Minister for Education and Youth, Alan Tudge, arguing that the emphasis on a ‘negative view of Australia’ within the years 7 to 10 history curriculum is unbalanced:

Of course, we should be teaching an accurate version of our history. I mentioned that before, that it is important to reflect upon the Indigenous perspective along the way and that has been incorporated into the draft. That's a good thing that those perspectives can be incorporated. My overall view is that the balance is out of whack in terms of downplaying modern Australia, downplaying Western civilisation, downplaying our liberal democracy, which has created so much wealth and opportunity for millions of people.[72]

A National Resting Place

The idea of a National Resting Place or memorial is not new and stems, in part, from the Australian Government’s long-term commitment to return remains and artefacts from institutions and collections both in Australia and overseas to Traditional Owners.[73]

A National Resting Place was included in Recommendation 4 of the 2018 Final Report of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.[74] During its hearings, the Committee heard from Mick Gooda who supported the concept of a ‘keeping place’, and also encouraged the placement of warriors in the Australian War Memorial, linking this step to truth-telling:

I think one of the reasons we argue for a truth-telling process is that we can’t have full reconciliation in this country until there’s been a recognition of the truth of the settlement of this country. The truth of the settlement of this country has been the cost Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have borne, and we should recognise the frontier conflicts as war. We should recognise our warriors Windradyne, Yagan, Jandamarra in the War Memorial.[75]

The War Memorial has been criticised by some, such as PhD candidate Lisa Barritt-Eyles, for:

… reaffirm[ing] the foundational myth that Australia was "born" as a nation at Gallipoli and in the crucible of the Western Front.

The claim that the stories represented in the galleries are "our story" confirms the [Australian War Memorial] as a site of Australian national identity reproduction – and silences other stories about the foundations of Australia's nationhood.[76]

In 2019 the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories’ Inquiry into Canberra’s National Institutions discussed a National Resting Place:

Sadly, the present representation of Indigenous Australia within the precinct of the Parliamentary Zone is chiefly one of protest and does not provide for a broader acknowledgement and demonstration of Australia’s rich Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, language, heritage and culture. The Committee has recommended that AIATSIS [Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies] be expanded with a new home in the Parliamentary Zone and a broader role in presenting the story of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The new facility should include a national resting place for repatriated ancestral remains that cannot immediately return to country.[77]

This issue was the subject of Recommendation 13 of the Committee’s report.[78] The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) supported the recommendation.[79]

In June 2019, the Government committed up to $5 million for a scoping study into the National Resting Place project, to be undertaken by AIATSIS, in conjunction with the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA). In March 2020, the first stage of the process to create an initial business case had cost $1.5 million.[80] The study was delivered to the Government in 2020. In the 2021-22 Budget, the Government committed to developing a second pass business case for a National Resting Place. On 6 December 2021, it was reported by The Canberra Times, that the business case had been sent to the Government.[81] This study was meant to provide costings and site options.[82]

On 5 January 2022, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that $316.5 million would be used to establish Ngurra (meaning ‘home’, ‘country’ or ‘place of belonging’ in many Aboriginal languages) within the Parliamentary Triangle. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural precinct will include a national resting place, as well as a learning centre and new home for the AIATSIS.[83] Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, said of the new site:

Ngurra will provide a new perspective on our shared history, as a significant moment for truth-telling, and a new place where the diversity of Indigenous Australia and one of the world’s oldest living cultures will be celebrated.[84]

Truth-telling at the state and territory level

Progress towards the formalisation of truth-telling varies between states and territories. The following information covers only those states and territories which have specifically and consistently referred to truth-telling throughout formal governmental processes.

Victoria

The Victorian Parliament has committed itself to the Treaty process, establishing the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, creating a Truth and Justice Commission and enacting online information campaigns to engage the broader public with Indigenous histories and current culture.

A Treaty is said to be:

… an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the unique status, rights, cultures and histories of Aboriginal Victorians. It's an opportunity to address wrongs and redefine relationships between the State, Aboriginal Victorians and non-Aboriginal Victorians.[85]

This will be achieved through community consultations, formal considerations between the Victorian Government and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria as to the necessary supports for the Treaty process and, finally, formal negotiations between the Government and Indigenous negotiating parties.

While there are no rules as to what should be included in the Treaty, the Government website suggests:

Victoria’s treaty could include the recognition of past wrongs, acknowledgement of the unique position of Aboriginal Victorians in our state and in Australia, enhancement of existing laws and how they impact Aboriginal people in Victoria, official apologies and truth-telling, and the transfer of decision-making power and resources so that Traditional Owners and Aboriginal Victorians can make decisions about the matters that affect their lives.[86]

Alongside these processes and negotiations is an acknowledgement that truth-telling must exist in tandem with any Treaty progress.[87]

Yoorrook Justice Commission

On 9 March 2021, the Victorian Government and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria announced the creation of the Yoorrook Justice Commission. Named for the Wemba Wemba/Wamba Wamba word for ‘truth’, the Commission has the powers of a Royal Commission and is based on the principle that, ‘… without truth, without justice, there can be no Treaty’.[88] 

The Joint Statement announcing the Commission began:

Today has been owed for 233 years.

233 years of violence, dispossession and deprivation. 233 years of deliberate silence.

Today we commit to telling the truth.[89]

It concluded:

… 233 years on, Aboriginal Victorians continue to experience outcomes far worse than non-Aboriginal Victorians.

It’s why the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission will investigate both historical and ongoing injustices committed against Aboriginal Victorians, across all areas of social, political, cultural and economic life

With the establishment of the Commission, Victoria will be the first and only jurisdiction in our nation to institute a formal truth-telling forum.

We make this point, not out of pride, but with purpose:

As a state, as a nation, we must do better.

…

Because only by reconciling with our past can we reach for a fairer, more just future—for all Victorians.[90]

The announcement makes clear that truth-telling must coexist with other reconciliation processes such as a Voice or Treaty.

In its June 2021 report to the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the Assembly told how:

For millennia First Peoples have been truth-telling within our communities – truths have been passed down from generation to generation in the form of story, song, art, dance, and ceremony. These stories told of creation, of language and culture, of the history of both the land around us and of our ancestors. This passing down of generational knowledge allowed our people to be the longest surviving culture on Earth.

After the brutal colonisation of this land, these stories began to change in content and context. Language and culture were shared in whispers to avoid detection. Stories passed down were now of lost family – brothers and sisters taken in the dead of night. Future generations now carried the trauma of the brutality their ancestors suffered – forced removal, massacre, slavery, suppression of culture and language, removal of land. Many languages were lost – they now lay dormant waiting to be awoken again.[91]

The path forward was through a coming together of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples:

We believe that the establishment of the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission is an historic opportunity for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Victoria finally to begin to listen to each other and create a new heritage together. Our peoples will no longer have to carry the pain of these stories alone – this history and these truths become everyone’s history and truths. With this understanding, real change is urgent and inevitable. The burden is lessened, and the healing can begin.[92]

The report presented feedback from First Nations Peoples around Victoria, collected between September 2020 and May 2021. Overall, the Assembly reported widespread support for a truth and justice process.[93]

Four key themes were highlighted:

Truth and justice: there was hope that the Yoorrook Justice Commission would, ‘… lay the evidence clear for all to see, as a foundation stone on the path to Treaties and self‑determination’.[94]

A full story in our own words: in fulfilling its mandate, it was hoped that the Commission would acknowledge the diversity of violence and injustices different communities experienced:

Despite our common heritage as First Peoples, the Commission needs to recognise how different parts of communities were affected, including the ongoing impacts of gender as well as what injustice means for young people, our elders, and other groups among us.[95]

Further, it was important that:

Aside from the harms we have suffered, First Peoples’ resilience and acts of resistance or dissent – including among non-Aboriginal allies – are part of our collective story too. This must also be a story of courage, survival and value.[96]

A safe space: how the Commission operates was considered as important as the results of its findings. Ensuring that individuals and communities were involved on their own terms was raised in consultations:

The risk of re-traumatisation is ever present during this process, and the Commission must avoid replicating systemic injustices itself. This extends to the Commission’s own organisational procedures and policies, including ensuring the rights of First Peoples to access data about themselves, as well as maintain control over their cultural knowledge.[97]

Real change through treaties and structural reform: the consultations found that there was a need for the Commission’s work to lead to real change and reform in not only government systems and institutions, but also in service delivery and Victorian culture. The sense was that:

The Commission will need to think ahead to what justice and truth will look like in practice, first and foremost through Treaties that will follow but also through other small or large actions that can heal the damage done.[98]

Overall, there was hope that the Commission would break with previous inquiries:

The Yoo-rrook Justice Commission cannot follow the mould of past Royal Commissions. It must look, feel and behave in a way that marks a break with Victoria’s past and set the tone for a new, inclusive and just future. Only in this way can the Commission produce both Yoo-rrook and justice.[99]

On 24 March 2022, the Commission commenced its work with a wurrek tyerrang (ceremonial hearing), with Commission Chair Eleanor Bourke saying that ‘The stories of Victoria's First Peoples must be told. In telling their stories, all Victorians can share the history and help create a better future – based on truth’.[100]

The Yoorrook Justice Commission’s interim report was delivered in June 2022, with the final report now due in June 2024.[101] In its interim report, Yoorrook outlined its history, process and methodology. It defined its central goals and values as three core elements: Truth, Understanding and Transformation.

In the first instance, it was said that the Commission would ‘create a lasting public record of historic and ongoing systemic injustice’. Through this, the broader Victorian community can come ‘to understand the links between past, present and future’. Finally, Yoorrook will:

… propose changes to laws, institutions and systems which can be taken up through treaty negotiations and other ways to build new relationships between all Victorians, including by holding the State accountable.[102]

Throughout its work, Yoorrook is committed to working with Elders and supporting self-determination and nation rebuilding through truth-telling:

Self-determination and nation rebuilding are central to how Yoorrook receives truth. Yoorrook supplements this truth with further research in order to make findings. By using the Boonwurrung word for truth (nuther-mooyoop), Yoorrook centres truthtelling within its inquiry and recognises First Peoples’ practices of story-telling and witnessing as legitimate and valid sources of evidence.[103]

The Commission identified eleven themes as emerging from the first phase of its work: dispossession and dislocation; political exclusion, representation and resistance, families, kinship and stolen children; stolen wages and economic marginalisation; legal injustice and incarceration; injuries to body and spirit; disrespect and denial of culture; damage to and denial of country; stolen and misused knowledge, culture and data; a colonial education system; and public silencing and denial.[104]

Within these themes, three cross-cutting issues were also identified:

1. The impact of racism

For many First Peoples, everyday life was and continues to be punctuated and framed by experiences of systemic and specific discrimination, particularly in dealings with the State. Specific accounts of racism and its individual and systemic effects were identified by Elders at every yarning circle and at every wurrek tyerrang.

2. The continuity of culture and identity

While the breakup of families, loss of language and exclusion from economic or social networks cause a range of specific harms, this trauma which crosses generations can be lessened if a person knows who they are, where they came from and who their people are. Elders continually talked about the importance of knowing who they are, their people and their country, especially for youth, as well as dismay at the difficulty of accessing such information, especially when it is held by the State.

3. Self-determination

Colonial dispossession not only is at the root of issues of land and economic power, but it began the assault on First Peoples’ basic dignity that comes from autonomy and decision making over our present and future. At each yarning circle and at each wurrek tyerrang, Elders were vehement in their calls for self-determination while deeply distressed at the continuing denial of self-determination they and their communities experience.[105]

The interim report also outlined the next phase of Yoorrook’s work and the priority areas that would be pursued. These included issues such as the removal of children, deaths in custody, the need for a health-based model to support the repeal of public drunkenness laws and raising the age of criminal responsibility.[106] Other areas of concern included the survival of First Peoples’ languages, the historic treatment of returned soldiers, the treatment of First Peoples by frontline workers and the need for self-determination.[107]

Finally, Yoorrook made two recommendations, which called for an extension of the truth-telling process by delaying the date of the final report, as well as calling on the Government to introduce legislative changes which would protect the use, storage and access of the information provided to the Commission.[108]

Queensland

In 2019, the Queensland Government issued a statement of commitment which promised:

… the Queensland Government are building a reframed relationship that acknowledges, embraces and celebrates the humanity of Indigenous Australians. We are proud that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have continuing rights and responsibilities as the first peoples of Queensland, including traditional ownership and connection to land and waters.

In the spirit of healing, we recognise the past acts of dispossession, settlement and discriminatory policies, and the cumulative acts of colonial and state governments since the commencement of colonisation which have left an enduring legacy of economic and social disadvantage that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have experienced and continue to experience.

It is time to nurture hope and optimism. It is time to focus on strengths and not deficits and to move from surviving to thriving. This can only be done by the Queensland Government doing things with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and not “to them”.

We will move forward together with mutual respect, recognition and a willingness to speak the truth about our shared history.

Through our continued shared commitment to reconciliation, all Queenslanders will be part of this journey.[109] 

Among the document’s key shared outcomes were healing and truth telling. Both the path to Treaty and a Voice to government were mentioned as the Queensland Government’s ‘next steps’ underpinned by ‘… the principle of self-determination actioned through truth-telling, empowerment, agreement making and high expectations relationships’.[110]

In July 2019 two bodies were announced which would aid the initial work involved in a Path to Treaty. These were a Working Group to undertake community consultations, and an Eminent Panel to oversee the Working Group and provide advice to government on the Path to Treaty.[111]

In February 2020, the Treaty Working Group on Queensland’s Path to Treaty released its report and detailed its findings:

… any treaty must be based on truth and the true history of their dispossession, that opportunities must be provided for this truth to be told and that it must be shared with non-Indigenous Queenslanders. They particularly wanted this truth to be mandated as part of the curricula of all education systems so that it is never forgotten.[112]

Having considered truth-telling in South Africa, Germany and Canada, the Working Group proposed ‘… a Truth and Healing Commission with powers to conduct hearings, compel witnesses and documents, take evidence, conduct research and report to the Queensland Parliament’.[113]

Also proposing an independent First Nations Treaty Institute, the Working Group recommended that:

… the First Nations Treaty Institute be given the legislated authority of a Commission of Inquiry in order to: conduct hearings across Queensland; receive submissions; conduct research; make findings; and report to the Queensland Parliament. Throughout this process, the Institute should: support witnesses; provide a repository of the material gathered during the hearings; in partnership with relevant service providers, develop a holistic healing process for First Nations People to support recovery from their lived experiences and intergenerational trauma; and develop curriculum content based on the true history as a result of these findings for use by the various educational authorities in Queensland. This content should be included in the curricula of all educational institutions in Queensland.[114]

In its own report, the Eminent Panel endorsed the findings of the Working Group. In terms of truth-telling, the Panel was clear: ‘Simply put, any treaty must be based on the truth’.[115] This was reflected in its first recommendation which outlined the steps towards a Treaty.[116]

The Eminent Panel advised that:

Truth Telling can be a powerful and cathartic process which will deepen understanding of the shared experience of how modern Queensland came to be. It will also be difficult and potentially traumatic for all Queenslanders involved, particularly First Nations Peoples. That is why Truth should be combined with healing.

The resources which flow from Truth Telling will be invaluable in informing academic and popular understanding of First Nations. The education systems of the State should utilise the materials in curriculum design and as an aid to teaching and learning. [117]

This was in line with its third recommendation:

3. Truth Telling and Healing

3.1 That the Queensland Government facilitate and resource a comprehensive process of Truth Telling to chronicle the history of First Nations Peoples prior to British colonisation of Queensland, the history and impact of colonisation on First Nations Peoples and the more recent history of Queensland in relation to First Nations Peoples.

3.2 That, as its first priority, the First Nations Treaty Institute be commissioned and empowered (e.g. the ability to compel the production of documents and witnesses) to conduct the process of Truth Telling and to support participants and witnesses involved in the process.

3.3 That healing and reconciliation be supported through the process with relevant service providers auspiced to provide support to First Nations People to recover from their lived experience and impacts of intergenerational trauma.

3.4 That the resources, materials and testimony gained from the process be used:

3.4.1 To inform popular and academic understanding of First Nations and the history of colonisation and;

3.4.2 As source material for the development of mandatory educational curricula.[118]

In its response, the Government accepted the recommendations in principle.[119]

On 13 August 2020, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Craig Crawford, released a joint statement announcing a Treaty Advancement Committee to provide independent advice on the Eminent Panel’s recommendations.[120] Members were appointed on 14 February 2021, with the Premier’s announcement focussing on acknowledgement of the past as crucial to the Path to Treaty.[121]

Since then, the Committee has met with local communities and on 10 September 2021, members of the Committee held an online webinar to engage with communities across Queensland and inform the public on the work towards Treaty.[122]

This work forms part of a $300 million Path to Treaty Fund, announced in the Queensland Government’s 2021–22 Budget.[123]

On 12 October 2021, the Queensland Government received the final report of the Treaty Advancement Committee.[124] Premier Palaszczuk tweeted the significance of the Path to Treaty, saying it ‘… is Queensland’s journey towards acknowledgement of injustices, truth telling, and self-determination for First Nations Queenslanders’.[125]

On 16 August 2022, the Queensland Government officially released its response to the Treaty Advancement Committee, committing the Government formally to a Treaty and truth-telling process through the signing of a Path to Treaty Commitment.[126] Truth-telling held a central place within this Commitment, as well as the Government’s response to the Treaty Advancement Committee’s recommendations, with the four ‘Truth Telling and Healing’ recommendations accepted by the Government.[127] These recommendations include a staged Truth Telling and Healing process which will involve public engagement and a formal inquiry process through a legislated model. This inquiry is to be conducted over three years and will, ‘at a minimum’, engage with communities, adopt a trauma-informed approach to its inquiry, promote public awareness and provide recommendations which will inform the Treaty process.[128]

Northern Territory

In 2018, Northern Territory (NT) Chief Minister Michael Gunner signed the Barunga Agreement as the basis for Treaty negotiations in the NT. This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreed that:

a) Aboriginal people, the First Nations, were the prior owners and occupiers of the land, seas and waters that are now called the Northern Territory of Australia.
b) The First Nations of the Northern Territory were self-governing in accordance with their traditional laws and customs; and that
c) First Nations peoples of the Northern Territory never ceded sovereignty of their lands, seas and waters.[129]

It was also agreed that:

… there has been deep injustice done to the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory, including violent dispossession, the repression of their languages and cultures, and the forcible removal of children from their families, which have left a legacy of trauma, and loss that needs to be addressed and healed.[130]

Mentioning truth-telling’s role in reconciliation, the MOU stated:

The Treaty should aim to achieve successful co-existence between all Territorians that starts with ‘truth telling’ which involves hearing about, acknowledging and understanding the consequences of the Northern Territory’s history.[131]

Under the Treaty Commissioner Act 2020 (NT), Mick Dodson was appointed the first Northern Territory Treaty Commissioner and held the role until June 2021.[132] As part of the Treaty process, a Discussion Paper was published. This Paper called for truth-telling:

Truth telling is at the core of any treaty negotiations and is also at the heart of documenting the unfinished business. The timing for it is extremely urgent. It is of utmost importance that we must start immediately to record the stories of the hundreds of older Aboriginal First Nation Territorians’ whose memories stretch back into a previous era, before those stories are gone forever. Treaty negotiations will not begin, at best, for years. Truth telling must start well before that. Truth telling must include the Stolen Generations of the Northern Territory. This Discussion Paper strongly suggests that the negotiation process and the truth telling process should start separately.[133] [emphasis in original]

Subsequently released by the Northern Territory Treaty Commission in February 2021, the report – Towards Truth Telling – explained that:

Clearly momentum for truth telling is building. Towards Truth Telling aims to solidify that momentum by bringing together research and analysis of truth telling practices overseas and in Australia, in order to inform a potential process here in the NT. It provides suggestions for an evidence-based model that will accompany and augment the treaty process’.[134]

The Commission considered truth-telling and reconciliation commissions in Canada, South Africa, Guatemala, Mauritius, Peru and Timor-Leste.[135] Explaining the role of truth commissions, the Commission said that:

Truth Commissions “unsilence” accounts of the past, restore dignity and begin a process of healing between parties that may also include reparations. In Australia, truth telling about colonisation and its impacts on Aboriginal peoples has occurred as part of land claims hearing, numerous Royal Commissions and one National Inquiry, some of which share parallels with a potential Truth Commission in the Northern Territory.[136]

Unlike the order of Voice. Treaty. Truth., identified in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the report called for truth-telling to ‘… begin as soon as possible, before the negotiation of any treaty’.[137]

Now with an Acting Treaty Commissioner, the Final Report by the Treaty Commission was tabled at the end of July 2022.[138] Among the recommendations was discussion about truth-telling, with the Treaty Commissioner recommending:

The extension and expansion of the Treaty Commission to become a Treaty and Truth Commission under new Territory legislation, to progress truth-telling work across the NT and practically support First Nations prior to and during the Treaty negotiation process.[139]

This Treaty and Truth Commission (TTC) should be legislated through a Treaty and Truth Commission Act 2022 and will serve two distinct functions: truth-telling and Treaty support.[140] With regards to the first function:

The TTC will ensure the early collection and preservation of evidence important to truth-telling across the NT, and develop truth-telling resources to support the Treaty process. This may include, but is not limited to:

• Recording evidence of past injustice from the older generation, including the Stolen Generation
• Conducting ongoing education and awareness programs, including through school curricula.[141]

The purpose of this function is to:

… provide the appropriate spaces for Aboriginal people to record what has happened to them, ensure Treaty processes recognise the impact of historical injustice on members of the Stolen Generation, and will ensure Treaty negotiators collectively confront the past injustices and move forward in Treaty negotiations in a manner that is informed by the mistakes of the past.[142]

The report reiterated that truth-telling was the foundation for a Treaty process.[143]

Tasmania

As Tasmanian Premier, Peter Gutwein made moves towards a truth-telling and treaty process, appointing former Tasmanian Governor, Kate Warner, and Professor Tim McCormack to lead discussions with Aboriginal communities about what the process should involve.[144] The 2021–22 Tasmanian Budget provided $200,000 for the project, with a report sent to Premier Gutwein in November 2021.[145] This report was the result of over 100 meetings and engagement with more than 420 individuals, including through 62 community consultations.[146]

The report emphasised the importance of truth-telling:

Societies that ignore violent pasts characterised by egregious injustices perpetuate the lack of resolution for future generations. Denial, indifference and societal blindness create a dead weight that persists indefinitely in the absence of change. There are many examples around the world of the consequences of unresolved injustices adversely affecting societies for generation after generation. Some countries have, however, established processes to challenge past wrongs, to facilitate societal acknowledgement of those wrongs and to enable a collective response to them.[147]

The report also emphasised that truth-telling, ‘… could not be an end in itself, but that it must result in tangible outcomes’.[148] In terms of the link between truth-telling and justice, the authors noted that:

A recurring theme was that Aboriginal people want truth-telling to lead to tangible outcomes: actions not just words. Tangible outcomes include land returns, changes to the education curriculum and also to the ways in which Aboriginal history is disseminated, such as through tourism interpretations and the names of certain landmarks, including the Batman Bridge.[149]

Further, although current truth-telling initiatives (many at the local level) were acknowledged and valued, it was felt that ‘… those making the point were not suggesting that current efforts are a substitute for a more systematic process. A truth-telling commission would add a formal lens over what is already being achieved’.[150]

The authors highlighted that there was ‘wide support’ for an official Truth-Telling Commission, with some recommending the creation of a commission of inquiry (Tasmania’s statutory equivalent to a Royal Commission). Others recommended that there must be ‘… culturally appropriate and respectful ways of inviting people to tell their stories, such as yarning circles while shell stringing or weaving’.[151]

In terms of the structure and leadership of a Truth-Telling Commission, the authors reported broad agreement that it:

… should be Aboriginal-led and run and that the mechanism should be in the form of a government-supported and well-resourced body. There was also support for including one or more highly respected non-Aboriginal representatives as commissioners, both as a means of demonstrating empathy and commitment to the process from the non-Aboriginal community, and to convince sceptical non-Aboriginal members of society of the value, importance and objectivity of the process. Others suggested that non-Aboriginal involvement could instead be in the form of special advisors to the body where they have relevant expertise, for example historians and anthropologists.[152]

Also acknowledged was a need for an awareness of the potential for truth-telling to have a ‘re‑traumatising effect’. Any process must, therefore, also provide psychological support for participants.[153]

Finally, consultations reflected that belief that ‘… truth-telling must come before treaty’.[154]

With regards to a Truth-Telling Commission, the authors made four recommendations.

First, it was recommended that a Truth-Telling Commission be established with the following functions:

• to create a permanent and official historical record of the past, which includes clarifying the historical record, quashing the extinction myth and recording and explaining the resilience and survival of the Aboriginal people;

• to provide the opportunity for story-telling and preserving the memories of Elders and Aboriginal people;

• to educate the public about the past abuses and injustices committed against Tasmanian Aboriginal people as well as the intergenerational and ongoing effects of colonisation;

• to make recommendations for healing, system reform and practical changes to laws, policy and education, and specific matters to be included in treaty negotiations; and

• to deal with the question of Aboriginality, in so far as it relates to eligibility to determine representatives of the Aboriginal people for treaty negotiations with the State and for registration to vote in [Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania] ALCT elections (see Recommendations 8 and 9).[155]

Second, it was recommended that the Truth-Telling Commission should be led by Indigenous persons, with possible cooperation from an ‘… eminent respected non-Aboriginal person with experience of similar bodies’.[156]

Third, the Truth-Telling Commission should adopt flexible procedures and processes, reflecting the ‘considerable latitude’ in processes as allowed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1995 (Tas).[157] This flexibility should provide opportunities for different avenues of truth-telling, as well as ‘… culturally appropriate psychological and emotional support provided to participants, including observers, to ensure that the truth-telling process is a healing and cathartic one and not re‑traumatising’.[158]

The final recommendation was that it should produce publications and outputs in a range of formats, including online, video and print media, as well as through the creative arts.[159]

In terms of moves towards a Treaty, consultations showed that:

… there was a division among Aboriginal people between those who considered that they were ready to negotiate a treaty which could be done concurrently with truth-telling and those who thought that it was premature to attempt to negotiate a single treaty with Aboriginal people, which could not happen until truth-telling and the issue of identity was resolved. At the same time, there was a concern that truth-telling and determining the issue of identity should not stall progress on land return, protection of Aboriginal heritage reform, resolving language disputes, capacity building and other significant changes needed to facilitate self-determination and build autonomy for Aboriginal people.[160]

The authors concluded that ‘… a treaty process should not be delayed until after truth-telling’.[161] Consequently, Recommendation 5 of the Report outlined the need for Treaty and truth-telling advancement legislation:

In addition to creating the framework for a truth-telling process, and a commitment to begin a treaty process and to provide the resources to make this happen, the framework should include:

• without prejudice to the actual content to be negotiated, an indicative list of the components of the treaty such as a recognition that Aboriginal sovereignty has not been extinguished but that it coexists with that of the Crown; an acknowledgment of past injustices; reparations for colonisation and protection for Indigenous rights; and
• a code of conduct to ensure that Aboriginal participants are protected from lateral violence.[162]

A commitment of resources is important because the fact that no budget for progressing the Government’s ‘pathway to reconciliation’ was announced in the last budget has raised doubts about the Government’s genuine commitment to meaningful outcomes.[163]

Recommendation 6 addressed the sequenced reforms outlined in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, noting discussion around the most effective path forward, but arguing that truth-telling and Treaty work should occur concurrently.[164]

Finally, Recommendation 7 advised the creation of an Aboriginal Consultative Body to ‘… engage with whole of Government policy of interest to the Aboriginal people’. This should be done, ‘Without prejudice to a future treaty-negotiated Aboriginal Voice to the Tasmanian Parliament, which may result in designated Aboriginal seats in Parliament or other structural reforms…’.[165]

When tabling the report, Premier Gutwein announced that the full Government response would be issued in 2022.[166] Subsequently, in a media release on 1 March 2022, the Premier announced that, ‘… while there is a range of views, there is broad support to take further steps on both a Truth-telling process and Treaty process in Tasmania’. To pursue these goals, the Premier announced the creation of an Aboriginal Advisory body to co-design, with the Government, truth‑telling and Treaty processes, with $500,000 expected to be included in the 2022–23 Tasmanian Budget for this purpose.[167]

Closing the Gap Implementation Plan

The Tasmanian Closing the Gap Implementation Plan contains an entry under Priority Reform One: Partnership and shared decision-making, which addresses ‘Treaty, Truth Telling and Reconciliation’ and commits the Government to ‘… use its best endeavours to implement the recommendations of the recently established investigations into “a pathway to reconciliation and treaty”’.[168] The timeframe given is December 2022, with the action to be completed with existing funding.

Apologies for cultural theft

On 15 February 2021, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Brett Torossi, apologised to Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples on behalf of the Museum and Art Gallery and its predecessor, the Royal Society Museum, for being ‘… part of, and sometimes … deeply implicated in, acts which were heedless of, or knowingly contrary to, the wishes and cultural practices of Tasmanian Aboriginal people’.[169]

Stating early on that truth-telling is crucial in moving forward, the apology spoke to the Uluru Statement from the Heart:

On the 29th of May 2017, over three years ago, the Uluru Statement from the Heart was delivered by the First Nations National Constitutional Convention to the Australian people. The Aboriginal writers of the statement placed matters of history and truth telling, of Aboriginal sovereignty and power, at the very forefront of agreement making. All over this nation, and on this island of lutruwita, Aboriginal people have called for truth telling about the difficult past and its ongoing damaging legacies that continue today.

We commit to a different future working with you …[170]

The apology then outlined steps the institution would undertake to ensure consultation and self‑determination, including repatriation of ancestral remains and artefacts when requested.

Western Australia

Recognition of Indigenous peoples’ ownership of the land is one way in which truth-telling may manifest, showing an acknowledgement of the history of Indigenous Australians and their traditional claim to the land. In Western Australia such acknowledgement has led to the largest native title agreement in Australia, transferring 320,000 hectares of land to the Noongar people over five years, as well as granting some rights to land that was not transferred.[171] The Noongar Settlement is considered by some to be Australia’s first treaty between a state government and indigenous peoples and led to the passage of the Noongar (Koorah, Nitja, Boordahwan) (Past, Present, Future) Recognition Act 2016.[172] This Act formally recognised the Noongar people as the traditional owners of the land they live on, as well as acknowledging ‘… their significant and unique contribution to the heritage, cultural identity, community and economy of WA’.[173]

In his second reading speech, Premier Colin Barnett explained the purpose of the Bill:

At its simplest, this bill provides Noongar people with symbolic recognition as traditional owners of the south west. However, I believe this bill has greater significance than simply one element of a native title agreement and will ultimately stand alone as a historic, overdue recognition of the Noongar people. I am very proud that we as a Parliament and as a community are able to embrace the opportunity that has arisen from the native title agreement to seek this Parliament’s recognition in perpetuity of Noongar culture and history.[174]

This Act represented an acknowledgement of history, in conjunction with legislative recognition, connecting recognition and truth-telling to concrete reform.

The Aboriginal Empowerment Strategy and Closing the Gap

In addition to legislative recognition of traditional ownership of parts of Western Australia, the current Western Australian Government has also established an Aboriginal Empowerment Strategy which has a broad focus on issues such as truth-telling and is designed to align with the Western Australian Closing the Gap Jurisdictional Implementation Plan.[175]

‘Walking together’ is a key element of the Strategy and is important in ensuring that truth-telling occurs and racism is reduced, supporting the overarching goal of avoiding new trauma.[176] This will be achieved through a requirement for ‘each Government agency to contribute to truth-telling and incorporate it into their business’.[177] Truth-telling is intended to promote healing, as well as supplement efforts to eliminate racism and avoid repeating trauma for Aboriginal peoples.

Three key areas for truth-telling were identified during consultations:

• the history (and, for some issues, the ongoing reality) of negative interactions between Aboriginal people and the settler society. These include colonisation, dispossession, frontier violence and massacres, the Stolen Generations, institutional abuses, segregation, labour exploitation, racism and discrimination, and the undermining of culture, language, spirituality, family and community life, economic structure, and authority structures;

• stories of Aboriginal people’s survival and endurance, and also of cooperation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people; and

• the richness, value and diversity of Aboriginal cultures, both before colonisation and into the future.[178]

The ways in which truth-telling can manifest are said to include formal hearings with findings and reports; official apologies; grass-roots initiatives; memorial ceremonies, monuments, healing places, public art, plaques and signage, renaming places; school curriculum, and content in museums; employee training courses; government agency reports, events, employee inductions; and oral history projects, arts and performance.[179]

The Strategy aligns with the Western Australian Closing the Gap Jurisdictional Implementation Plan.[180] Released in September 2021, the Plan outlined the ways in which the state is committed to the new National Agreement on Closing the Gap. One project identified in the Closing the Gap Implementation Plan is the Wadjemup Project. This involves a partnership between the WA Government and Aboriginal people to acknowledge Wadjemup/Rottnest Island’s cultural value for the Wadjuk Noongar people, as well as the instances of injustice, violence and forced labour which occurred between 1838 and 1931. The idea is that the project, ‘… adopts a holistic approach to the future plans for truth-telling, healing and memorialisation’.[181]

Other projects mentioned include the Aboriginal History Unit of the Department of Local Government, Sports and Cultural Industries; ‘Lock’ hospitals – heritage protection and commemoration; the Storylines program hosted by the State Library of Western Australia and the Freemantle Prison Aboriginal Heritage Management Plan.[182]

South Australia

On 19 February 2018, the South Australian Government and the Narungga Nation Aboriginal Corporation signed the Buthera Agreement, which established the basis for Treaty negotiations in the state.[183] However, with the change in government in March 2018, the new Premier, Steven Marshall, announced that the negotiations had been ‘paused’ until the Treaty Commissioner completed a report on what had been learnt through the early stages of the process.[184] The Liberal Party had previously indicated that it did not support a Treaty process for South Australia.[185]

However, in February 2021, the Marshall Government did announce a Traditional Fishing Agreement with the Narungga people. Premier Marshall acknowledged the history of the area and the Narungga people:

As the traditional owners of Guuranda, the area now known as the Yorke Peninsula, fishing has always been, and continues to be integral to the identity of Narungga people.

The knowledge of the land and sea collected by Narungga people over the thousands of years they’ve lived here, is invaluable and can help ensure appropriate cultural considerations are made in the management of our fisheries.[186]

Additionally, the first election for an Aboriginal Representative Body was due to be held in 2022 following the introduction of the Aboriginal Representative Body Bill 2021 in October 2021.[187] However, there was concern from the then Labor Opposition, particularly surrounding the ‘truncated’ consultation process conducted before the introduction of the Bill.[188] With a change in Government in March 2022, it is unclear what path reconciliation processes will take under new Labor Premier, Peter Malinauskas; however, in 2019, he indicated his support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the establishment of a Voice to the South Australian Parliament.[189]

Conclusion

By its very nature, truth-telling manifests differently according to place and purpose, at times emerging organically as it addresses a need for remembrance and acknowledgement and, in other instances, developing through a formal process designed to recognise past, present and future harm. It is this latter form which a Makarrata Commission is said to be able to oversee, acknowledging that truth-telling must be separate from treaty discussions for it to be complete, since the Truth called for by many supporters of the Uluru Statement from the Heart goes beyond what is possible in treaty negotiations.

Although the approach to reconciliation differs across Australian jurisdictions, some consistent elements are emerging as Australia navigates the path proposed by the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Most noticeable are commitments by states and territories that truth-telling initiatives will form the basis of a new relationship which recognises and redresses past and present injustices and informs moves towards treaties and recognition. 

Whether taken as sequenced or concurrent reform, Voice, Treaty, Truth now dominates reconciliation discussions, with formal truth-telling mechanisms developing as another central element in progressing the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non‑Indigenous peoples.

Milestones in Australian governments’ truth-telling initiatives since 2015

Milestones	Jurisdiction	Details	Source Documents
7 December 2015	Commonwealth	The Referendum Council is appointed by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten. The Council is formed to advise on progress towards constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.	Referendum Council, ‘The Council’.
May 2016	Victoria	Victoria begins moves towards the creation of a treaty between the state Government and Victorian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.	First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, ‘The Treaty journey so far’, [2020].
July 2016	Victoria	The Aboriginal Treaty Working Group is established to ensure community input into the design of an Aboriginal Representative Body to oversee treaty progress in Victoria.	First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, ‘The Treaty journey so far’, [2020].
July 2016–December 2017	Victoria	Consultation occurs in Victoria, including convening the 31 member Aboriginal Community Assembly to consider questions related to the design of the Aboriginal Representative Body.	First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, ‘The Treaty journey so far’, [2020].
December 2016–May 2017	National	13 Regional Dialogues are held across the country, involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, traditional owners, community organisations and key individuals.	Referendum Council, ‘Dialogues’.
23–26 May 2017	National	The National Constitutional Convention is held at Uluru.	P Anderson, Uluru–National Convention, media release, [2017].
26 May 2017	National	The Uluru Statement from the Heart is released, proposing the idea of three areas of reform—Voice, Treaty, Truth.	The Uluru Statement, ‘The Statement’.
30 June 2017	National	The Referendum Council releases its Final Report, which includes the Guiding Principles that provided a framework for reform which underpinned the Uluru Statement from the Heart.	Referendum Council, Final Report of the Referendum Council, 2017.
26 October 2017	Commonwealth	Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull, Attorney-General George Brandis, and Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion, release a joint statement responding to the Referendum Council’s report on Constitutional Recognition. The response rejects the proposal for a Voice.	M Turnbull, G Brandis and N Scullion, Response to Referendum Council’s report on constitutional recognition, 2017.
January 2018	Victoria	The Treaty Advancement Commission is established, led by Jill Gallagher AO, to oversee the creation of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria (formerly the Aboriginal Representative Body).	Victorian Treaty Advancement Commission, ‘About the Commission’.
19 February 2018	South Australia	The Buthera Agreement is signed between the South Australian Government and the Narungga Nation Aboriginal Corporation. This Agreement establishes the basis for treaty negotiations.	SA Department of the Premier and Cabinet, ‘Buthera Agreement’.
17 March 2018	South Australia	The change in government in South Australia pauses the treaty process.	R Puddy, ‘South Australia’s treaty negotiations on hold while Premier considers their future’, 2018.
March 2018	Victoria	The Aboriginal Treaty Working Group presents its final report on the design of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.	Aboriginal Treaty Working Group, Final report on the Design of the Aboriginal Representative Body, 2018;  First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, ‘The Treaty journey so far’, [2020].
28 May 2018	Australian Capital Territory	The first Reconciliation Day public holiday in Australia is held in the Australian Capital Territory. Reconciliation Day remembers the 1967 Referendum and marks the Monday of National Reconciliation Week.	K Burgess, ‘ACT first Australian jurisdiction to gazette Reconciliation Day public holiday’, Canberra Times, 24 April 2018.
4 June 2018	Victoria	‘Deadly Questions’ launches, designed to facilitate greater community participation and learning. The site allows visitors to ‘Ask a question’. Over 4,000 questions were asked by the public and answered by Aboriginal Victorians. The word ‘Deadly’ in this context means ‘cool’ or ‘great’.	Vic Department of Premier and Cabinet, ‘Deadly Questions’, n.d.
8 June 2018	Northern Territory	The Northern Territory Government and the Territory’s four Land Councils sign a Memorandum of Understanding, known as the Barunga Agreement. The Agreement paves the way for consultations over a treaty to take place, with an independent Treaty Commissioner to be appointed to oversee consultations.	The Barunga Agreement - a Memorandum of Understanding to Provide for the Development of a Framework for Negotiating a Treaty with the First Nations of the Northern Territory, 2018.
1 August 2018	Victoria	The Victorian Parliament passes the Advancing Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018 formally committing the Government to the Treaty process.	Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018 (Vic).
September–October 2018	Victoria	Elections are held for the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.	First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, ‘The Treaty journey so far’, [2020].
21 September 2018	Victoria	The second phase of the ‘Deadly Questions’ campaign begins, focusing on the importance of the Treaty process.	D Andrews (Premier), Deadly Questions shifts focus to Treaty, media release, 21 September 2018; Vic DPM&C, ‘Treaty in Victoria: a treaty between Aboriginal Victorians and the Victorian Government’, n.d.
23 November 2018	Commonwealth	The Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples releases its Final Report, focussing primarily on the creation of a Voice, but also other constitutional issues and the creation of a Makarrata Commission, as well as a process of truth-telling.	Joint Select Committee, Final report, 2018.
December 2018	Victoria	The First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria is established and calls for Victoria to establish a Stolen Generations Redress Scheme. The Assembly is formally elected by Aboriginal communities, with the stated intent to ‘work with State government to create the Treaty Negotiation Framework for negotiations and the rules and processes by which a Treaty/or Treaties can be agreed in Victoria’.	First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, ‘The Treaty journey so far’, [2020] and ‘The Assembly’, n.d.
June 2019	Commonwealth	The Australian Government commits up to $5 million for a scoping study into the National Resting Place project. The study is undertaken by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA).	AIATSIS, ‘Feature 14: the National Resting Place project’, n.d.; Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, ‘National Resting Place’, n.d.
July 2019	Queensland	The Queensland Government issues a statement of commitment, including the ‘next steps’ to be taken, which will involve a path to Treaty and a Voice to government.	Queensland Department of Seniors, Disability Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, ‘Statement of commitment’, reviewed 22 June 2021.
July 2019	Queensland	Queensland establishes a Working Group and an Eminent Panel to consult, oversee and advise on the Path to Treaty.	A Palaszczuk et al., Historic signing of ‘Tracks to Treaty’ commitment, joint media release, 14 July 2019.
February 2020	Queensland	The Treaty Working Group on Queensland’s Path to Treaty releases its report, which includes advice that ‘… any treaty must be based on truth…’.	Queensland. Treaty Working Group, Report from the Treaty Working Group on Queensland’s Path to Treaty, p. 59.
February 2020	Queensland	The Queensland Eminent Panel releases a report, which notes the importance of truth-telling.	Queensland. Treaty Working Group, Advice and Recommendations from the Eminent Panel on Queensland’s Path to Treaty, 2020.
May 2020	Queensland	The Queensland Eminent Panel releases supplementary advice for Queensland’s Path to Treaty, which modifies the original report in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.	Queensland. Treaty Working Group, Supplementary Advice and Recommendations from the Eminent Panel on Queensland’s Path to Treaty, 2020.
June 2020	Victoria	The First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria calls for a truth and justice process to operate alongside the Treaty process.	First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, ‘June Assembly Chamber meeting agenda - 18–19 June 2020’.
July 2020	Victoria	The Victorian Government announces it will work with the Assembly to establish a truth-telling process.	First Peoples–State Relations, ‘Truth and justice in Victoria’, reviewed 7 April 2022.
August 2020	Queensland	The Queensland Government releases its response to the recommendations made by the Eminent Panel, with the recommendations regarding truth-telling accepted in principle.	Queensland Government Treaty Statement of Commitment and response to recommendations of the Eminent Panel, 2020, p. 6.
13 August 2020	Queensland	Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Craig Crawford, announce the creation of a Treaty Advancement Committee to provide advice on the Eminent Panel’s recommendations.	A Palaszczuk (Premier) and C Crawford (Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships), Queensland Treaty Advancement Committee members announced, joint media release, 14 February 2021.
24 November 2020	Victoria	The 2020–21 Victorian Budget promises $357 million for self‑determination, access to education, better housing and health support, and improved quality of life for Indigenous Victorians. Of this, $20.2 million is allocated to support the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria to continue its Treaty work.	D Andrews (Premier), A fairer future for Aboriginal Victorians, 24 November 2020.
8 February 2021	Victoria	‘Deadly & Proud’ is launched, following on from ‘Deadly Questions’. The site brings together stories of Traditional Owners and Aboriginal Victorians.	D Andrews (Premier), Deadly And Proud on our path to Treaty, truth and justice, 8 February 2021; Deadly & Proud, ‘The path to Treaty’, n.d.
12 February 2021	Northern Territory	The Northern Territory Treaty Commission releases, Towards Truth Telling, outlining issues and ideas related to a Truth Telling Commission for the Territory.	Northern Territory Treaty Commission, Towards Truth Telling, 2021.
15 February 2021	Tasmania	Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Brett Torossi, apologises to Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples for cultural theft.	Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, ‘Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal People’, 15 February 2021.
17 February 2021	South Australia	South Australia announces a traditional fishing agreement with the Narungga people.	SA Department of Primary Industries and Regions, ‘Traditional fishing agreement marks historic step for South Australia’, 17 February 2021.
February 2021	Commonwealth	The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee releases its report, Nationhood, National Identity and Democracy, which includes discussion of a National Resting Place.	Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, Nationhood, National Identity and Democracy, 2021.
February–May 2021	Victoria	A Steering Committee (established August 2020) conducts community engagement to investigate possible designs for a Stolen Generations reparations scheme.	First Peoples–State Relations, ‘Services for Victoria’s Stolen Generations’, reviewed 23 March 2022.
9 March 2021	Victoria	Victoria announces the Yoorrook Justice Commission, which will investigate both historical and ongoing grievances and injustices.	D Andrews et al., Joint statement on Victoria’s truth and justice process, joint media release, 9 March 2021.
April 2021	Victoria	Following advice from the Steering Committee, the Victorian Government establishes the Interim Funeral Fund which provides support to families of Stolen Generations who have passed away since 1 January 2021. The Fund will be in place until a Stolen Generations Reparations Package is established and provides applicants with up to $10,000 to cover the cost of a funeral, headstone or plaque, and/or repatriation of their family member.	First Peoples–State Relations, ‘Services for Victoria’s Stolen Generations’, reviewed 23 March 2022.
May 2021	Victoria	An Interim Elders’ Voice is established for three months to finalise the design of a permanent Elders’ Voice which will ‘provide Aboriginal Elders of Victoria with opportunities to exercise their cultural authority and experience to strengthen Victoria’s progress towards Treaties by providing guidance, wisdom and cultural oversight to the work of the Assembly’. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Interim Elders’ Voice process is extended into 2022.	First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, ‘The Elders’ Voice: respect, connectedness, knowledge base, lore of the land’.
11 May 2021	Commonwealth	The Australian Government commits $4.7 million to develop a business case for a National Resting Place. This study is to provide costings and site options for a Ngurra Cultural Precinct.	National Indigenous Australians Agency, ‘Budget 2021–22: National Indigenous Australians Agency’, 11 May 2021.
15 June 2021	Queensland	The Queensland Budget includes $300 million for a Path to Treaty Fund.	C Crawford (Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships), Budget connects language, culture and Treaty in Queensland, 15 June 2021.
26 August 2021	Tasmania	The Tasmanian Budget includes $200,000 for community consultations on a truth-telling and Treaty process.	P Gutwein (Premier) and R Jaensch (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs), Budget to deliver better outcomes for Tasmanian Aboriginal communities, joint media release, 26 August 2021.
7 September 2021	Victoria	The Assembly hands over its report, Tyerri Yoo-rrook, (Seed of Truth), to the Yoorrook Justice Commission.	First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, Report to the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission from the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, 2021.
12 October 2021	Queensland	The Treaty Advancement Committee hands over its report on the Treaty process to the Queensland Government.	Treaty Advancement Committee, Treaty Advancement Committee Report, 2021.
25 November 2021	Tasmania	Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein tables a report outlining recommendations for a path towards Treaty and a Truth-Telling Commission.	P Gutwein (Premier), Ministerial Statement, 25 November 2021; K Warner, T McCormack and F Kurnadi, Pathway to Truth-Telling and Treaty. Report to Premier Peter Gutwein, 2021.
6 December 2021	Commonwealth	It is reported that the business case for a National Resting Place has been handed to the Government.	D Jervis-Bardy, ‘National Resting Place support builds after business case handed to government’, The Canberra Times, 6 December 2021.
5 January 2022	Commonwealth	Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces $316.5 million to establish Ngurra. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Precinct will be located within the Parliamentary Triangle.	S Morrison (Prime Minister), Ngurra: The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Precinct, 5 January 2022.
1 March 2022	Tasmania	Premier Gutwein announces $500,000 will be included in the state Budget to support truth-telling and Treaty processes, including the creation of an Aboriginal Advisory body.	P Gutwein (Premier), Next steps on pathway to Truth-telling and treaty, 1 March 2022.
17 March 2022	Australian Capital Territory	Professor Kerry Arabena is announced as the facilitator of preliminary talks about what a Treaty would mean for Traditional Owners in the Australian Capital Territory.	R Stephen-Smith (Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, ACT), Close the Gap Day opportunity to mark Treaty progress, 17 March 2022.
24 March 2022	Victoria	The Yoorrook Justice Commission commences its work through a wurrek tyerrang (ceremonial hearing).	E Nicol, ‘Yoorrook truth-telling commission launched in Melbourne’, NITV News, 24 March 2022.
March–June 2022	Victoria	Yoorrook Justice Commissioners met with Elders, visiting 29 locations and speaking to 199 people.	Yoorrook Justice Commission, Interim Report, 2022, p. 16.
26 July 2022	Northern Territory	The Final Report by the Treaty Commission is tabled by Minister for Treaty and Local Decision Making, Selena Uibo.	Northern Territory Treaty Commission, Final Report, 2022.
30 June 2022	Victoria	The Yoorrook Justice Commission delivers its Interim Report.	Yoorrook Justice Commission, Interim Report, 2022.
16 August 2022	Queensland	The Queensland Government releases its response to the Treaty Advancement Committee’s report and formally commits to a Path to Treaty, alongside a Truth Telling and Healing process.	Queensland Government, Queensland Government Response to the Treaty Advancement Committee Report, 2022.

---

[1].   National Constitutional Convention, Uluru Statement from the Heart, 26 May 2017.

[2].   ‘Reconciliation’ is not an uncontroversial term. As Megan Davis writes: ‘Many old people who participated in the referendum council dialogues over 2016 and 2017 also told us that "reconciliation" was the wrong concept for Australia. They believed it was imported from other countries and didn't suit Australian conditions well, because it means to restore friendly relations. And we, as First Nations and Australians, have never even met each other. There was never any pre-existing relationship. They said reconciliation works for Canada because First Nations peoples and colonisers signed treaties, and provided constitutional recognition. But we have never met’, M Davis, ‘What happened to no symbolism?’, The Canberra Times, 2 January 2021, p. 28.

[3].   Reconciliation NSW, ‘Voice’, Reconciliation NSW website; Reconciliation NSW, ‘Treaty’, Reconciliation NSW website; Reconciliation NSW, ‘Truth’, Reconciliation NSW website.

[4].   D Larkin and A Maguire, ‘Lidia Thorpe wants to shift course on Indigenous recognition. Here’s why we must respect the Uluru Statement’, The Conversation, 8 July 2020; T Reid cited in L Allam, ‘Australia risks “dysfunction” without truth telling about massacres, advocates say’, The Guardian, 7 March 2019.

[5].   K Fullagar, ‘Why does truth come third?’, Inside Story, 8 June 2021.

[6].   B Ibhawoh, ‘Do truth and reconciliation commissions heal divided nations?’, The Conversation, 24 January 2019.

[7].   There is a distinction to be made between greater acknowledgement of Indigenous history and truth-telling linked to structural change. While both are considered here, it is the latter which appears to better represent the Truth called for by the Uluru Statement from the Heart: M Davis, ‘The truth about truth-telling’, The Monthly, 1 December 2021.

[8].   This paper uses the spelling adopted by the Yoorrook Justice Commission in its Interim Report. However, some documents used here use the alternative spelling of ‘Yoo-rrook’.

[9].   National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, Bringing them home, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Sydney, 1997; P Keating (Prime Minister), Year of the World’s Indigenous People, Redfern, 10 December 1992, media release, 10 December 1992; K Rudd (Prime Minister), Apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples, media release, 13 February 2008.

[10]. Referendum Council, ‘The Council’, Referendum Council website, 2 January 2019.

[11]. Referendum Council, ‘Dialogues’, Referendum Council website, 2 January 2019.

[12]. Referendum Council, Discussion paper on constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Referendum Council, [Canberra], October 2016, p. 9.

[13]. G Appleby and M Davis, ‘The Uluru Statement and the promises of truth’, Australian Historical Studies, 49(4), 2018, p. 503.

[14]. Ibid., p. 504.

[15]. While these have not been made public, they are referred to in the full Uluru Statement from the Heart, reproduced in: Referendum Council, Final report of the Referendum Council, Referendum Council, [Canberra], 2017, pp. 16–32; Record of Meeting, Brisbane Dialogue, 21-23 April 2017 cited in Appleby and Davis, ‘The Uluru Statement’, op. cit., p. 506.

[16]. Makarrata is a Yolngu word meaning the coming together after a struggle. It is a process of conflict resolution.

[17]. Appleby and Davis, ‘The Uluru Statement’, op. cit., pp. 508–509.

[18]. Referendum Council, Final report, op. cit., p. 22.

[19]. National Constitutional Convention, Uluru Statement from the Heart, op. cit.

[20]. Adelaide Regional Dialogue cited in ‘Our story’, the Uluru Statement website.

[21]. Davis, ‘The truth about truth-telling’, op. cit., p. 4.

[22]. Ibid., p. 3.

[23]. Ibid., p. 4.

[24]. G Appleby and M Davis cited in Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (Joint Select Committee), Final report, Joint Select Committee, Canberra, 2018, p. 172.

[25]. Ibid., pp. 159–185.

[26]. Davis, ‘The truth about truth-telling’, op. cit., p. 3.

[27]. Joint Select Committee, Final report, op. cit., pp. 159–185.

[28]. M Turnbull (Prime Minister), G Brandis (Attorney-General) and N Scullion (Minister for Indigenous Affairs), Response to Referendum Council’s report on Constitutional Recognition, joint media release, 26 October 2017.

[29]. Australian Labor Party, First Nations, Australian Labor Party policy document, n.d.

[30]. The Committee’s resolution of appointment lists the following: the Referendum Council (2017), the Uluru Statement from the Heart (2017), the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (2015), and the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians (2012).

[31]. Joint Select Committee, Final report, op. cit., pp. vii–viii.

[32]. Ibid.

[33]. Ibid., p. 184.

[34]. Ibid., pp. 159 and 184.

[35]. Ibid., p. 185.

[36]. Ibid.

[37]. S Morrison (Prime Minister), Ngurra: the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Precinct, media release, 5 January 2022.

[38]. Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Nationhood, National identity and Democracy, The Senate, Canberra, 2021.

[39]. Ibid., p. 53.

[40]. Ibid., p. ix.

[41]. Ibid., p. 77.

[42]. P Dodson (Senator, Western Australia), Evidence to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, 16 February 2021., p. 720.

[43]. Ibid.

[44]. Uluru Statement from the Heart, op. cit.

[45]. Joint Select Committee, Final report, op. cit.

[46]. Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Interim report, Joint Committee, Canberra, 2018, p. 102.

[47]. Ibid., pp. 101–101.

[48]. Ibid.

[49]. Uphold & Recognise, ‘Co-design of First Nations Voice: Uphold & Recognise submission’, Uphold & Recognise website.

[50]. Uphold & Recognise, ‘About’, Uphold & Recognise website.

[51]. Uphold & Recognise, Submission to the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Inquiry into Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, 2018, Attachment 3, p. 5.

[52]. Uphold & Recognise, Attachment 3, op. cit., p. 6.

[53]. Australian Labor Party, First Nations, op. cit.

[54]. Joint Select Committee, Final report, op. cit., pp. 169–171.

[55]. L Ryan (private capacity, chief research investigator of the digital map of Aboriginal massacre sites across Australia), Evidence to Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Inquiry into Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, 5 October 2018, p. 39; ‘The Killing Times’, The Guardian, last updated 16 March 2022.

[56]. Ryan, Evidence, op. cit., p. 39.

[57]. Ibid., p. 40.

[58]. Joint Select Committee, Final report, op. cit., p. 170.

[59]. Friends of Myall Creek, ‘The Massacre Story’, Friends of Myall Creek.

[60]. L Coombes (Co-Chair, Reconciliation New South Wales), Evidence to Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Inquiry into Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, 5 October 2018, p. 21.

[61]. R Sutton, ‘Remembering the Coniston Massacre’, SBS News, 26 February 2015.

[62]. A Stewart, ‘Coniston massacre: Nigel Scullion returns site to traditional owners 86 years after killings’, ABC News, 10 October 2014.

[63]. N Scullion (Minister for Indigenous Affairs), Remembering the Coniston Massacre, media release, 24 August 2018.

[64]. Joint Select Committee, Final report, op. cit., p. 175.

[65]. Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Wiyi Yani U Thangani: women’s voices: securing our rights: securing our future, AHRC, Sydney, 2020, pp. 449–482.

[66]. Ibid., p. 453.

[67]. Ibid., p. 455.

[68]. Ibid.

[69]. Ibid., p. 468.

[70]. Ibid., p. 469.

[71]. Ibid.

[72]. Alan Tudge (Minister for Education and Youth), Triple J Hack–Interview with Avani Dias, media release, 7 September 2021.

[73]. For a chronology of the debate see: Advisory Committee for Indigenous Repatriation, National Resting Place Consultation Report 2014, Office for the Arts, Canberra, 2016, p. 4.

[74]. Joint Select Committee, Final report, op. cit., p. xviii.

[75]. M Gooda (private capacity), Evidence to Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Inquiry into Constitutional Recognition Relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, 18 October 2018, pp. 4 and 9.

[76]. L Barritt-Eyles, ‘Gargoyles and silence: “our story” at the Australian War Memorial’, The University of Newcastle, Australia, 19 March 2015.

[77]. Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories, Telling Australia’s story–and why it’s important: report on the inquiry into Canberra’s national institutions, Joint Standing Committee, Canberra, 2019, p. ix.

[78]. Ibid., p. xviii.

[79]. AISTSIS, ‘AIATSIS statement on the report on the inquiry into Canberra's national institutions’, 4 April 2019.

[80]. M Ramalli (Acting Chief Executive Officer, AIATSIS), Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, Official Committee Hansard, 6 March 2020, p. 17.

[81]. D Jervis-Bardy, ‘National Resting Place support builds after business case handed to government’, The Canberra Times, 6 December 2021.

[82]. National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA), ‘Budget 2021–22: National Indigenous Australians Agency’, 11 May 2021.

[83]. Morrison, Ngurra: The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Precinct, op. cit.

[84]. Ibid.

[85]. First Peoples–State Relations, ‘Treaty in Victoria’, Victorian Government.

[86]. First Peoples–State Relations, ‘Treaty process’, Victorian Government.

[87]. First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, ‘Truth-telling’, The Assembly.

[88]. D Andrews (Premier), G Williams (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs), G Atkinson (Co-Chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria) and M Stewart (Co-Chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria), Joint Statement On Victoria’s Truth and Justice Process, joint media release, 9 March 2021.

[89]. Ibid.

[90]. Ibid.

[91]. First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, Report to the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission from the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, Melbourne, 2021, p. 4.

[92]. Ibid.

[93]. Ibid., p. 6.

[94]. Ibid., p. 7.

[95]. Ibid.

[96]. Ibid.

[97]. Ibid.

[98]. Ibid.

[99]. Ibid.

[100].         E Bourke in E Nicol, ‘Yoorrook truth-telling commission launched in Melbourne’, NITV News, 24 March 2022.

[101].         Yoorrook Justice Commission, ‘How did we get here?’, n.d.

[102].         Yoorrook Justice Commission, Interim Report, Yoorrook Justice Commission, Melbourne, 2022, p. 3.

[103].         Ibid., p. 21.

[104].         Ibid., pp. 27–63.

[105].         Ibid., pp. 27–28.

[106].         Ibid., pp. 65–68.

[107].         Ibid., pp. 68–70.

[108].         Ibid., p. 73.

[109].         Queensland Department of Seniors, Disability Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Statement of commitment, The Department, Brisbane, 2021, p. 1.

[110].         Ibid.

[111].         A Palaszczuk (Premier), J Trad (Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships) and L Enoch (Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef), Historic signing of ‘Tracks to Treaty’ commitment, joint media release, 14 July 2019.

[112].         Treaty Working Group, Report from the Treaty Working Group on Queensland’s Path to Treaty, report prepared for the Queensland Department of Seniors, Disability Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Treaty Working Group, Brisbane, 2020, p. 59.

[113].         Ibid.

[114].         Ibid., p. 60.

[115].         Eminent Panel, Advice and Recommendations from the Eminent Panel on Queensland’s Path to Treaty, report prepared for the Queensland Department of Seniors, Disability Services and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Eminent Panel, 2020, p. 3.

[116].         Ibid., p. 5.

[117].         Ibid., p. 3.

[118].         Ibid., p. 6.

[119].         Queensland Government, Queensland Government Treaty Statement of Commitment and response to recommendations of the Eminent Panel, Queensland Government, Brisbane, 2020, p. 6.

[120].         A Palaszczuk (Premier) and C Crawford (Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships), Queensland Government’s historic commitment to Treaty-making process, joint media release, 13 August 2020.

[121].         A Palaszczuk (Premier) and C Crawford (Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships), Queensland Treaty Advancement Committee members announced, joint media release, 14 February 2021.

[122].         C Crawford (Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships), Treaty Advancement Committee members to hold state-wide Q&A webinar, media release, 9 September 2021.

[123].         C Crawford (Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships), Budget connects language, culture and Treaty in Queensland, media release, 15 June 2021.

[124].         Treaty Advancement Committee, Treaty Advancement Committee Report, Treaty Advancement Committee, Brisbane, 2021.

[125].         Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP), ‘Path to Treaty is Queensland’s journey towards acknowledgement of injustices, truth telling, and self-determination for First Nations Queenslanders. Today we received the final report of the Treaty Advancement Committee’, tweet, 12 October 2021, https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/1447864100575272962.

[126].         Queensland Government, Queensland Government Response to the Treaty Advancement Committee Report, Queensland Government, Brisbane, 2022.

[127].         Ibid., pp. 6-7.

[128].         Ibid.

[129].         Northern Land Council, Central Land Council, Anindilyakwa Land Council, Tiwi Land Council and Northern Territory Government, The Barunga Agreement, a memorandum of understanding between the Northern Land Council, Central Land Council, Anindilyakwa Land Council, Tiwi Land Council and the Northern Territory Government, Barunga, 2018, p. 6.

[130].         Ibid.

[131].         Ibid., p. 9.

[132].         Treaty Commissioner Act 2020 (NT).

[133].         Northern Territory Treaty Commission, Treaty discussion paper, Northern Territory Treaty Commission, Darwin, 2020, p. 10.

[134].         Northern Territory Treaty Commission, Towards Truth Telling, Northern Territory Treaty Commission, Darwin, 2021, p. 4.

[135].         Ibid., pp. 18–25.

[136].         Ibid., pp. 4–5.

[137].         Ibid., p. 6.

[138].         Northern Territory Treaty Commission, Final Report, Northern Territory Treaty Commission, Darwin, 2022.

[139].         Ibid., p. 9.

[140].         Ibid., p. 56.

[141].         Ibid., p. 53.

[142].         Ibid.

[143].         Ibid.

[144].         P Gutwein (Premier), Official opening of the 50th Parliament of Tasmania, media release, 22 June 2021.

[145].         P Gutwein (Premier) and R Jaensch (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs), Budget to deliver better outcomes for Tasmanian Aboriginal communities, joint media release, 26 August 2021; K Warner, T McCormack and F Kurnadi, Pathway to Truth-telling and Treaty: Report to Premier Peter Gutwein, report prepared for the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Hobart, 2021.

[146].         Ibid., p. 24.

[147].         Ibid., p. 29.

[148].         Ibid., p. 31.

[149].         Ibid., p. 36.

[150].         Ibid., p. 31.

[151].         Ibid., p. 32.

[152].         Ibid., p. 36.

[153].         Ibid., p. 32.

[154].         Ibid., p. 37.

[155].         Ibid., p. 38.

[156].         Ibid.

[157].         Commissions of Inquiry Act 1995 (Tas).

[158].         Warner et al., Pathway to Truth-telling, op. cit., p. 38.

[159].         Ibid.

[160].         Ibid., p. 45.

[161].         Ibid.

[162].         Lateral violence refers to attempts by individuals or groups to undermine another individual or group. It may involve physical violence, but also social, psychological and economic violence.

[163].         Warner et al., Pathway to Truth-telling, op. cit., p. 45.

[164].         Ibid., p. 46.

[165].         Ibid.

[166].         P Gutwein (Premier), Ministerial statement, media release, 25 November 2021.

[167].         P Gutwein (Premier), Next steps on pathway to Truth-telling and Treaty, media release, 1 March 2022.

[168].         Tasmanian Government, Closing the Gap, Tasmanian Implementation Plan 2021–2023, [Department of Communities Tasmania, Hobart], n.d., p. 8.

[169].         Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, ‘Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal People’, Tasmanian Government, Hobart, 2021.

[170].         Ibid.

[171].         South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, ‘Settlement Agreement’, South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council.

[172].         H Hobbs and G Williams, ‘The Noongar Settlement: Australia’s first treaty’, Sydney Law Review, 40(1), 2018, pp. 1–38; Noongar (Koorah, Nitja, Boordahwan) (Past, Present, Future) Recognition Act 2016 (WA).

[173].         WA Department of the Premier and Cabinet (WA PM&C), ‘South West Native Title Settlement–Noongar recognition through an Act of Parliament’, Department website, reviewed 13 January 2020.

[174].         C Barnett (Premier), Second reading speech: Noongar (Koorah, Nitja, Boordahwan) (Past, Present, Future) Recognition Bill 2015, Western Australia, Legislative Assembly, Debates, 14 October 2015, pp. 7313–7314.

[175].         WA PM&C, ‘Aboriginal Empowerment Strategy–Western Australia 2021–2029’, reviewed 2 September 2021; WA PM&C, ‘Closing the Gap – WA’s Implementation Plan’, reviewed 28 October 2021.

[176].         WA PM&C, The Aboriginal Empowerment Strategy–Western Australia 2021-2029: policy guide, PM&C, Perth, p. 11.

[177].         Ibid., p. 40.

[178].         Ibid.

[179].         Ibid., p. 41.

[180].         WA PM&C, ‘Closing the Gap–WA’s Implementation Plan’, op. cit.

[181].         Ibid., p. 40.     

[182].         WA PM&C , Closing the Gap–WA’s Implementation Plan, op. cit., pp. 40–41; State Library of Western Australia, ‘Storylines: First peoples, first stories’, last updated 10 February 2022.

[183].         SA Department of the Premier and Cabinet (SA PM&C), Buthera Agreement between Narungga Nation Aboriginal Corporation and the State of South Australia, [2018].

[184].         As at February 2022, the Report could not be found. R Puddy, ‘South Australia’s treaty negotiations on hold while Premier considers their future’, ABC News, 30 April 2018.

[185].         Ibid.

[186].         D Basham (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development), Traditional fishing agreement marks historic step for South Australia, media release, 17 February 2021.

[187].         SA PM&C, ‘Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement’, n.d.; Aboriginal Representative Body Bill 2021 (SA).

[188].         E Hughes, ‘Second reading speech: Aboriginal Representative Body Bill 2021’, South Australia, House of Assembly, Debates, 28 October 2021, pp. 8423­–8431.

[189].         C Wahlquist, ‘Indigenous leaders welcome SA Labor’s vow to take Uluru Statement to polls’, The Guardian, 6 July 2019.

 

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