Hope for the future

National Reconciliation Week (27 May to 3 June) honours a history dear to our Indigenous members and to all of us. This history includes the Referendum held on 27 May 1967 including Indigenous Australians in the population, the 1992 Mabo High Court decision that recognised the existence of native title; the April 1997 Bringing them Home report that examined the forced separation of Indigenous Australian children from their families; and the 2008 Apology by the Prime Minister for the removal of their children from their families.

Each of these events acknowledged the wrongs suffered by Indigenous peoples in Australia and the need to address them. Non-Indigenous Australians are now more aware of how violent the process of European settlement in Australia was, how the first peoples were deprived of land and living, and how Indigenous Australians are still discriminated against and their culture scorned.

Indigenous leaders have insisted on what remains to be done. The 2018 Closing the Gap agreement between Australian governments and Indigenous representatives recognised the shameful gap in health, wealth, education, employment and in other matters between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. They also set targets for change. These targets have for the most part not been met. In some areas the gap has been widened.

The theme of Reconciliation this year invites us to look forward as well as to reflect on the failings of the past. The theme is Bridging Now to Next. It suggests both determination and uncertainty about where we stand.

The failure of the Referendum on the Voice and the bitter debate during the campaign suggests that we are far from reconciliation. We must build a bridge that respects our journey so far and continues our way to the future. The past suggests that the path is long and winding, from which we must learn from our disappointments and betrayals.

And yet grounds for hope remain. They lie in the determination and resilience of generations of Indigenous people who have helped educate Australians about their story and about the costs that they have borne through colonisation.