‘For us, by us’: Indigenous plea for truth-telling
Travis Lovett came to Parliament House at the request of Aboriginal elders.
“I have walked my part of the path. Now I want this country to walk the next part with us,” he told the crowd of hundreds of people.
The Kerrupmara Gunditjmara man presented Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with a kangaroo skin engraved with a letter calling for the national truth to be told.
The first line reads, “It’s time for us to take an honest look at ourselves.”
Mr Lovett brought the message on a leisurely 38-day trek from Melbourne to the nation’s capital, covering more than 500km of meandering rivers.
The final part of the journey was completed with hundreds of people on Wednesday from Canberra’s Conciliation Place to Parliament House, where he was greeted by the prime minister.
The walk, which he completed with his wife Renata and children, marked its 59th anniversary following the successful referendum that led to the inclusion of Aboriginal people in the national census in 1967.
But Mr Lovett said many of the wishes of Indigenous Australians were still being ignored.
Establishing a national truth-telling process was one of three demands voiced in the Uluru Heartfelt Declaration in 2017, which the Albanian government subsequently committed to implementing.
Indigenous people’s voice in parliament was only one side in the failed referendum in 2023.
The architects of the Uluru statement say Closing the Gaps reports show no progress and critical problems facing some Indigenous communities have become much worse.
“Would a national truth-telling process harm anyone? Of course not,” Mr. Travis said, arguing that the process was often misunderstood.
“No one can be free in a story that is not true.
“Let us be very clear: everything that has been achieved for the good of our people has been done by us, for us.”
Mr Albanese said there was still a long way to go towards reconciliation with Indigenous people.
“There are potholes on the road,” he said.
“This is not a straight journey, just as progress never is. But I assure you we will continue to walk with you.”
“We will be a stronger nation when First Nations people are properly and fully recognized and, of course, when our history, its pros and cons, is fully acknowledged.”
Uluru Dialogue co-chairs Pat Anderson and Megan Davis marked the start of National Reconciliation Week with a continuation of their calls for constitutional recognition of Indigenous people.
The Dialogue is a group of First Nations leaders who led work on the Uluru declaration, which was issued as “an olive branch to the Australian people to move forward as a nation”.
The co-chairs said governments continue to announce policies, reviews, investigations and programs without proper consultation with Indigenous communities, demonstrating that the need for a voice has not diminished.
“What has become increasingly clear since the referendum is that the problems and issues facing communities have not gone away, they have become more entrenched and, in some respects, much worse,” he said in a statement.
Auntie Munya Andrews from Evolve Communities, a group that provides cultural awareness and reconciliation training, warned Australia was entering a “dangerous new phase of division”.
“The recent public outcry against Welcome to Country ceremonies should concern all Australians,” he said, noting that the procedures had recently been booed at Anzac Day ceremonies.
Auntie Munya added that she was concerned about the increasing rhetoric that the ceremonies were divisive, as it was an act of reconciliation that invited people to come together through a shared love of Country.
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