Reconciliation Australia urges the new Queensland Government to listen to First Nations people and reverse its decision to abolish the state’s recently established Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry.
We join First Nations people and organisations from across Queensland and the country in calling on the Crisafulli Government to meet with the Inquiry, to understand the benefits of truth-telling and to reconsider its decision to abandon the critical process of truth-telling in Queensland.
We are hosting nine hundred representatives from organisations with Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs) in Meanjin (Brisbane) this week for the National RAP Conference 2024 and the Indigenous Governance Awards.
Our program highlights truth-telling and the ground-breaking work being done in this state to advance it. Joshua Creamer, Inquiry Chair, was due to speak to this. However, the Inquiry has been notified by the Crisafulli Government of its intention to cease the Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry and repeal the Path to Treaty Act 2023.
Yesterday the Queensland Government informed the Inquiry that Chairman Joshua Creamer would not be permitted to speak this morning.
Truth-telling is a foundation for reconciliation and justice for Australia’s First Nations peoples. And it provides healing and a pathway forward for all Australians.
To become a united nation, all Australians should understand and accept all aspects of our shared history and its continuing impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, so we can address failures in past policies and practices and ensure they are never repeated.
Engaging with Australia’s history is supported by an overwhelming majority of Australians with an ANU survey, conducted in November 2023, finding 80.5 per cent of Australian’s think that Australia should ‘undertake formal truth-telling processes to acknowledge the reality of Australia’s shared history.’
Without truth-telling processes, such as the Queensland inquiry, how are Australians to learn the truth of our history; to participate in the healing process of truth-telling?
Without truth-telling how do we begin the process of national healing?
Without truth-telling how do we build bridges of understanding that in turn unite rather than divide?
A mutual understanding and acknowledgement of Australia’s often brutal history of dispossession and violence is a prerequisite to building respect, reconciliation and unity.
We urge the Queensland Premier to listen to the stories and experiences of First Nations Queenslanders as they open their hearts and share their histories.
Truth should never be the enemy of honest government.
Image credit: Lewis James Bin Doraho
