Faith community leaders gathered today at Barangaroo to sign a joint resolution calling for government action as a matter of priority to move towards achieving the objectives outlined in the Uluru Statement from the Heart: a Voice to Parliament, Treaty, and Truth. Jillian Segal AO, President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, represented the Australian Jewish community. The joint resolution can be accessed here. Media reports of the event can be accessed here, here and here.
Since the great referendum of May 1967, when more than 90% of Australians voted in favour of counting First Nations people in the census and empowering the Federal government to make laws for their benefit, Australia has been on a long journey to come to terms with our nation’s origins. Milestones have included the overturning by the High Court of the fiction of terra nullius in the Mabo case, the reconciliation movement, bringing home the stolen generations, closing the gap and the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Australia is still on that journey, and we believe it is the single most significant item of unfinished business on our national agenda.
As Australians, we are privileged to live in an era when the long, peaceful and dignified quest for justice by First Nations Australians may at last be realised.
