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On 27 May 2020, Aus­tralia marks the third anniver­sary of the Ulu­ru State­ment from the Heart, a state­ment made by Indige­nous Aus­tralians direct­ly to the Aus­tralian peo­ple as a whole.  It was endorsed by a gath­er­ing of 250 Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander lead­ers fol­low­ing a four-day First Nations Nation­al Con­sti­tu­tion­al Con­ven­tion held at Ulu­ru, which in turn fol­lowed a con­sul­ta­tion process that was unprece­dent­ed in Aus­tralian his­to­ry for its scale.

The State­ment calls for:

• a First Nations Voice to Par­lia­ment in the form of an advi­so­ry body on pol­i­cy affect­ing Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ple, to be enshrined in the Aus­tralian con­sti­tu­tion.
• a Makar­ra­ta Com­mis­sion to over­see agree­ment-mak­ing between the Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment and Indige­nous peo­ple.
• a truth and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion process to be facil­i­tat­ed by the Makar­ra­ta Com­mis­sion.

The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry, the elect­ed nation­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive body of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, has a long and proud his­to­ry of sup­port­ing the quest of Indige­nous Aus­tralians for recog­ni­tion, rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and jus­tice.   We believe that the pro­pos­als put for­ward by the Ulu­ru State­ment from the Heart are just, rea­son­able and achiev­able.

Bring­ing the Statement’s vision to fruition is impor­tant to all Aus­tralians.   For Indige­nous Aus­tralians it would mean the vin­di­ca­tion of the truth of their sto­ry and the begin­ning of jus­tice.  For all oth­er Aus­tralians it would mean at long last address­ing the most impor­tant item of unfin­ished busi­ness in our nation­al his­to­ry.

The First Nations of Aus­tralia, who have inhab­it­ed the Aus­tralian con­ti­nent for more than 50,000 years, have endured much suf­fer­ing since the advent of Euro­pean set­tle­ment. Yet they con­tin­ue to show great dig­ni­ty, patience, tenac­i­ty and gen­eros­i­ty of spir­it, appeal­ing to all that is noble and decent in our soci­ety and invit­ing us to walk with them on the road to truth-telling and heal­ing.

We are hon­oured to accept the invi­ta­tion of the Ulu­ru State­ment from the Heart, and pledge to work with First Nations, Fed­er­al and State politi­cians, local and city author­i­ties, reli­gious, eth­nic and civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions, busi­ness lead­ers and our fel­low cit­i­zens in mov­ing togeth­er towards a shared future, which in every way lives up to our own robust, dis­tinc­tive­ly Aus­tralian, stan­dards of fair­ness.

Con­tact
Peter Wertheim | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8505 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 588
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au| www.ecaj.org.au