The effects of more than 200 years of dispossession, racism and discrimination have left many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with low levels of education, an inability to gain meaningful employment, over-representated in the prison system, and appalling housing conditions.

Reconciliation provides a legacy platform for our continued growth and prosperity as a nation.  Michael Coghlan/Flickr, CC BY-SA
Too many recommendations made for and by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over decades have never been acted on. Instead, poorly designed policies made on their behalf are funded and enacted.

More weighty and bewildering government reports will not assist reconciliation, and even if they make governments feel like something is being done.

But it’s not all bleak. Community-led movements such as Change the Record, Just Reinvest NSW and Empowered Communities are all working, in different ways, to tackle Indigenous disadvantage.

Part of their success comes from changing the way Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s issues are talked about and addressed – from one of deficit in which people are described as problematic to one of empowerment and strength.

A deep need

Reconciliation is not an outcome or a goal as much as a relationship and an ongoing journey. It’s vital for the long-term well-being of settler nations – for their identity, history, polity and nationhood.

But whatever its terms or whoever its participants, reconciliation will be no more than a series of slogans if settler Australians cannot come to a just understanding with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

It’s now 25 years since the establishment of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, now Reconciliation Australia. That’s 25 years since Australia started a national conversation about how to become reconciled, equitable and just.

There have been many achievements, disappointments and challenges since then in the process of healing the deep rift between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

But despite all the backlashes, put-downs, trivialisation and wedge politics, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have come back stronger, more articulate, more practical, more resilient and surer of their capacity to contribute. And they’re also surer of what they expect from their contribution.

Reconciliation provides a legacy platform for our continued growth and prosperity as a nation. It’s time to make it happen.