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Reconciliation in 2004 - the outlook is positive after key gains in 2003

By Jackie Huggins - posted Thursday, 18 December 2003


There is no doubt that 2003 has been a ground-breaking year - a year that sees Australia poised to break through barriers of approach and attitude that have previously hindered us in achieving sustained and positive change for Indigenous Australians.

Viewed in terms of their joint potential, four large scale reviews of policy development and service delivery, plus a series of historic negotiated outcomes, mean that we are now in a position to finally make an impact on persistently appalling outcomes.

These outcomes were highlighted last month in the benchmarking report from the Productivity Commission, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage – Key Indicators 2003. Against the background of high birth rates among Indigenous Australians and a dramatic increase in the proportion of young people, it is widely acknowledged by government and community that if we don’t turn the situation around, the entire nation will suffer the consequences.

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Reconciliation has been very much on the national agenda during 2003, with substantial activity in the government, corporate and community sectors.

The challenge now is to ensure that the good intentions of 2003 are translated into positive action to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians.

The signs are good. We see a great body of new knowledge, the will to change, and creativity and energy being applied to reconciliation across all sectors.

What we need to do now, as a nation, is to join these points of light.

Significant and important steps have been taken on the path to reconciliation during 2003.

But we celebrate these achievements against the bleak reality that the majority of Indigenous Australians still experience extreme disadvantage and many are living in third world conditions.

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Nevertheless there have been encouraging signs during 2003 that governments and others are beginning to recognise the importance of resolving the underlying causes of this disadvantage, and we have seen fledgling attempts to look for solutions based on specific individual and community need instead of the one-size-fits-all approach of the past.

Reconciliation Australia’s 2003 Reconciliation Report provides a roundup of activities initiated by governments, business and communities throughout 2003 and offers solid evidence of what is possible when we demonstrate a preparedness to think and act creatively.

Through its independent promotion of partnerships across the public, business and community sectors, Reconciliation Australia is well placed to share the good news of what is possible in reconciliation, and to advise on its significance in terms of policy development and service delivery. We are also well placed to highlight those areas where governments and others must do more and/or better.

The 2003 Reconciliation Report offers a summary of what Reconciliation Australia has gleaned through the two central aspects of its work, and is divided accordingly into two main sections: Reconciliation in Action and Making it Count – Policy Implications.

Reconciliation in Action identifies indicative developments across sectors to provide an insight into what has been initiated and/or achieved during the year:

  • At government level, developments include the highly significant review of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC);
  • the Senate Inquiry into Progress Towards National Reconciliation;
  • progress in delivering on the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Agreements of November 2000; and
  • groundbreaking State/Territory based initiatives.

Projects realised through business partnerships with Indigenous communities, where business imperatives and social corporate responsibility have coalesced for the benefit of all stakeholders, are highlighted.

And the report discusses activities generated at the community level where practical and symbolic aspects of reconciliation combine without comment, transforming in varying degrees, the social landscape of communities.

Reconciliation Australia has contributed significantly this year across sectors.

The second section, Making it Count – Policy Implications, examines policy implications arising from the recent intense period of rethinking and review.

Advice focuses on the broad parameters of leadership, inter-jurisdictional issues, timeframes for success, and the importance of communicating unequivocal support for people and organisations engaged in reconciliation activities.

Reconciliation in Action

Reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is about connecting with one another and together, finding new and better ways of solving problems.

It’s about helping all Australians move forward with greater understanding of the past and how the past affects the lives of Indigenous people today.

Public awareness of reconciliation has increased significantly in the last decade, and across Australia, people are getting on with the business of reconciliation, in their communities, their workplaces, and in schools and universities.

Noteworthy initiatives this year by government, businesses and community organisations have shown respect for the honoured place of the first Australians while addressing the extreme disadvantage experienced by Indigenous people in health, employment, education and general opportunity.

They have bound together the symbolic and practical by recognising that a strong sense of who you are and how you feel about yourself, your culture and your place in society affects how you behave and how you take responsibility for solving your own problems.

This growing awareness of how the past affects the present has led to a more pronounced readiness to assess what works, to review what doesn’t and to set aside sectoral, jurisdictional and competitive differences to allow for greater national coordination of knowledge and experience.

After somewhat of a lull in the national reconciliation debate in recent years, 2003 has brought people back to the table with renewed vigour and more focused on tangible outcomes.

Reconciliation Australia has been encouraged by the honesty of debate during the year and the preparedness of people to think hard and creatively. It is a positive sign for the quality of national debate that submissions to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Inquiry into Capacity Building in Indigenous Communities about the issue of a treaty, for example, recognise the long term nature of this debate.

A thorough review of policy is being recognised as imperative given the mismatched demographics of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia with rising numbers of young Indigenous people too disadvantaged to be making constructive contributions to society coupled with reduced numbers of productive citizens in an ageing, non-Indigenous population.

The scope of review being conducted at the federal level has given interested people the opportunity to be frank about a range of interconnected issues. Without ignoring the urgency of the situation in communities, nor the scope of the task, all sectors have showed a willingness to put aside the ad hoc and engage seriously over the long term.

Interestingly, this maturing of the discussion has resulted in government being held more accountable on its own rhetoric, as the community, including Indigenous communities and corporate Australia, become more engaged in national discussion. The big questions are being asked about how we can work together to get better results for Indigenous people and better results for the nation.

The reconciliation debate has thrived this year and, encouragingly, much of it has been focused more on strategy and less on areas of disagreement.

We have seen serious common ground develop in discussions on addressing Indigenous disadvantage, and on an execution of reconciliation which sees government, business and the community working in partnership.

Making it Count

History demonstrates the gap between, on the one hand, words of good intention and, on the other, real action that leads to better outcomes. The challenge for all parties involved in reconciliation is to ensure that the opportunities created in 2003 are seized.

How do we make them count? How can we use them to progress aspirations that are shared by all Australians - Indigenous and non-Indigenous?

While not every Australian would identify reconciliation as a national priority, the great majority share a concern about Indigenous disadvantage. They are keen to see problems resolved and all citizens given equal opportunity to make a contribution to Australia.

A multitude of specific recommendations on specific areas of Indigenous affairs are contained in the reports of recent inquiries. The broad view of Reconciliation Australia is that, as a nation, we can make the opportunities of 2003 count by:

  • Signing ourselves up to timeframes of commitment beyond electoral or annual reporting cycles;
  • Recognising the primacy of community-driven decision-making;
  • Building on the open, honest nature of current national discussion;
  • Spending more time communicating the good news;
  • Using good news stories to remove any ‘fear factor’ from reconciliation;
  • Moving beyond artificial categorisations of reconciliation; and
  • Supporting emerging leaders in the Indigenous community.

Reconciliation will stay on the national agenda, at the centre of national debate and policy, for as long as it takes to effectively address the circumstances of Australia’s most disadvantaged citizens.

This year has presented an opportunity to make great strides. The information gathered through landmark inquiries, the bridges built between people and sectors, the ideas and the straight talk have provided us with a way forward.

We need only to commit ourselves to translate good and well-informed intentions into action, to stick with the journey beyond the cycles of politics, and promising results will start to multiply across the country.

As 2003 draws to a close, Australia’s leaders have an unprecedented opportunity to actually achieve something in this most difficult area of national policy.

The year ahead is one of great possibility.

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This is a summary of the 2003 Reconciliation Report. The full report is available here (pdf, 796Kb).



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About the Author

Jackie Huggins is Deputy Director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Unit at the University of Queensland and Co-chair of Reconciliation Australia.

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