Reconciliation Australia has welcomed a new statement in support of reconciliation, truth-telling and First Nations rights signed today at the 2025 National Settlement Conference in Queensland.
The Settlement Council of Australia’s (SCOA) Reconciliation Commitment Statement builds upon the migrant settlement sector’s long-standing solidarity with First Nations peoples and their aspirations.
In a keynote address during the opening of the three-day conference, Reconciliation Australia Co-Chair Kirstie Parker said she was heartened by the statement, believing it would enhance relationships between First Nations peoples and those who have migrated here.
”Those relationships are deeply valued by Reconciliation Australia, as they broaden the reach of reconciliation, foster inclusive engagement, and strengthen cross-cultural collaboration,” Ms Parker told the gathering of more than 400 community leaders, policy makers, academics, service providers, and advocates.
“Many people amongst Australia’s migrant communities have a thirst for understanding the true history of the nation they now call home,” she said.
“Conversations and actions aimed at quenching that thirst in a meaningful way are vital at this time when settlement and multiculturalism are at the forefront of national conversations.”
SCOA’s Reconciliation Commitment Statement acknowledges that the language of ‘settlement’ has obscured the reality of invasion, dispossession, and the erasure of First Nations cultures and communities. It declares that confronting this truth is not an act of guilt but one of moral clarity and responsibility, and commits to ‘a future in which settlement does not repeat the harms of colonisation but becomes a practice of reconciliation grounded in truth, sustained by respect and accountable to justice’.
Ms Parker said many migrants have lived experience of the legacy of colonialism elsewhere, and also experienced marginalisation and racism in Australia.
Pointing to the results of Reconciliation Australia’s latest public survey measuring the progress of reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians, she described Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and multicultural Australians as ‘natural allies’..
The 2024 Australian Reconciliation Barometer (ARB) found that Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Australians believe more strongly in the importance of relationships in building unity than Anglo Australians, and are more driven to take action on reconciliation:
- 56% of CALD Australian respondents want to do something to help advance reconciliation compared to 42% of Anglo Australians
- 90% think the relationship between First Nations and non-Indigenous people is important compared to 83% of Anglo Australians
- And 81% believe in the importance of truth-telling compared to 67% of Anglo Australians.
Ms Parker said Reconciliation Australia is lifting its engagement with CALD communities in recognition of their critical importance in Australia’s reconciliation journey.
She highlighted Reconciliation Australia’s efforts to provide resources in Arabic, Assyrian, simplified and traditional Chinese, Greek, Hazaragi, Italian, Khmer, Korean, Punjabi, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese, about reconciliation, truth-telling and National Reconciliation Week.
SCOA will launch its first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) next year.
