Reconciliation Australia will join Australia’s vibrant multicultural communities at the National Multicultural Festival to promote reconciliation, understanding and better relationships with Australia’s First Nations peoples.
In keeping with the theme for National Reconciliation Week 2026 multicultural communities will be urged to step away from the sidelines and go All In for reconciliation.
CEO Karen Mundine said that her organisation’s latest survey measuring the progress of reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians, the Australian Reconciliation Barometer (ARB), shows that Australians from multicultural backgrounds are strongly in support of the key principles of reconciliation.
‘To fully progress reconciliation within Australia we must enable greater participation from multilingual Australian communities.
‘We are committed to ensuring that culturally and linguistically diverse communities can understand more about Australia’s reconciliation movement and are better informed of our shared history.’
90% of Multicultural Australians think the relationship between First Nations and non-Indigenous people is important (83% Anglo-Australians)
36% of Multicultural Australians believe the wrongs of the past must be rectified before all Australians can move forward (24% Anglo-Australians)
81% of Multicultural Australians believe truth-telling is important (67% Anglo-Australians).
Significantly, the survey found that multicultural Australians felt they have a lower understanding of Aboriginal histories and Australian colonial history than Anglo-Australians.
‘There is an opportunity for us to lift our engagement with non-Anglo Australians and ensure these communities are well informed and able to take their places in the national reconciliation movement,’ said Karen Mundine.
To achieve this and better inform Australia’s multilingual communities, Reconciliation Australia has produced resources including National Reconciliation Week posters and colouring sheets in 13 languages commonly spoken in Australian homes. These are: Arabic, Khmer, Assyrian, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Punjabi, Spanish, Greek, Thai, Hazaragi, Italian and Vietnamese.
These resources will be available at the Reconciliation Australia stall at the festival this weekend or for download on our website.
Ms Mundine pointed to the recent adoption of a Reconciliation Commitment Statement by the Settlement Council of Australia’s (SCOA) at its national conference as further evidence of support for First Nations people’s aspirations in Australia’s migrant communities.
‘Many people among Australia’s migrant communities have a thirst for understanding the full history of the nation they now call home,’ she said.
‘Conversations and actions aimed at quenching that thirst are critical at a time when settlement and multiculturalism are at the forefront of national conversations.’
‘Reconciliation between First Nations and other Australians built on truth, trust and respect is key in creating unity and social cohesion at this time,’ said Ms. Mundine.
The National Multicultural Festival runs from Friday 6 to Sunday 8 February 2026.
Reconciliation Australia will be in Glebe Park on Saturday 7 February.
