Reconciliation Australia has warmly and enthusiastically 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 is a crucial demonstration of, and a step forward in, the migrant settlement sector’s long-standing solidarity with First Nations peoples’ aspirations.
In a keynote address during the opening of the three-day conference, Reconciliation Australia Co-Chair Kirstie Parker said she had ‘long believed in the essential importance of a strong relationship between First Nations peoples and those who have migrated here with heart for genuine reconciliation with us’.
‘This relationship is deeply valued by Reconciliation Australia, as it broadens the reach of reconciliation, fosters inclusive engagement, and strengthens cross-cultural collaboration,’ Ms Parker told the gathering of more than 400 community leaders, policy makers, academics, service providers, and advocates
‘Australia’s migrant communities, particularly those who come from non-European countries, have a thirst for understanding the real history of the nation they now call home.
‘Timely conversations and actions that quench 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 non-European migrants have lived experience of the legacy of colonialism and many have experienced marginalisation and racism in Australia.
Pointing to the results of the latest Australian Reconciliation Barometer (ARB), Reconciliation Australia’s public survey measuring the progress of reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians, she described multicultural Australians as ‘natural allies’ of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The 2024 ARB found considerably higher support for reconciliation and truth-telling among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Australians than among Anglo Australians:
- 56% of CALD Australians want to do something to help advance reconciliation compared to 42% of Anglo Australians
- 90% of multicultural respondents to the ARB think the relationship between First Nations and non-Indigenous people is important compared to 83% of Anglo Australians
- 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 next year.
