In Boorloo, I heard a clear message, communities want truth‑telling in every form grounded in Country and carried nationally and they are ready to walk for it.

When I travelled to Boorloo Perth last week, I went to listen. Not to speak first, not to arrive with answers, but to sit with community, Elders, young people, leaders and organisations who carry the daily weight of truth in Western Australia.

What I heard across every room, every yarn, every quiet moment after a meeting was this, truth‑telling in all its forms is strongly supported. People want truth grounded in Country and community and they want a national truth‑telling process that brings the whole country into the work. They didn't see these as separate or competing. They saw them as connected, each carrying its own purpose, each revealing different parts of the story, and each necessary if Australia is ever going to move toward healing, justice and accountability.

Boorloo is a place where truth sits close to the surface. You can feel it in the lived experience of Elders who have carried injustice for generations. You can hear it in the voices of young people who refuse to inherit silence. You can see it in the determination of community leaders and reconciliation networks who are trying to build something better despite systems that still fail our people. And you can feel it in the grief and anger around the injustices that are still happening, not in the past, not in the archives, but right now. People spoke about healing, justice and accountability not as abstract ideas, but as urgent needs.

Western Australia holds truths that cannot be told from anywhere else. They live in Country, in families, in the memories of Elders, in the lived experience passed down through generations.

Truth‑telling grounded in community is not just important, it is sovereign. It is the only place where the full depth of lived experience can be spoken. People in Boorloo told me that truth‑telling at the community level is how they reclaim voice, restore dignity and honour the stories that have been carried quietly for too long. It is where cultural authority sits. It is where communities speak for themselves, in their own way, on their own terms.

But people also told me something else; truth‑telling cannot stop at the community level. The harm was national. The policies were national. The denial has been national. And the silence that still shapes this country is national too.

A national truth‑telling process does not override community truth it amplifies it. It connects the truths of communities across the continent and shows the nation the full pattern of harm, not just isolated stories. It forces Australia to confront the systems, laws and decisions that shaped those local experiences. Truth‑telling at the national level is where accountability must sit. One cannot succeed without the other. Community truth without national truth leaves communities carrying the burden alone. National truth without community truth becomes abstract, disconnected and hollow.

Across my meetings with Elders, youth, community organisations, business leaders and reconciliation networks the message was consistent, people want truth‑telling that is grounded in community and carried nationally. They want truth‑telling that leads to structural reform, not another cycle of reports and apologies. And they want truth‑telling that delivers healing, justice and accountability, not just words. They also told me they will walk for it.

In Boorloo, community members said directly that they will walk for National Truth‑Telling, not as a gesture, but as a commitment. They said they will stand behind a national process, support it and carry it forward in their own communities. Walking is how we show the country that truth‑telling is not an abstract idea. It is lived. It is embodied. It is carried on Country, together.

A national movement is already taking shape. Across the continent, people are stepping forward to support a shared truth and the National Walk for Truth will bring those commitments together on Country and across the nation. As part of this work, an open letter calling for a national truth‑telling process is now live at www.walkfortruth.com where communities, organisations and allies can read it, add their names and stand with the call for a national process grounded in community truth. In Boorloo, people told me they are ready to walk for this not as symbolism, but as a clear statement that truth‑telling must be carried nationally.

In the middle of these conversations, people also raised the events of the recent alleged terror attack, not to sensationalise it, but to point out something deeper and harder, how quickly this country can mobilise empathy, resources and national attention when harm is recognised as national. Australia has shown it can move quickly when harm is recognised as national. First Peoples deserve that same urgency, that same recognition, and that same commitment to truth.

Community members spoke about how injustice against our people is often normalised, minimised, or treated as inevitable. This is why truth‑telling matters. Because without it, Australia will continue to have two different responses to harm, one for the nation and one for First Peoples. Truth‑telling is how we close that gap. It is how we build a country where justice is not conditional, where accountability is not selective and where healing is not left to communities to carry alone.

Australia has spent too long treating truth‑telling as something cultural, something symbolic, something that can be pushed aside when it becomes politically inconvenient. But truth‑telling is structural work. It is the foundation for justice. It is the precondition for reform. It is how a nation grows up.

The Yoorrook Justice Commission has shown what truth‑telling can look like when it is done properly, led by First Peoples, grounded in evidence, backed by the authority to compel truth. But Yoorrook was never meant to be the end of the story. It was a beginning. No state or territory can carry this alone. Truth‑telling must be national because the harm was national.

My time in Boorloo reminded me that people are not waiting for governments to be comfortable. They are not waiting for perfect conditions. They are not waiting for permission. They are calling for truth because they know that without it, nothing changes. Without truth, there is no trust. Without trust, there is no reform. And without reform, the injustices we see today will continue tomorrow. Truth‑telling at the community level and truth‑telling at the national level are not competing ideas. They are two halves of the same work, one grounded in Country, the other grounded in national responsibility. One honours the stories of community. The other holds the nation to account. From Boorloo to every corner of this country, people are ready to walk for a national truth‑telling process because only a shared truth can carry us toward a just future.

Travis Lovett

Executive Director, Centre for Truth Telling and Dialogue, University of Melbourne and former Deputy Chair and Commissioner, Yoorrook Justice Commission.