Truth-telling is not about assigning blame but about repairing the nation, former Yoorrook Justice Commissioner Travis Lovett says.
One of the three pillars of the Uluru Statement from the Heart — alongside Voice and Treaty — advocates have consistently argued truth-telling remains essential for Australia to fully understand its colonial history. Whilst some states and territories have put forward — in various forms — truth-telling bodies or commissions, the federal government has failed to do so.
In Victoria, the Yoorrook Justice Commission — the nation's first truth-telling body with the powers of a royal commission — delivered its final report last year, handing down 100 recommendations. These included redress for First Peoples through measures such as land restitution, financial compensation, tax relief and other benefits.
Over four years, the commission held 67 days of public hearings, heard evidence from more than 200 witnesses, engaged with more than 2,000 people — including 1,500 First Peoples — received more than 1,300 written submissions, consulted more than 9,000 individuals, reviewed nearly 10,000 state documents and participated in more than 400 community events.
In Queensland however, the LNP government shut down the state's truth-telling inquiry in an "extraordinary act" after coming to power in 2024.
Kerrupmara Gunditjmara man Travis Lovett, one of Yoorrook's commissioners, will take the call for federal truth-telling to Canberra this year, undertaking a long-distance walk from the steps of Victorian Parliament to the nation's capital.
He says accounts of Australia's past too often omit the "violence, dispossession and survival that followed colonisation".
"But a country that turns away from the truth of its own beginnings cannot be at peace with itself," the now Executive Director of the Centre for Truth-telling at the University of Melbourne says.
"Truth-telling is not about blame. It is about finally listening to those who have too often been treated as a problem to be handled, rather than as sovereign peoples who deserve respect. Truth-telling is an act of national repair, so that we can walk a true path forward, together."
Calls for the federal government to establish a national truth-telling process have continued since the defeat of the Voice referendum, including an open letter urging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to commit to a formal, properly resourced framework.
Released as a video addressed to the Prime Minister, Minister for Indigenous affairs Malarndirri McCarthy, and Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, and featuring First Nations leaders and allies — including journalist Narelda Jacobs, former Victorian Treaty adviser Jill Gallagher and federal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss — the letter calls on the government to properly fund and support such a body.
This, it says, would ensure the "truths shared through this process are not just heard and shelved — but deeply listened to".
"Truth-telling cannot remain scattered and fragile, held only in courtrooms, commission archives and the memories of those who remember," the letter reads.
"It must become national. It must be embedded in our laws, our institutions, our schools, our media and our public life; supported by a clear, resourced process that honours and builds on the work already done."
Calling for a national truth-telling process in genuine partnership with First Nations Peoples, Mr Lovett has also launched an online petition. Last year, he completed a 513-kilometre walk from Portland to Victorian Parliament to mark the completion of Yoorrook's final report.
During this year's "Walk for Truth", he will carry a kangaroo skin bearing the names of every petitioner, which he plans to present to Parliament.
He says the invitation to the Prime Minister to "walk with us" extends well beyond Parliament House and is directed at all Australians.
"Friends, families, colleagues, and communities, as well as businesses. In particular, those with a Reconciliation Action Plan," Mr Lovett told National Indigenous Times last week.
"Truth-telling is embedded within those action plans, and this is how we move beyond words on a page and into meaningful action."
Writing in this publication last month, Mr Lovett referenced federal calls to expand Holocaust and Jewish history education following the Bondi attack, and urged a broader overhaul of Australia's curriculum to reflect what he described as the "true history of this country".
"We cannot talk about addressing racism while continuing to hide the foundations of this nation, foundations built on genocide, dispossession and the ongoing harm inflicted on First Peoples," he wrote.
"If we are serious about preventing hatred, then truth-telling must sit at the centre of any reform. Because you cannot build a safe, united future on a false story."
