On Sunday April 19, I will begin walking from Melbourne to Canberra, more than 820 kilometres, from Parliament to Parliament carrying something this country has spent generations avoiding. The truth.
Not a symbolic or softened truth. Not a curated truth. Not the comfortable version of history that fits neatly into national mythmaking or the version of history that lets Australia feel proud without feeling responsible. I am carrying the truth that First Peoples have spoken for more than 200 years and the truth that the Yoorrook Justice Commission has now documented in the clearest, most undeniable terms.
I am walking because Australia has already been told the truth. What is missing is the national courage to act on it.
As a Gunditjmara man, I grew up with the stories of my old people, stories of invasion, massacres, land theft, child removal and the deliberate dismantling of our laws, our governance and our ways of caring for Country. These are not distant memories. They are inherited realities. They shape the systems we are forced to navigate today, the prisons, the child protection system, the health system, the land justice system.
Every one of them still carries the architecture of the colony that built them.
This is not Victoria's truth. This is Australia's truth.
And yet, nationally, we behave as if truth telling is something we might get around to one day. A future project, a nice idea, a gesture of goodwill. But truth telling is not a gesture. It is a responsibility. It is the first step in any nation that wants to move from denial to justice.
Right now, Australia is stuck in denial.
We saw it in the referendum. We see it in the way governments talk about "starting conversations" instead of acting on the truths already spoken. We see it in the way national leaders praise the idea of truth telling while refusing to commit to the structural reform it demands.
And we see it, starkly, in the latest Closing the Gap data.
Only four out of nineteen national targets are on track.
Not four out of five. Not four out of ten. Four out of nineteen.
A country that claims to care about fairness cannot look at those numbers and pretend the system is working.
A country that claims to care about justice cannot look at those numbers and pretend the harm is historical.
A country that claims to care about truth cannot look at those numbers and pretend it doesn't already know why.
Truth telling is not a cultural exercise. It is not a reconciliation brand. It is not a moment of national sentimentality.
Truth telling is accountability.
It is the moment a nation looks at itself without turning away. It is the moment that demands a response equal to the truth that has been told.
That is why I am walking to Canberra and asking for everyone to come walk with me.
We are walking because this country cannot keep outsourcing truth telling to the states and territories. We cannot keep pretending that the harm is local while the systems causing it are national. We cannot keep asking First Peoples to carry the truth alone while governments carry on as if nothing has changed.
A national truth telling process is not optional. It is the only path to a future that is honest, just and shared.
Australia needs national truth telling because the harm was national. The laws that dispossessed us were national. The policies that removed our children were national. The systems that continue to incarcerate our people at the highest rates in the world are national. The denial is national.
And so the reckoning must be national too.
That is why so many Australians have already signed the open letter calling on the Prime Minister to establish a National Truth Telling Process. They understand that truth telling cannot be left to chance, or to political cycles, or to the goodwill of individual jurisdictions. They know this country needs a coordinated, legislated, national commitment. One that honours the truths already spoken and ensures they lead to real change.
The open letter is a statement of responsibility. It says clearly, the truth is here, the evidence is here and the Commonwealth must now lead.
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The National Walk for Truth is not a protest. It is not a spectacle. It is a movement grounded in cultural authority, community leadership and the simple belief that this country cannot heal from what it refuses to face.
People who join us are not walking for us. They are walking with us, toward a future that refuses to repeat the past. They are walking because they understand that truth telling is not something First Peoples owe to Australia. It is something Australia owes to itself.
Every step we take toward Canberra is a step toward the nation's Parliament, the place where the open letter must be answered, where the truth must be acknowledged and where the commitment to a National Truth Telling Process must finally be made.
When I arrive in Canberra, I will not be delivering a petition. I will be delivering a message:
Australia cannot heal from a truth it refuses to face.
This country has a choice to make. Comfort or courage.
Comfort is selective memory, symbolic gestures and political caution. Comfort is the country Australia has been.
Courage is structural reform, shared responsibility and genuine reckoning. Courage is the country Australia could become if it chooses to stop looking away.
I am walking to Canberra because I believe this country can choose courage.
But belief is not enough. Action is what matters.
The truth is here. The truth is clear. The truth is national.
And the truth will keep walking until this country finally turns to face it.
Travis Lovett.
Kerrupmara, Gunditjmara, Boandik man.
Executive Director, Centre for Truth Telling and Dialogue.
University of Melbourne. Former Deputy Chair and Commissioner, Yoorrook Truth and Justice Commission.
For more information about the National Walk For Truth and to sign the open letter, visit www.walkfortruth.com.
