Knowmore stands with First Nations communities in calling on the Australian Government to urgently progress a national truth-telling process to address past and ongoing injustices experienced by First Nations peoples.
Speaking from the Garma Festival in Gulkula in the remote Northern Territory, Knowmore’s Director of First Nations Engagement, Gary Oliver, said:
This is a missed opportunity to face the truth. Colonisation wasn’t just history — it caused trauma that still runs through our systems today. In child protection, in criminal justice and in human rights violations today. Without truth-telling, injustice continues unchecked. Our people deserve more. We deserve truth, respect, and action.
Knowmore’s Elder in Residence, Aunty Glendra Stubbs, also reflected on the impact of this inaction on First Nations communities:
It hurts. Another opportunity to commit to truth-telling — and it’s passed us by. Our people have been asking for this for generations. Without truth, the pain of colonisation remains open — generation after generation. We can’t heal what we won’t name.
While we welcome the announcement of an economic development package, on its own, it falls far short of the long-standing calls from First Nations communities for truth-telling and Treaty.
At this moment of great disappointment and pain, we reflect on our experience as the national community legal service that walked alongside First Nations survivors of child abuse, including survivors of the Stolen Generations, while they shared their stories with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
From our experience of the Royal Commission and our ongoing work with First Nations survivors, we understand the importance of truth-telling in reckoning with past and ongoing injustices. We have also witnessed the role that truth-telling can play in supporting individuals and their communities in their journey towards justice and healing, and in driving systemic change to prevent further harm.
Victoria has been leading the way, with the historic Yoorrook Justice Commission and its important recommendations for transformational change. The Australian Government must learn from this experience and urgently fulfil their promise to First Nations peoples and communities by establishing a national truth-telling process.
In the words of the Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy, ‘now is the time to see action’.
Knowmore is a community legal centre that provides free, independent legal advice and multidisciplinary support for survivors of child abuse throughout Australia, including in relation to the Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme.
For more information or to arrange media interviews with a local representative, contact media officer Barbara Charan on 0432 681 037 or email via media@knowmore.org.au