An engine-room of First Nations truth-telling
With Professor Megan Davis and the team at the UNSW Indigenous Law Centre, we have created a ground-breaking resource for truth-telling in Australia.
Towards Truth is the first attempt to map in detail how Australian parliaments and institutions have touched every aspect of the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The Towards Truth website compiles laws and policies that have impacted First Nations people since colonisation. Corresponding articles, reports and case studies will show their palpable effects.
Described by Professor Davis as the ‘engine-room of truth-telling’, Towards Truth documents the dispossession of First Nations land and culture and also shows the strength and resilience of First Nations Peoples.
Our work will help to highlight stories from our past and provide evidence of the generational impacts of law and policy decisions. It advances the Uluru Statement from the Heart by providing a foundational resource to strengthen First Nations community truth telling. It will also support First Nations people seeking to understand how the laws and policies of the day impacted their own families and communities.
From land rights to education, hunting and fishing, child removals and language, the actions of Australian governments have affected every aspect of First Nations people’s lives.
Towards Truth is a resource for policymakers, researchers and educators investigating Australia’s relationship with First Nations people, and a tool for advocates working to progress First Nations justice.
We hope it will support a shared understanding of the wrongs of the past and their impact on First Nations communities, and also demonstrate how constructive and collaborative government intervention has benefitted communities.
Our work has started with compiling and analysing materials and commentary relating to NSW, with other jurisdictions to follow.
Towards Truth allows us to reckon with our history and move towards meaningful reconciliation with the first people of this country.
For further information contact Anna Harding [email protected].
PIAC gratefully acknowledges the generous financial support for the project from the Maple-Brown Family Foundation, PwC, Clayton Utz Foundation, Herbert Smith Freehills, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, Harbour Litigation Funding, Lander & Rogers, Robert & Jennifer Gavshon, Sam & Barbara Linz and the Australian Communities Foundation Impact Fund.