These documents provide a foundation for all Australians to work together towards the goal of reconciliation. They outline a series of steps which can deliver social justice to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and could end with a formal settlement of the outstanding issues left to us by history, ever since the British Crown took this country from its original inhabitants. Some people have called for a treaty, and that indeed may be the end point of the process which the council has outlined. However, I have said that broad public discussion and education, in both indigenous and wider communities, about the possible mechanisms and content of such a document would be essential to achieving it. In the meantime, we should not presume that the tremendous support for reconciliation over these past two weeks will automatically deliver results.
Much hard work remains to be done.
Over the last six months of its life, the council will be asking governments, organisations, communities and individuals to endorse our documents and to make firm commitments to undertake actions which will make a real difference to the lives of indigenous people and contribute to true reconciliation. It will also seek to help put in place the mechanisms and processes which will allow the unfinished business of reconciliation to be worked through by representatives both of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and of the nation as a whole. Evelyn Scott is the chair of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.