The non-Indigenous Australians, over the past 200 years, have supplanted the culture and community values of their forebears into shaping modern Australia. Traditional values of Indigenous people were ignored. This is not the social environment that creates economic opportunities for Indigenous Australians or makes reconciliation a reality. I will outline my views on some of the barriers from an industry perspective. However, it is not a one-way process.
Reconciliation is about people and bringing people together.
It will not happen if one of the groups does not support reconciliation and is not prepared to recognise the barriers to this reconciliation. Long-term economic independence cannot be a reality unless people are prepared to contribute and to be innovative in adapting to the changing environment. The barriers to achieving economic independence and reconciliation have to be identified, accepted and through consultation approaches agreed to remove or lessen the barriers. In effect, to turn the barriers into challenges and challenges into opportunities. From an industry manager's perspective, the commitment to achieve reconciliation has to come from senior management.