Key Points
- National Reconciliation Week is held between 27 May and 3 June each year.
- The start and end dates mark major milestones in First Nations history.
- 'Bridging Now to Next' is the theme for this year's week.
National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is a time for Australians to learn about shared histories, cultures, and achievements.
This year's NRW theme of 'Bridging Now to Next' reflects the ongoing connection between past, present and future.
NRW is celebrated every year, from 27 May to 3 June, with these dates especially significant for First Nations peoples.
These dates "commemorate two significant milestones in our history", according to the CEO of Reconciliation Australia, Karen Mundine.
"The successful 1967 referendum, where 90.77 per cent of Australians voted 'yes' for Indigenous rights, and the 1992 High Court Mabo decision, which overturned the lie of terra nullius — that this continent was unoccupied when the British arrived," she told SBS.
"Reconciliation is about building and strengthening relationships between First Nations peoples and other Australians, about understanding the true history of Australia’s colonisation.
"It is about justice for First Nations and a more united Australia that respects 65,000 years of First Nations cultures and achievements."
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Significant dates
In addition to the significance of the start and end dates for the week, the day before Reconciliation Week, May 26, is National Sorry Day.
It began in 1998, a year after the Human Rights Commission released the landmark report, Bringing them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families.
The day acknowledges the Stolen Generations, who were removed from their families and communities under government policy between 1910 and 1970.
Meanwhile, the successful May 27, 1967, referendum led to the changing of two sections of the Australian Constitution.
It resulted in the repeal of Section 127, which had excluded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from Australia's population.
This amendment meant states could no longer make policies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, such as the Aboriginal Protection Acts, which legally allowed the state to remove children.
The origins of National Reconciliation Week
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody presented its final report to Parliament in 1991. A recommendation of the report was the beginning of a process of national reconciliation.
From there, the Parliament passed the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act, which established the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR).
Under the legislation, CAR would operate for a decade, under the vision of a "united Australia" that respects the land, "values the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and provides justice and equity for all".
The council hosted 25 members, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Former Labor Senator, Yawuru man and the 'Father of Reconciliation' Pat Dodson was the inaugural Chair. In 1997, Indigenous rights activist Dr Evelyn Scott took over the position.
In 1993, the first National Week of Prayer for Reconciliation was observed. Three years later, support had expanded so CAR launched the nation's first Reconciliation Week.
CAR's final reports to various non-Indigenous leaders including then prime minister John Howard and Governor-General Sir William Deane — The Australian Declaration towards Reconciliation and The Roadmap for Reconciliation — argued a reconciled nation could not be achieved in only a decade.
This led to the establishment of the national peak body Reconciliation Australia.