National Reconciliation Week to focus on truth telling

It's a week dedicated to reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This year the focus is on truth telling and what role it can play in reconciliation

Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti (left) and Mark Baguley high-five at MCG match between Geelong Cats and Essendon Bombers, May 5, 2019. Source: AAP Image/Julian Smith

National Reconciliation Week is celebrated across Australia each year between 27 May and 3 June.

The dates celebrating Reconciliation Week in Australia remain the same every year, that's because two significant milestones occurred in the same week.

The first was on May 27 1967, the date a referendum was held which saw more than 90 per cent of Australians vote to give the federal government power to conduct programs for Indigenous people, and for them to be counted in the census.

While on June 3, 1992 the High Court Mabo decision overthrew the legal fiction of terra nullius, that is, land belonging to no-one, on which British claims to possession of Australia were based.

Along with remembering history, National Reconciliation Week also focuses on a different theme every year.

In 2019 it's truth-telling.