Reconciliation Australia is celebrating a milestone, marking 25 years since it was founded. Chief Executive Karen Mundine reflects on the organization’s creation, highlighting that it was born from a wave of public support for reconciliation that surged in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Established in 2001, Reconciliation Australia emerged after the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation concluded its work. This council had spent a decade fostering national discussions about reconciliation. Notably, it organized the 2000 Sydney Harbour Bridge walk, which saw participation from hundreds of thousands.
Karen Mundine, who hails from the Bundjalung community in New South Wales’ Northern Rivers, emphasized that the organization’s mission has been to transform public goodwill into tangible actions.
“Over the past 25 years, we’ve developed various initiatives,” Mundine noted. “These include the Indigenous Governance Program and Awards, Reconciliation Action Plans, the Reconciliation Barometer, and our latest effort in community truth-telling.”
She pointed out that the 1997 Australian Reconciliation Convention was a pivotal event, taking place soon after the significant Bringing Them Home report was presented in parliament, furthering the national dialogue on reconciliation.
“It opened up a bigger conversation about truth-telling, how we own our history and our past, and how important that was for the healing journey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but also for the broader Australian community,” Ms Mundine said.
She said many Australians at the time “didn’t know our history, didn’t know about the Stolen Generations”, which made broader debates around native title and reconciliation more difficult.
Ms Mundine said one of Reconciliation Australia’s most significant initiatives had been the Reconciliation Action Plan program, launched about 20 years ago with eight organisations. She said more than 3300 organisations now participate.
According to Ms Mundine, participating organisations spent $5.6 billion with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses in the past 12 months and employ about 63,000 Indigenous staff.
She said the organisation’s work had also expanded into schools and early learning centres through the Narragunnawali program, which now involves about 2700 education services.
Asked about changes over the past two decades, Ms Mundine said conversations around reconciliation had shifted from support and advocacy towards partnership and Indigenous leadership.
“It’s no longer about how other people are supporting or helping us,” she said. “It’s about how they work with us.”