Insights from Bridging Now to Next: The State of Reconciliation in Australia

On 24 September, DCA was honoured to host Karen Mundine, CEO of Reconciliation Australia, at a recent First Nations Insights event where she shared insights from the 2024 Australian Reconciliation Barometer (ARB) and the 2024 Workplace Reconciliation Barometer (WRB). Karen’s update was followed by a panel discussion about the next steps organisations must take for meaningful reconciliation.

Aunty Donna Ingram provided a warm and informative Welcome to Country which was followed by a presentation on findings from the ARB and WRB. The ARB is a national research study, undertaken every two years by Reconciliation Australia since 2008. It’s the only survey in Australia that measures the progress of reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians. The WRB is also conducted every two years among employees of Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) organisations.

Karen began by recognising the current challenges weighing on Australian society, such as the cost of living, housing, and environmental concerns, and that in the face of growing uncertainty, social and cultural issues tend to take a back seat. Despite concerning trends, the Barometer shows that progress is being made, and the data provides hope and incentive for the future.

A series of snapshots on Reconciliation Australia’s website summarise the findings from the ARB. They show that racism remains an everyday reality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with experiences of racism increasing over the past 10 years and causing lasting harm. Verbal and social media abuse remain dominant, and many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still find themselves facing barriers when renting or buying a property, being refused entry into a venue, and on the receiving end of physical violence.

Despite these grim findings, two groups have emerged as being key to advancing reconciliation: multicultural Australians and young Australians. These two groups reported that they believe more strongly in the importance of relationships in building unity and want to help advance reconciliation. Multicultural Australians are more willing to participate in truth-telling activities and events. As future leaders, young Australians are ready to improve relationships and work towards unity with 18- to 24-year-olds being the strongest cohort for reconciliation across all demographics. Importantly, younger people understand the impact of colonisation on First Nations people. This is key to addressing behavioural change and action.

“Younger people are more engaged and more knowledgeable than ever before. We’ve got this growing cohort of multicultural Australians who also are engaging in these issues and topics where perhaps they haven’t in the past. And there’s lots of crossovers and connections between First Nations peoples and multicultural Australians as well, in terms of experiences of racism and discrimination. They’re as much allies for us in our shared experiences as they are keen and interested in learning about the First Peoples of this country to help them understand what it truly means to be Australian and not have that shaped by a British or non-Indigenous kind of perspective.” – Karen Mundine

The WRB found that employees in RAP organisations consistently have more positive views towards reconciliation and truth-telling compared to the general community. With 5.5 million Australians working or studying in organisations with a RAP, these findings provide hope for the future that even in a disruptive and changing world, engagement with reconciliation is still important for Australians.

Karen Mundine’s presentation was followed by a panel moderated by Professor Peter Anderson, Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous at the University of New England. The panel welcomed Dempsey Bloom, Know Your Customer Team Leader and Co-chair of the ANZ Reconciliation Network at ANZ and Sara Stuart, Head of Indigenous Affairs at Coles.

The panel discussed ways of measuring success and confronting challenges, fostering relationships with communities and senior leaders, ensuring partnerships with Indigenous-led communities, showing continued support for reconciliation in business communities, and finding lessons and opportunities to learn from the reconciliation process.

One of the key themes that emerged during the discussion was that listening to First Nations employees and communities is crucial to truth-telling and reconciliation.