Can Australia afford not to be reconciled?

Perhaps instead of our colonisers focusing on the concept of terra nullius (no one’s land), they should have focused on the notion aut disce aut discede - either learn or leave!

And yet it’s not too late to learn. The great opportunity that exists for Australia, and the industrialised world more generally, is to examine the way that Indigenous cultures managed our environment, our land, seas, and waters, for generation upon generation.

Indigenous knowledge systems need to be incorporated into our pastoral, farming, land and sea management practices to ensure we use this century to restore our ecosystems and improve the balance sheet of our cultural and natural resource assets. We need to start thinking less about nation states and more about nature states.

To achieve this, Indigenous people must be incorporated into planning and decision-making about future land, sea and river management regimes. The whole philosophy of how nations use and sustain their resources needs to be underpinned by Indigenous peoples’ cultural and spiritual relationship to the environment, and our perspectives on what constitutes a successful society. Indeed, a successful economy.

We as a nation have the capacity, the ingenuity and the wealth to work with our neighbours to deal with the consequences of industrialisation and consumption. But first we must truly reconcile with our Indigenous peoples so that we are freed from past arguments and open to learn from the wisdom and richness of Australia’s First Peoples.

When we open our hearts and minds to truth and justice for our Indigenous peoples, then our courage will inevitably lead us into strengthening relationships with our regional neighbours and those peoples beyond.