Resource Kit on Uluru Statement from the Heart

The Edmund Rice Centre today released an informational resource for the wider community to help all Australians understand the importance and the detail of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Speaking at the launch Phil Glendenning, Edmund Rice Centre director said: “As we consider our nation’s pathway forward, I urge people all across Australia to make use of this resource, and to share it with others.”

“The Uluru Statement from the Heart provides the nation with an opportunity to embrace our history, to acknowledge the wrongs of the past, and to take practical and significant steps to ensure that these wrongs are never again repeated,” he stated.

“Voice, Treaty and Truth – the three steps of the Uluru Statement from the Heart – together combine to give all Australians the opportunity to remake this country from the perspective of those who were here first,” he affirmed.

“Put simply, the Uluru Statement from the Heart enables the First Nations peoples of this continent – the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous cultures – to have a say in the decisions that impact their lives. By any definition, that represents a quintessential notion of the Australian ‘fair-go’.”

“Finally we have the opportunity to acknowledge that history happened here, and those of us who refuse to learn the sins of that history are simply bound to repeat them,” Mr Glendenning asserted.

“This resource is to assist people to understand what the Uluru Statement is calling all Australians to: to be, to acknowledge, and to own,” he emphasised.

“Acknowledgement of Aboriginal People in the Constitution, and the establishment of a Voice to Parliament would finally bring Australia into line with other countries that invaded First Nations peoples, but all of whom signed agreements and treaties well over a century ago.”

“Australia has been out of step for too long. When we compare our context to settler-colonial nations like New Zealand, Canada, the US, we sit far behind and this is the opportunity to put it right. This resource will help people to do that. In that daunting context, please assist us to ensure the widest possible circulation of the resource among your family, friends, colleagues, communities, and on diverse platforms of social media,” he said.

Download the Resource Kit on the Uluru Statement from the Heart