Reconciliation begins with education
February 22, 2026
Eighteen years after the National Apology to the Stolen Generations, the failure of the Voice referendum exposed how little many Australians know about the violence that followed colonisation – and why education remains central to reconciliation.
In Brisbane at The Queensland Performing Arts Centre, I attended the 18th anniversary of the National Apology to The Stolen Generation delivered in the Australian Parliament by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 13 February 2008.
Whilst attending the National Apology event I naturally revisited in my own mind the outcomes in the different state and territories of the 2023 referendum for ‘The Voice’.
https://results.aec.gov.au/29581/Website/ReferendumNationalResults-29581.htm
I’m 76 now and went to the Lakes Creek State Primary School in Rockhampton which is in federal electorate of Capricornia.
In the Capricornia electorate the Voice referendum vote was 19.3 per cent for yes and 80.7 per cent for no.
The curriculum at my primary school from 1952-1962 comprised three subjects – English, Maths, and Social Studies.
In the social studies module, there was a lot of material about James Cook, Arthur Phillip, and Matthew Flinders.
When referring to Arthur Phillip arriving in the first fleet in 1788, the social studies module contained zero mentions relating to massacres, murders, and rapes of Indigenous individuals that followed for many decades.
When at primary school the first rugby league team I played in was the 4 stone 7 pound team (28.6 kg).
In that team were Aboriginal and South Sea Islander players.
On and off the field I depended on them and they depended on me.
I grew up respecting these fellow Australians and still do.
There were a lot of big hitters involved leading the unsuccessful 2023 Voice referendum.
During the Voice referendum debate, very little – if anything at all – was mentioned about the massacres, murders, rapes, etc of Aboriginal individuals when the first fleet arrived in 1788.
Reasonable knowledge of these facts by most if not all Australians is an essential prerequisite as a foundation stone to build a new bridge towards achieving recognition and reconciliation for Indigenous Australians.
Achieving this knowledge acquisition by most if not all Australians will be a long march, but a necessary march.
It starts with education.
For the Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders who want to achieve recognition for and reconciliation with Indigenous Australians, the following links could be a fine resource to start to building that new bridge towards successful recognition and reconciliation based on accurate historical foundation.
Sadly, many citizens of Australia are completely ignorant of the content contained in these links.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_of_Indigenous_Australians
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-40489882
https://www.togetheryes.com.au/stories/the-killing-times
https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/history/Frontier_wars
https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/introduction.php
https://australian.museum/learn/first-nations/genocide-in-australia/
http://www.workingwithindigenousaustralians.info/content/History_3_Colonisation.html
https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/myall-creek-massacre
