Uluru Statement from the Heart awarded 2021 Sydney peace prize

May 26th, 2021
The  Uluru Statement from the Heart  has been awarded the 2021 Sydney peace prize. Four years after it was written, judges says the ‘powerful and historic offering of peace’ that was crucial to the ‘healing within our nation’ but has not been acted upon. The Statement offers a clear agenda for healing in Australia, and ‘it is now up to us all to make its vision a reality.

First presented to the Australian people in May 2017, the statement made two recommendations: a constitutionally recognised Indigenous voice to parliament, and a Makarrata process to investigate truth-telling and treaty-making. Neither have been implemented or, in the case of the voice, put to a referendum.

First Nations leaders Pat Anderson, Prof Megan Davis and Noel Pearson accepted the award on behalf of everyone who worked on the statement, which was the result of years of consultation with thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Interactive Uluru statement here.