AustLit

'Four years on from the Uluru Statement from the Heart, there’s a clear divide between the groundswell of popular support to recognise the rightful place of First Nations people in Australia’s democratic life and ongoing political inertia in the same space. Tensions remain between long denials and new possibilities: is Australia ready to heal its brutal legacy of settler colonialism? How can we begin to imagine a better future without a full recognition of the past and a full recognition of the moral force of First Nations? And how can this examination and exchange – or reckoning in any context – take place in an era of quick assumptions and divides, alternative facts and cancellations?

'Griffith Review 76: Acts of Reckoning is a wide-ranging discussion of the multifaceted issues at play in Australia’s fraught journey towards a full settlement with Indigenous peoples. Can its leaders take up the generous offer from Australia’s Aboriginal nations to walk together to forge change through dialogue? What might be possible for Australia’s narrative when reconciliation between the world’s oldest continuing culture and one of its newest nation states is achieved? What actions are necessary to move beyond words and achieve real-world transformations – in indigenous-settler relations as in other crucial arenas of recalibration?

'Examining questions of history, truth-telling and decolonisation, and revisiting colonial figures and their ongoing legacies, Acts of Reckoning reframes the past in order to form new futures – and celebrates how much work is already underway.

'Contributing Editor Teela Reid joins Editor Ashley Hay as Griffith Review 76: Acts of Reckoning opens a dialogue for diverse voices, opportunities and perspectives to be articulated, examined and assessed. (Editorial)