Uluru Statement from the Heart an historic convention: Darkinjung chief executive Sean Gordon

“We don’t really know what it means. Like any catch-all, it has weakened over time. Nice words for public occasions,” the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council chief executive said.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart that followed last week’s First Nations National Constitutional Convention would go down in history, said Mr Gordon who attended the convention.

“My hope is that it goes down in history as a turning point in our affairs. It will certainly be so if we were able to have one of the most important elements of the statement accepted by the Australian people – being a voice to Parliament, a representative body, enshrined in the Constitution.

“I don’t have any hope that things will change for the better if we don’t have a voice to the Federal Parliament. After all, it is there that many of the laws and programs are developed and implemented that impact on us.”

Mr Gordon said it was also important for Australia to establish a Makarrata Commission – from the Aboriginal word for a restoration of peace after disunity – where the truth about relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is acknowledged.

“The truth matters and, as has been realised in other parts of the world, reconciliation needs to be preceded by truth. This was the whole point of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission after Apartheid ended. First comes the truth, then reconciliation.

“But that is a tough one for Australia. The truth of relations between Australia’s First Peoples and Australian governments, and indeed non-Aboriginal Australians more generally, is not pretty.”

Mr Gordon said many Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia had “stood up and taken on the challenge of coming up with better approaches” and “this needs to be acknowledged more widely than it is”.