Skip to Content
Department of Premier and Cabinet

Truth-Telling and Treaty

The Office of Aboriginal Affairs collaborates with the Premier’s Office and the Minister’s Office on Truth-Telling and Treaty.

Tasmanian Aboriginal people welcomed the announcement by then Premier the Hon. Peter Gutwein that a Truth-Telling and Treaty process will commence in Tasmania. The Tasmanian Government is committed to this significance process of Truth-telling and Treaty with Tasmanian Aboriginal people.

Deep engagement with Tasmanian Aboriginal people by Professor Kate Warner and Professor Tim McCormack began in NAIDOC week on 9 July 2021 and continued through the following four months with a total of more than 100 gatherings across the Tasmania. Gatherings were held in Community member’s homes, on Country, organisations and through face-to-face or on-line.

The primary objective of these consultations was to learn from Tasmanian Aboriginal people their thoughts, ideas, and aspirations for truth telling and treaty, and to identify possible pathways towards these goals.

In almost all cases, discussions encompassed a much broader range of topics. The following key themes arose in the majority of our consultations:

  • Truth-telling, including possible format, purpose and content
  • treaty, including readiness for treaty, identity of parties, possible models, purpose, content and legal status
  • identity and lateral violence
  • land and sea, including the return, protection and management of land and waterways, and cultural fisheries
  • cultural heritage and practices
  • education and capacity building
  • language, particularly language retrieval
  • history, including colonisation, dispossession, assimilation and government policies
  • intergenerational trauma, including the past, present and future impacts of colonisation and dispossession on Tasmanian Aboriginal people

The consultations with Tasmanian Aboriginal people has led to making 24 recommendations in the Pathway to Truth-Telling and Treaty. Read the Pathway to Truth-Telling and Treaty - Report to Premier Peter Gutwein (PDF 4.1MB)

The Government is working with Aboriginal people on options for the next steps.