During the century of nationhood, reconciliation has been an ongoing issue in Australia. Reconciliation means different things to people, but a common understanding is that all Australians deserve to have equal life opportunities, and that genuine reconciliation will only exist when indigenous disadvantage has been eliminated. Many steps have been made along the road to reconciliation as a result of the positive responses of individuals, groups and governments in Australia.

The government has addressed the challenges of reconciliation through constitutional means, common law and legislation. The move towards reconciliation started with a landmark amendment to the Australian Constitution was a result of the overwhelmingly supported 1967 referendum. Since then there have been several events addressing the challenges of reconciliation.

In 1991, the formal ... Showed first 120 words of 478 Size (words) ...

... Continuing with another 115 out of 478 Size (words) ...well as their existence when Europeans first arrived in Australia. The Keating government proposed a three-stage response to the high Court’s Mabo Decision. In the first stage the Mabo decision was made part of Australian law by becoming an Act of Parliament, the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth). The second stage involved the establishment of the Indigenous Land Corporation. The third stage involved CAR and ATSIC finding out the non-land aspirations of Indigenous Australians. There has been little action to implement the recommendations made from this report.

The political divisions, which followed the Mabo Decision, led to the establishment of many citizen groups including the Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR). ANTaR is an ...Essay still continues 100 more words...