June Oscar on family, history and the need for courage to keep the dream of reconciliation alive

‘We need the courageous leadership’: June Oscar believes the political timeline on the voice to parliament referendum was too short and there is sill momentum for bringing Australians together. Photograph: Nic Duncan

On a day in 2015, June Oscar waited by the phone to call a brother she had never met. They share a father but had been separated by race and a shared history that was never spoken about.

She had been wrestling with how to tell that side of the family, and wondered how she would be received, but settled on telling the truth.