Canberra may have been the only place in Australia that voted yes in the Voice referendum.
But there's no room for smugness or complacency, even though the territory has its own Indigenous Voice and made Reconciliation Day a public holiday.
Nationally, the Voice was a stark failure and the history of atrocities against Indigenous people and the shame of ongoing Indigenous disadvantage remain.
There's still a long way to go.
That's one of the reasons that Reconciliation Australia's theme for 2024 is Now More Than Ever - a reminder that there's a lot that needs to be done, from listening to action.
It's something that will be remembered and part of the event planned on Monday for Reconciliation Day, beginning National Reconciliation Week.
The seventh of its kind and the first held in Commonwealth Park, the event will showcase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and include food, music, dance, children's activities and other entertainment to begin National Reconciliation Week.
The headline act will be musician Isaac Compton, a Munanjali, Minjungbul and Wiradjuri man born in Griffith, NSW who in 2023 won Channel Nine's reality show The Summit.
But there will also be panels highlighting such issues as the need to listen to and understand Indigenous people on the day.
The co-chair of the ACT Reconciliation Council, Ngunnawal woman Selina Walker, said, "I'm excited for it -I'm proud to be a Canberran."
Miss Walker said that while six in 10 Canberrans voted yes in the referendum, "there's still a lot of work to do", even in the ACT, to achieve consensus and reconciliation. She thought Monday's celebration in Commonwealth Park would help.
"I'm excited for this post-referendum event to be able to bring people together to continue that journey to true reconciliation."
Reconciliation Day, she said, was an opportunity for people to have the conversations and discussions that would help non-Indigenous Canberrans understand what reconciliation was and why it was important.
"We want to get people back together to be able to be present with each other again."
Miss Walker's co-chair, Emeritus Professor Richard Baker, is not Indigenous but has worked closely with Indigenous people throughout his decades-long academic career in cultural geography, particularly on issues relating to caring for country.
The council, he said, was a coming together of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
Reconciliation Day is a bigger opportunity to bring people together. Professor Baker said among the panels will be one he will chair on deep listening.
"In many Indigenous languages the word for understanding and thinking is listen, listen," he said.
"A key theme of this year's event is the need for non-Indigenous Australians to develop deeper listening skills to truly listen to and learn from Indigenous Australians.
Non-Indigenous Australians needed to acknowledge and learn from what has happened in Australia in the past and is continuing to happen in terms of structural racism so people could work out ways to move forward together, Professor Baker said.
"Reconciliation is not a destiny, it's a journey."
Ngamberi-Wiradjuri Elder Dr Matilda House was less sanguine about Reconciliation Day in the light of the referendum result.
"Maybe it's finding out that white Australia still can't recognise the fact they're living on stolen land that's never been ceded," Dr House - "a Ngamberi-Wiradjuri mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, Aunty, a friend" - said.
"White Australia is still not accepting the atrocities they brought to this country."
Concerning the referendum, she said, "It's done and dusted. Everybody's got to get on, move on."
However, she said she was "always hopeful.
"I've got to make sure my great-grandchildren are allowed to be who they are and what they are, very proud Aboriginal people."
Now more than ever, there's work to be done.
- The free Reconciliation Day 2024 event is on Monday, May 27 in Commonwealth Park from 10am to 3pm. For the full program see events.canberra.com.au/reconciliation.
