Reconciliation Australia has released the biennial Barometer report, which takes the temperature of relationships between First Nations people and the broader community.
It has delivered mixed reviews for the state of affairs, with trust between the two populations slowly increasing and support growing for treaty making, but incidences of racial prejudice are also on the rise.
Reconciliation Australia chief executive Karen Mundine says the report is an important tool to track progress.
"The report has been going since 2008 and we run it every two years, just so we get a picture a snapshot of what's going on at that moment," she said.
The report shows almost all Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians value the relationship the two communities have, but only around 17 per cent of the broader community have socialised with Indigenous people in the past year.
"When we're only three-and-a-half per cent of the population, there's always going to be that gap between us," Ms Mundine said.
"It's always going to be challenging for us. We know that trust increases when we know each other, but how do we create opportunities on a bigger a broader scale, to create that sense of community between us," she said.
Racism on the rise
The report shows Indigenous people are experiencing greater levels of racial prejudice than they were in 2020, with 60 per cent of First Nations people experiencing racism in the past six months.
Race and racism research Professor Chelsea Watego says that's likely an underestimation.
"What this barometer doesn't give us a sense of is institutional racism, which is far more covert, and every day and embedded into the fabric of our society," she said.
"So while it is alarming, it is also an underestimation of the reality of racism in Australian society."
Professor Watego says reconciliation can't happen until the broader population acknowledges the wrongs of the past.
When it comes to accepting the facts about Australia's colonial past, the data shows less than two-thirds of Australians believe the Frontier Wars happened.
Around 80 per cent acknowledge that Indigenous people were subject to genocide throughout the 1800s, and government policy led to the stolen generations.
"I find it surprising that we're still asking people whether they believe that frontier violence existed that children removed from their families systematically," Professor Watego said.
"Once upon a time we were having to prove our existence in this place, and still we're trying to prove that what was done to us actually happened," she said.
Special envoy for Reconciliation and the Uluru Statement for the Heart, Senator Pat Dodson says Australians need to interrogate their racism.
"We've got to help people understand what gives rise to their racism, and not just call them racist," he said.
"I think if they start to understand why they behave in a certain way, and that's usually because I think someone's getting something better or getting something more or being given greater status.
"None of that is true but it's irrationality and irrational things spread like wildfire in this country, and gives rise to ignorance and bigotry," Senator Dodson said.
Solid backing for the Uluru Statement
Ms Mundine says the Albanese government's promise to deliver on all three aspects of the Uluru Statement has seen attitudes shift around representation and treaty making.
"What we've also seen is a bit of an uptick on when it comes to the key objectives of the Uluru Statement. So, Voice, Treaty Truth," she said.
"We're seeing really high support, and in some cases, an increase in support of those areas," she said.
Around 80 per cent of the general community and 86 per cent of Indigenous people want to see a representative body established.
There has been a significant jump in support for treaty making, with 72 per cent of the general population and 86 per cent of Indigenous people backing the process, an increase of nearly 20 per cent since 2020 respectively.
Senator Dodson says that's a heartening response in the lead up to the referendum.
"We are moving as a nation and I think that's a positive thing," he said.
"We're at a stage where we should never take for granted anyone's support, but we need to work out the things that the barometer has indicated to us.
"Greater interaction between ourselves, learning about each other, building up the trust between us building up the opportunities to meet and mix with each other on a social basis, and a better understanding of our own mutual perspectives."
