At our very core we are founded on intercultural connection, collaboration and the courage to try and imagine a better future. This is why every National Reconciliation Week (NRW), Murawin reaffirms our commitment to reconciliation and our deeply held belief that we must come together as a country to acknowledge the injustices of the past, to address the problems of the present and to solve the challenges of the future.
NRW is an excellent time for the whole country to get together and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, but it must also be a time of reflection and action. It must also be carried out across the rest of the year and well into the future.
There are many steps that can be taken to work towards genuine reconciliation in this country:
- Develop or improve your Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) – Murawin provides this service and can help you develop a bespoke RAP that aligns with your company’s vision and has real impact.
- Make a commitment to lifting your Indigenous employment and retention rates by creating a culturally safe workplace where First Nations people are set up to succeed – Murawin had the privilege of contributing to the First Nations Employment Index 2025 which shows the long way we have to go in this space.
- Build real, authentic community connections in your local area and provide opportunities for two-way capacity building and learning to occur.
- Contribute to the amplification of the reconciliation campaigns
This is by no means an exhaustive list but one of the key takeaways we would like you to leave with is that this is not going to happen overnight. Reconciliation will not be achieved until Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have equal and equitable access to the same opportunities afforded to non-Indigenous people. We need real, long-term and sustainable efforts from government, business and organisations as well as individuals to progress reconciliation in Australia.
For it to occur we truly need both sides to come to the table with open minds and open hearts. This has become harder and harder with each backward step taken, but it is something we must not give up on.
The 2025 theme of Bridging Now to Next and accompanying artwork remind us of the work that has been done by our ancestors and the importance of keeping this work alive and in the national focus. It challenges us all to confront the next steps we need to take to achieve reconciliation, close the gap and build prosperous futures for First Nations people in Australia. Prosperous not only economically, but socially, culturally and collectively.
To us, the bridge metaphorically illustrates the barriers that are in our way, which we need to overcome to build a better future in this country for all. But it also illustrates the hope that if we work together and build strong foundations, we can cross over those barriers that divide us, and take Australia from the now, to what’s next.
