Makarrata: voice, truth and treaty for First Peoples of Australia

Makarrata is a word in the Yolngu language meaning ‘the resumption of normal relations after a period of hostilities’. Some people have preferred the word Makarrata because they felt the word treaty was too divisive and more often describes agreements between countries rather than within countries between different parts of the population. First Peoples have sought a fair place in our country along with constitutional recognition as far back as Yorta Yorta elder William Cooper’s letter to King George VI (1937), the Yirrkala Bark Petitions (1963), the Larrakia Petition (1972) and the Barunga Statement (1988).
Many Prime Ministers of the modern era were conscious of the original omission of First Peoples from our constitutional arrangements. Gough Whitlam spoke of the need for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to take “their rightful place in this nation”.