THE ULURU STATEMENT from the Heart is essentially the same missive as sent by Tasmanians Walter and Mary Anne Arthur to Queen Victoria in 1846 – which eventually resulted in the removal of Henry Jeanneret as Commandant of Flinders Island – and every heartfelt petition since, most of which have not been so successful, at least in the short-term.

One hundred and seventy-two years later, the Uluru Statement pronounces our unbroken sovereignty as the Indigenous peoples of this continent even as it articulates our ongoing sense of powerlessness at the embedded inequality of our peoples. The Statement, like the many before it, also proposes a way forward for bettering that inequity, starting with a fair, just and truthful relationship and a voice in the political and social decision-making that impacts upon us.