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RTO Provider No: 0383
Date:May 26, 2021
Uluru Statement from the Heart wins 2021 Sydney Peace Prize
The Uluru Statement from the Heart has been announced as the 2021 winner of the Sydney Peace Prize, for bringing together Australia’s First Nations Peoples around a clear and comprehensive agenda; for healing and peace within our Nation and delivering self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, that enables Australia to move into the future united and confident.
Proud First Nations leaders and drivers of the Uluru Statement, Professor Megan Davis, a Cobble Cobble woman from the Barunggam Nation in South East Queensland; Pat Anderson AO, an Alyawarre woman from the Northern Territory; and Noel Pearson, a Guugu Yimidhirr man from Hopevale on the Cape York Peninsula, jointly welcomed the announcement and will receive the prize together at an official event later in the year.
“The Uluru Statement was issued as an invitation to the Australian people to walk with us First Nations people, and to compel the politicians we elect to embrace change and not be afraid of change. As Australians we walked together once before, in 1967, and it was the highest ‘yes’ vote in Australian constitutional history. We are going to have another run at it,” Ms Anderson said.
Delivered in May 2017 at the National Constitutional Convention, the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a ‘historic offering of peace’ that calls for the establishment of a ‘First Nations Voice’ in the Australian Constitution.
Professor Davis, Ms Anderson and Mr Pearson worked tirelessly to deliver the statement in 2017 and have spent the past four years leading the campaign for a referendum to change the constitution. The announcement of their win coincides with National Sorry Day, and marks four years since the Uluru Statement was originally endorsed by First Nations people from across Australia.
“The Uluru Statement was the culmination of a dialogue process designed to take agreement and disagreement and elicit a pathway forward on the vital question of recognition,” Professor Davis said.
“This is a tribute to the men and women of the dialogues who crafted a roadmap to peace for the nation. We are accepting this prize on behalf of all of the First Nations that participated in the Uluru Dialogues and the National Constitutional Convention at Uluru in 2017.”
As long as First Nations peoples remain unrecognised, then Australia is missing its most vital heart
Noel Pearson.
Congratulations to Alyawarre woman and our Council chairperson, Patricia Anderson AO, for the recognition of her courageous and tireless contribution to deliver The Uluru Statement from the Heart in May 2017.
ABN: 32 039 179 166
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