In early 2023, the ACT Government announced it would set up an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Eminent Panel. While it was anticipated that this would be established by late 2023, no progress has been seen.
In 2018, the Australian Capital Territory Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs declared the ACT government was open to talking treaty with the First Nations peoples of the Canberra region. In the 2021-22 Budget, the Government provided $317,000 to facilitate a conversation with Traditional Owners about what treaty means in the ACT and what a treaty process could look like.
In March 2022, Professor Kerry Arabena was appointed to facilitate those preliminary talks.
In 2018, the ACT Government began talks to progress a Ngunnawal Territory Treaty. In March 2022, it established a $20 million Healing and Reconciliation Fund to help support this process, which included funding the preliminary-to-Treaty Healing Project facilitated by Karabena Consulting.
The ACT government’s consultation and recognition of only Ngunnawal peoples was followed by considerable controversy due to their failure to acknowledge the Ngambri peoples as traditional owners of the ACT regions. As of 27 April 2023, the Ngambri peoples have officially been acknowledged by the ACT government as traditional custodians of the Canberra region, alongside the Ngunnawal people, after a government apology.
In early 2023, the ACT government announced that it would set up a First Nations Eminent Panel for Community Engagement and Healing to oversee processes of Treaty and Truth-telling in the ACT. This panel, with funding allocated over two years, will develop Treaty and truth-telling pathways through advising culturally appropriate governance, mechanisms, and co-design of Voice, Treaty, and Truth.
As of 2024, nothing further has been heard of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Eminent Panel.
To read a more in depth account of Treaty in NSW, you can access our Factsheet here.Â
