Reconciliation, nationalism and the history wars

In 1991, the Australian Parliament unanimously passed legislation that instituted a formal ten-year process of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. This process was intended to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous people by the end of 2000, in time for the centenary of the foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 2001. The process had several goals: to educate the wider Australian community about reconciliation and Indigenous issues; to foster a national commitment to address Indigenous socio-economic disadvantage; and to investigate the desirability of developing a document of reconciliation, and if considered desirable, to advise on the content of a document. The legislation created the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR) to promote and guide the reconciliation process