The Australian reconciliation process: 1991-2000

In 1991, the Commonwealth Parliament unanimously passed the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act (Cth) 1991 (CAR Act). This Act instituted a formal ten year process of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The 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 CAR Act also created the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR) to promote and guide the reconciliation process. In this paper, I briefly analyse this ten-year formal Australian reconciliation process. Firstly, I discuss the success or otherwise of the broad goals of reconciliation. Secondly, I explore several interrelated factors that impacted upon the reconciliation process