This Keynote Address delivered by former Senator, Patrick Dodson at the WA Reconciliation Breakfast May 2025, presents a history of origins of the decade of formal Reconciliation (1991- 2000,) its testing times and a clear analysis of the path forward post Referendum. As he said, ‘implementation of the endorsed United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Australia, informed by the Uluru Statement of the Heart offers a blueprint for post referendum structural change. It does not require a referendum, simply government leadership and the will to do it’.
At a breakfast in his honour the Governor of WA said of him: ‘Pat I honour your endurance as you have continued to walk, talk, lead, drive and fly all over this vast nation to bring all Australians closer together.’