What Australia’s first Aboriginal truth and justice commission might look like

Sometime next year, there’s a good chance Australia will see the start of its first formal truth and justice commission into the ongoing impact of colonisation on Aboriginal communities.

It is being pursued in Victoria, where the First Peoples’ Assembly, which is setting up state-based treaty negotiations, has secured the Government’s support for a commission.

In its final meeting for the year, the assembly resolved to continue consulting with elders and the community on what that commission should look like.

International examples show truth-telling processes are rarely straightforward and are never the final step in the process of reconciling a history of human rights abuses with the present.

But advocates for the processes say they…