Reconciliation requires changes of heart and spirit, as well as social and economic change. It requires symbolic as well as practical action.

There are no quick fixes to Indigenous poverty and social disaster.

Sorry Day falls on the eve of Reconciliation Week, giving us the chance to ask whether we are making progress in the wider challenge of reconciling Indigenous and other Australians.

Three years ago the Government announced the creation of Reconciliation Place, and said that it would include a memorial to those removed from their families. However, they refused to include any of those who were removed in the design of their own memorial.

In the last twelve years, we have come some distance towards reconciliation and the breaking down of disadvantage. Let us take encouragement from what has been achieved and set our minds and hearts to end the remaining roadblocks.

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.