Queensland's Path to Treaty Commitment

With a renewed focus, Queensland Government, First Nations people and non-Indigenous Queenslanders participated in the signing of Queensland’s Path to Treaty Commitment on the 16 August 2022.

The Commitment signifies a collective pledge to be courageous and curious, to be open to hearing the truth of our state’s history and to collaborate in readiness for negotiating treaties.

Read Queensland’s commitment below.

A collective pledge

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived on and cared for this land for thousands of years and assert they have never ceded their sovereignty.

In this, the 163rd year of the State of Queensland, the Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders continue our shared commitment to a reframed relationship.

This is a commitment whose time is now. The time to reach out to each other, to understand each other, to grow together and to move together to a unified future where we value, respect and protect each other.

The Path to Treaty is a significant step forward in reframing the relationship with First Nations peoples—a process through which all Queenslanders can recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of the land, winds, sky and waters we now share.

This Path to Treaty is a journey, not for the timid, but for those who are courageous to confront our uncomfortable past, the curious who long to find out and live with the truth, and the optimists who dream of the possibilities of a future where we live comfortably with the past, free of blame and rancour because we commit to not repeating those things that shame us.

This journey together will enrich the lives of all Queenslanders and provide for greater recognition, celebration and learning from First Nations peoples.

In Queensland we commit to be courageous, curious and optimistic as we hear the truth and collaborate in maturity to build the consensus necessary to establish treaties, to build a place where the world’s oldest living culture of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples is celebrated as central to the identity of all Queenslanders.

Path to Treaty Event

Watch the live recording from the Path to Treaty event held at Parliament House on 16 August 2022 where the Commitment was signed.