Improving the effectiveness of Indigenous policy has no easy, single solution. The question is complex and multifaceted, and results will require time and resources. These are just a few factors critical to more effective Indigenous policy.

In his 2018 speech to the Australian Parliament on the release of the 10th Closing the Gap report, then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he intended to take a new approach to address the socioeconomic challenges facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

He said it was time for his government to start doing things ‘with’ and not ‘to’ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Expressing such a sentiment just months after rejecting the Uluru Statement and its call for exactly that meant his words could only be taken with a large grain of salt.

The idea that we want a more significant role in determining the policies that impact our lives is neither new nor novel. We are determined to be the agents of our own change.