Uluru Statement from the Heart takes out Sydney Peace Prize

First Nations leaders accepted the award on behalf of the efforts of thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Pat Anderson, Noel Pearson and Megan Davis at Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday. Picture: Britta Campion

Some of the country’s most prominent Indigenous leaders have urged Scott Morrison to take up the Uluru Statement from the Heart after the document won the Sydney Peace Prize.

Standing tall alongside other Indigenous leaders on the steps of the city’s Town Hall on Wednesday, Cape York Institute founder Noel Pearson said the award from the Sydney Peace Foundation was evidence of public support.

“The Uluru statement was the answer to the commonwealth’s desire to recognise First Nations in the Constitution,” he said.

“The evidence four years later is overwhelmingly that Australians will support giving us a voice. It’s time.”

Mr Pearson was joined by UNSW law academic Megan Davis, an Australian Rugby League commissioner, and human rights advocate Pat ­Anderson to celebrate the award, which they accepted on behalf of everyone who had worked on the statement. First presented in May 2017, the Uluru statement notes that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders “were the first sovereign nations of the Australian continent”.

Debate on whether constitutional recognition — a central element of the statement — should be enshrined in the Constitution has simmered since.

The Morrison government is pursuing a compromise in the form of a “voice to government” that would be legislated but not protected in the Constitution.

Professor Davis said Wednesday’s acknowledgment was an important advancement towards meaningful recognition.

“It is a ­really important day for all men and women of the dialogues that led to the Uluru Statement of the Heart, many of whom are here today,” she said.

“The statement is one of the most historic statements since 1788, certainly since Federation.

“To win this peace prize is a ­really fundamental acknow­ledgment from Australians about who we are,” Professor Davis said,

Ms Anderson said the Uluru statement was a “gift to the nation of healing and love” that would give a “huge push” to furthering the work of Indigenous activists.

The prize, which had more than 200 nominations this year, is Australia’s only major award for peace and is awarded by the foundation, which is supported by the University of Sydney and City of Sydney.

The foundation’s chairman, Archie Law, said the Uluru statement was a “powerful and historic offering of peace”.