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This project is led by Professor Megan Davis and Professor George Williams. It is funded by ARC Indigenous Discovery Project entitled ‘Recognition after Uluru: What next for First Nations?’ It aims to examine the extent to which Australia’s system of government appropriately serves and represents the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Such improvements offer the potential to enhance programs in areas such as health and education, including the Closing the Gap initiative. Drawing on public law principles as well as comparative and international legal material, the project will develop a model of governance against which the Australian system can be assessed. An audit will then be conducted of how that system operates in comparison to this model, before drawing conclusions and identifying potential reforms. The outcome of this project will be original scholarship of domestic and international significance that will inform academic and policy debate during and beyond the proposed referendum to recognise Indigenous peoples in the Constitution.

This project is led by Professor Megan Davis. It continues her leadership on constitutional recognition for First Nations people, including her work on the Prime Minister’s Expert Panel on the Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution (2011-2012), on the Prime Minister’s Referendum Council (2015-2017) and the Indigenous Steering Committee, where she led the design of the Referendum Council’s deliberative process that delivered the Uluru Statement from the Heart. From 2022-2023 she served on the Referendum Working Group, the Referendum Engagement Group and the Attorney General’s Constitutional Expert Group. She is currently the co-chair of the Uluru Dialogues.

This project draws together Professor Davis’ expertise and experience in Australian constitutional law, Indigenous issues and international law on Indigenous rights, to look at the importance of constitutional recognition for the realisation of the rights of Indigenous Peoples. She is currently working on the project while as the Whitlam Fraser Harvard Chair in Australian Studies at Harvard University, Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School and a Penn Carey Law Bok Visiting International Professor, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (Penn Carey Law).

For further information, see:

• Uluru Statement from the Heart 
• Indigenous Law Centre Issues Papers:
• Gabrielle Appleby and Megan Davis (eds) The Failure of the Voice Referendum and the Future of Australian Democracy (Anthem Press, 2025), including contributions from Centre Associates Sana Nakata, Eddie Synot and Hannah McGlade.

This project is led by Professor Gabrielle Appleby. This is an Australian public law project, focussing on how governments and parliaments ‘listen’ to Indigenous political institutions, with a goal to devise a set of principles to guide the reform of government and parliamentary institutions mechanisms and processes to facilitate Indigenous self-determination. The project will investigate how parliamentary and executive institutions in Australia and in comparative countries (including Norway, Canada, and New Zealand) have ‘listened’ to Indigenous representative bodies.

For further information on this project, see:

Gabrielle Appleby and Eddie Synot, ‘A First Nations Voice: Institutionalising Political Listening’ (2020) 48(4) Federal Law Review 529

Gabrielle Appleby, Ron Levy and Helen Whalan, ‘Voice versus Rights: The First Nations Voice and the Australian Constitutional Legitimacy Crisis’ (2023) 46(3) University of New South Wales Law Journal 761

Gabrielle Appleby and Megan Davis lead the ‘Truth Telling’ project at the ILC. The purpose of this project is to explain and deepen the Uluru Statement from the Heart’s call for a Makarrata Commission to oversee a process of truth telling and agreement making. This project explores the stories and truth that was revealed during the Regional Dialogues, and the vision of localised truth telling with national coordination, oversight and stewardship.

The project also houses the ILC’s partnership with the Justice Equity Centre (JEC, formerly the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, PIAC), Towards Truth. This project compiles the vast body of laws and policies that have impacted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people since 1788, broken down into four themes – Country, Kinship, Law and Culture, and People. Towards Truth is the first attempt to map in detail how decisions of our Parliaments and Governments have dispossessed and disempowered First Nations People, and where they have sought to protect and provide for reparation. The database has started in NSW, with a plan to extend into other jurisdictions. Towards Truth provides a foundational resource to strengthen First Nations community truth-telling and to support First Nations people seeking to understand how the laws and policies of the day impacted their own families and communities. Towards Truth is also a resource for policymakers, researchers and educators investigating Australia’s relationship with First Nations people, and a tool for advocates working to progress First Nations justice.

Read more about the truth-telling project work in:

Gabrielle Appleby and Megan Davis, ‘Uluru and the Contested Promises of Truth’ (2018) 49 Australian Historical Studies 501

Gabrielle Appleby and Megan Davis, Submission on the Truth and Justice Commission Bill 2024 to the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander AffairsÌý(2024)

Gabrielle Appleby and Megan Davis are currently writing a monograph on Australia for Hart’s Rule of Law in Context book series. This book provides a rich theoretical and practical examination of the instantiation of the rule of law in Australia through the lens of First Nations’ experience with the State and the rule of law. The book explores the argument that the State’s relationship to First Nations holds important explanatory power for understanding rule of law assertions and contests in this country.

The monograph is due for publication in 2026.

See further:

Gabrielle Appleby, Megan Davis, Dylan Lino and Alexander Reilly,

Gabrielle Appleby, Megan Davis, Dylan Lino and Alexander Reilly, Australian Public Law (4^th edition, Oxford University Press)

In light of government announcements and public discussion about the ‘Economic Empowerment’ agenda in Indigenous Affairs, and the potential effects and benefits of Clean Energy and Net Zero for First Nations, the ILC is undertaking a series of Community Legal Education Programs on these issues.

The ILC’s Civics Education Project is aimed at increasing understanding and knowledge of Australian public law and its historic and ongoing treatment of First Nations.