OUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
More than a statement. A governance commitment.
The Foundation's Acknowledgement of Country, and what it means for how we make decisions.
TSI FLAG PENDING PERMISSION
Note: The Torres Strait Islander Flag will be added once written permission has been received from the Torres Strait Island Regional Council, in accordance with the Council's copyright requirements. A formal permission request has been submitted.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we all work and live. We recognise their continuing connection to land, water, and community and pay respects to Elders past, present, and those yet to come. We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded. This always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO THE FOUNDATION
Not a ritual. A reminder at the point of decision.
The Foundation's Acknowledgement of Country is not a preamble to be recited and set aside. It is a governance principle, included in the Foundation's practice because every decision the Foundation makes — who to fund, what programs to support, whose voices to amplify, how to deploy donor capital — exists within a country whose full history and complexity must be held in full view.
Australia is, at once, one sovereign nation, six states, two territories, and hundreds of First Nations countries. The Foundation operates within that full picture. When we fund a program in western New South Wales, we are operating in Barkindji, Wiradjuri, or Ngemba Country. When we fund a program in Newcastle, we are operating in Awabakal and Worimi Country. The geographic and administrative boundaries of modern Australia do not erase those prior and continuing sovereignties.
The acknowledgement is read at the start of any significant Foundation decision, not as a ceremony but as an orientation — a reminder of what kind of country we are operating in, and what that demands of us.
The standard that the Foundation sets for itself is this: every material decision must either demonstrably respect all cultures within its scope, or at a minimum show evidence of having genuinely considered that obligation. The mere fact of consideration does not guarantee a perfect outcome. But the absence of consideration is a failure of governance — and of the civic integrity and leadership the Foundation is built on.
ONE NATION. MANY COUNTRIES.
Understanding the full geography of Australia.
Australia's political and legal structure is already complex: one Commonwealth government, six state governments, two territory governments, and hundreds of local councils, each with their own mandates and geographies. Australians are accustomed to navigating that complexity — to understanding that a decision made in Canberra affects people differently in Broome, Darwin, Hobart, and Bourke.
First Nations Australians add a further layer of geography, sovereignty, and cultural authority that predates and underlies all of those structures. There are more than 500 distinct First Nations language groups in Australia, each associated with specific country — specific land, waterways, and sea. Those countries are not historical abstractions. They are living cultural, spiritual, and political realities, maintained by communities across the continent and its islands.
A foundation committed to civic leadership — to preparing young Australians to understand, engage with, and lead within Australian public life — cannot responsibly operate as though those realities do not exist. They are part of the civic landscape. They belong in the formation of anyone who aspires to lead here.
01
Consider the country.
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Demonstrate the consideration.
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Hold the full picture.
If cultural respect cannot be fully achieved in a given decision, the Foundation must at a minimum demonstrate that the obligation was genuinely considered and that every reasonable effort was made.
When funding programs, the Foundation asks: whose country is this work occurring on? Are the communities and voices of those country's Traditional Custodians part of the picture — or absent from it?
The Foundation's programs teach civic leadership. That means teaching the full reality of Australian civic life — including its ongoing obligations to First Nations peoples, not as a historical footnote but as a present political reality.
A NOTE ON SOVEREINGNTY
Why the Foundation includes the sovereignty statement.
The Foundation's acknowledgement includes the words: "We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded." This is a deliberate choice, and the Foundation is willing to explain it.
Australia has no treaty with its First Nations peoples. Unlike New Zealand, Canada, and many other nations with colonial histories, Australia has never formally negotiated the terms of settlement with the peoples whose land was occupied. The land was taken under a legal doctrine — terra nullius, the fiction that the land was unoccupied and owned by no one — that the High Court overturned in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) in 1992. That decision recognised pre-existing native title and acknowledged the prior ownership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. But it did not resolve the question of sovereignty.
To say that sovereignty was never ceded is not to make a claim about the present constitutional or legal arrangements of Australia. It is to state a historical fact: that no First Nations nation or people formally transferred sovereignty over their country to the Crown or to the Commonwealth. That fact has consequences for how we understand the country we inhabit and the obligations that flow from inhabiting it.
The Foundation holds that young Australians preparing for civic leadership deserve an honest account of this history — not a curated version that omits inconvenient facts. The sovereignty statement in the acknowledgement is one expression of that commitment to honest civic education.
THE FLAGS
The Aboriginal Flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag.
The Foundation displays both flags as an expression of respect to all First Nations peoples of Australia — both Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander peoples, whose distinct cultures, histories, and sovereignty the Foundation recognises.
THE FOUNDATIONS COMMITMENT
This always was, always will be Aboriginal Land.
The Foundation's programs prepare young Australians for civic leadership. That preparation includes an honest account of what kind of country they are inheriting — and what it requires to lead well within it.