Travis Lovett arrives with family at Parliament at the end of the National Walk for Truth.
Photos: Laura Brearley and Terry Melvin
Photos: Laura Brearley and Terry Melvin
By Laura Brearley
A FEW weeks ago, Terry and I took a road trip to Canberra, to join the last day of the National Walk for Truth 2026, as it arrived at Parliament House. The walk was led by Travis Lovett, a Kerrupmara/Gunditjmara man, who served in Victoria as deputy chair and commissioner of the truth-telling inquiry, the Yoorrook Justice Commission.
A FEW weeks ago, Terry and I took a road trip to Canberra, to join the last day of the National Walk for Truth 2026, as it arrived at Parliament House. The walk was led by Travis Lovett, a Kerrupmara/Gunditjmara man, who served in Victoria as deputy chair and commissioner of the truth-telling inquiry, the Yoorrook Justice Commission.
Many thousands of people took part in the Walk for Truth, which had begun five weeks earlier on the steps of Parliament House in Naarm, Melbourne. On the 905-kilometre journey, Travis Lovett carried with him a message for the prime minister, written on a kangaroo skin, which called for truth-telling, healing, and meaningful change for First Nations people. He also carried message sticks given to him along the way by Traditional Custodians of Aboriginal countries through which he and his walking companions had passed.
When Terry and I arrived at Reconciliation Place on May 27, a large crowd was gathering. It was a crisp Canberra morning, and an atmosphere of expectation and celebration filled the air. People we had never met before felt like friends and fellow travellers, and we talked freely with each other.
When Terry and I arrived at Reconciliation Place on May 27, a large crowd was gathering. It was a crisp Canberra morning, and an atmosphere of expectation and celebration filled the air. People we had never met before felt like friends and fellow travellers, and we talked freely with each other.
As I stood in line for a hot drink, I saw that Kon Karapanagiotidis, the CEO of the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, was in front of me. The topic of conversation was politics, division and hope. Engaged in this conversation was a woman called Nicola Reynolds, who became a friend that day. Nicola is a member of the Darebin Reconciliation Group, also known as Darebin Solidarity with First Peoples. She had heard Kon speaking on the radio earlier that week, and told him that his capacity to be hopeful in these divided times had moved her to tears.
That layering of complex feelings permeated my experience of the whole day in Canberra. I felt tears welling up in my eyes several times. The determination and stamina behind the walk, and the long wait for truth-telling, went to the heart of the matter. My tears came with the recognition of the necessity and the poignancy of holding hope and suffering together. To me, that paradox is the essence of the truth-telling process, and the courage and generosity it requires from everyone.
That layering of complex feelings permeated my experience of the whole day in Canberra. I felt tears welling up in my eyes several times. The determination and stamina behind the walk, and the long wait for truth-telling, went to the heart of the matter. My tears came with the recognition of the necessity and the poignancy of holding hope and suffering together. To me, that paradox is the essence of the truth-telling process, and the courage and generosity it requires from everyone.
One of the people I spent time with that day was Gayle McHarg, the co-chair of the Bass Coast/South Gippsland Reconciliation Group. Here are some words that Gayle has shared with me about her experience of that day:
‘I’m so glad I decided to go to Canberra to do the last leg of Travis Lovett’s Walk for Truth, ending at Parliament House. It felt like a significant moment in history when hundreds of us set off after hearing some inspiring words from First Nations leaders and participating in a Smoking Ceremony. Then, as Travis led us right up to the forecourt of Parliament House, it was wonderful to see at least 20 politicians, including our Prime Minister, come down to the forecourt and join the walkers to witness Travis handing the Kangaroo Skin petition he had carried with him from Melbourne to Anthony Albanese. It was a very special moment, and I felt that by doing this walk, Travis and his family (and the many others who joined them along the way) may have finally succeeded in putting truth-telling on our country’s agenda.’
After the walk, we shared lunch inside Parliament House, sitting with people we’d met that day, who now felt like friends. Afterwards, we sat together in the public gallery and witnessed question time. The only time when the partisan heckling between the politicians stopped was when they spoke about the Walk for Truth that had arrived at their doors.
Travis Lovett is a big man, with a big heart. His presence is strong, and so are his words. We listened to him speaking after the Smoking Ceremony, when he was surrounded by his family, Traditional Custodians, and other Elders and community leaders. We heard his words again a little later, as he spoke with the prime minister and other politicians who had come out of Parliament House to greet him and the large crowd of supporters.
‘I’m so glad I decided to go to Canberra to do the last leg of Travis Lovett’s Walk for Truth, ending at Parliament House. It felt like a significant moment in history when hundreds of us set off after hearing some inspiring words from First Nations leaders and participating in a Smoking Ceremony. Then, as Travis led us right up to the forecourt of Parliament House, it was wonderful to see at least 20 politicians, including our Prime Minister, come down to the forecourt and join the walkers to witness Travis handing the Kangaroo Skin petition he had carried with him from Melbourne to Anthony Albanese. It was a very special moment, and I felt that by doing this walk, Travis and his family (and the many others who joined them along the way) may have finally succeeded in putting truth-telling on our country’s agenda.’
After the walk, we shared lunch inside Parliament House, sitting with people we’d met that day, who now felt like friends. Afterwards, we sat together in the public gallery and witnessed question time. The only time when the partisan heckling between the politicians stopped was when they spoke about the Walk for Truth that had arrived at their doors.
Travis Lovett is a big man, with a big heart. His presence is strong, and so are his words. We listened to him speaking after the Smoking Ceremony, when he was surrounded by his family, Traditional Custodians, and other Elders and community leaders. We heard his words again a little later, as he spoke with the prime minister and other politicians who had come out of Parliament House to greet him and the large crowd of supporters.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accepts the kangaroo skin petition from Travis Lovett.
As I listened to Travis’s words, I felt their poetry and their power. It’s rare that a political speech can sound so like a song. The following day, I sent an enquiry to the generic Walk for Truth email, asking if it were possible to receive a copy of the speech. I received a reply from a woman called Renata, who I assumed was one of the many Walk for Truth volunteers, saying that the speech would be up on the Walk for Truth website the following day. I didn’t know it at the time, but Renata is Travis Lovett’s beautiful wife, who had walked with him all the way and who I’d seen by his side in Canberra, with their children.
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Since then, Renata and I have exchanged a number of emails. I sent her an unlisted link to the short film Terry made about the day, seeking permission from her and Travis for it to go public. We were delighted to hear that they were happy with it, and of course, said yes when they asked permission to share the film on Travis’s social media.
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Terry hadn’t intended to make a film that day in Canberra. But there he was, with his Canon camera, which takes both photographs and film, and he couldn’t help himself. When Travis stood with the Prime Minister and other dignitaries, Terry found himself in a prime position in the pack of press who were recording the event. “Get back, get back,” the minders kept saying to them, and Terry moved with them, but managed to maintain his spot. He was surrounded by media with high-quality cameras on their shoulders, the size of small trucks. When the batteries of his camera ran out, Terry held his nerve and switched to his mobile phone, and was able to capture the historic moment of the exchange between Travis Lovett and Anthony Albanese.
Watch Terry’s film Walk for Truth
Here are the final words of the speech Travis made in Canberra that day. They capture the essence of the truth-telling campaign, and his hopes for the country, and all its people.
“Let this be where the country turns its face toward the truth. Let this be where the long delay ends, where the old silences are no longer polished into comfort, where another generation is not asked to carry what this one was too afraid to confront. Establish a national truth-telling commission, not as charity, not as gesture, but as courage made real.
“Give this nation the chance to know itself in full light, to tend to what has been broken, and to walk on, not as strangers fenced in by fear, but as one people beneath one wide sky, diverse as the stars, and held always by this beautiful land we all call home.
“I have walked my part of the road. Now I ask this country to walk the next part with us.”
“Let this be where the country turns its face toward the truth. Let this be where the long delay ends, where the old silences are no longer polished into comfort, where another generation is not asked to carry what this one was too afraid to confront. Establish a national truth-telling commission, not as charity, not as gesture, but as courage made real.
“Give this nation the chance to know itself in full light, to tend to what has been broken, and to walk on, not as strangers fenced in by fear, but as one people beneath one wide sky, diverse as the stars, and held always by this beautiful land we all call home.
“I have walked my part of the road. Now I ask this country to walk the next part with us.”
Renata and Travis have also given their permission for us to share the photostory that I’ve made, which weaves together some of Travis’s powerful words, with images of the day we shared in Canberra, when we all walked together with purpose.