Over the past five years, we’ve been deeply engaged in understanding the role we – as a philanthropic organisation – can and should play in advancing reconciliation and challenging the systems that uphold colonial power structures across our sector. Too often, these systems entrench control, obscure truth, and stall meaningful progress – keeping power removed from the very communities most impacted. What we’ve learned is that this work demands more than intention. It requires trust, courage, and a commitment to showing up in real and grounded ways – not just in boardrooms, but alongside community.

What anchored us then, and continues to now, is the power of possibility – not as a distant hope, but as the foundation for collective work. It calls us to shift from what has been to what could be. Sharing vision and imagining new ways of working together is powerful. In those spaces, we’ve seen a different kind of power emerge – one grounded in reciprocity, in listening, and in collective strength.

It hasn’t always been easy. There have been hard conversations and uncomfortable truths. But what kept us moving forward was that shared belief in what’s possible – a future where this place is better for everyone, shaped together with the communities who know it best.

We also acknowledge that the broader reconciliation movement has been severely tested and undermined in recent years. And once again, it is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have carried the heaviest burden – absorbing the harm, the disappointment, and the cost of a nation still struggling to reckon with its truth.

This year’s theme is a call to reflect and renew. To recognise that reconciliation is not a static goal but a continual process of learning, listening, and acting with purpose. It invites all of us – individuals, organisations, and institutions – to consider the future we want to help shape. A future not of sameness, but one that honours the depth and diversity of the oldest living culture in the world and sees that as a strength for all.

For us at Fay Fuller, possibility remains the anchor – not because it is easy, but because it is essential. It holds the space for shared responsibility, for action, and for the kind of progress that can only happen when we bridge now to next – together.