Today, 26 May, is National Sorry Day.
An annual day of commemoration, acknowledgement and mourning, Sorry Day remembers ‘The Stolen Generations‘ of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were forcibly removed from their families and communities.
This year, it’s marked by First Nations groups calling for the government and wider community to move from sorry to action — while the government has announced additional funding to support survivors of the Stolen Generations.
It comes a day before National Reconciliation Week officially begins on 27 May, which this year also marks the day that the national Walk For Truth will arrive in Canberra. Read on to understand more about the significance of Sorry Day, Reconciliation Week, and the Walk For Truth.
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What is National Sorry Day?
National Sorry Day, held annually on 26 May, “remembers and acknowledges the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forcibly removed from their families and communities, which we now know as ‘The Stolen Generations,’” according to Reconciliation Australia.
The commemorative day was first established in 1998, one year to the day that the Bringing Them Home report was tabled in Parliament.
That report was the final result of the landmark National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, which took testimony from over 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the country.
Bringing Them Home presented personal testimonies as well as 83 recommendations to “support healing and reconciliation for the Stolen Generations, their families and the Australian public more broadly,” according to the Australian Human Rights Commission.
May 26 also recognises the milestone of the delivery of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Delivered by council member Megan Davis on 26 May 2017, at the conclusion of the 2017 First Nations National Constitutional Convention at Uluru, the Statement is a consensus document on constitutional recognition.
It’s described as “an invitation to the Australian people from First Nations Australians” which “asks Australians to walk together to build a better future”.
‘Sorry without action is not enough’
Nearly three decades after being established, Sorry Day remains a crucial reminder of how much work remains in the progression of reconciliation and healing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Over 90 per cent of the recommendations the Bringing Them Home report provided regarding justice, reparations, and support remain unaddressed in 2026.
As Reconciliation Australia writes, “Saying sorry matters. It acknowledges truth and signals compassion. But Sorry without action is not enough.”
“Listening to and acknowledging the full history of the Stolen Generations is essential to building understanding, respect and lasting change and turning sorry into action,” they continue.
This year, the Healing Foundation has presented From Sorry to Action as both a theme for National Sorry Day 2026 and as a plan to finally act on Bringing Them Home. According to the Healing Foundation, priority areas for moving from Sorry to Action include:
- Culturally sensitive aged care: “Most survivors are eligible for aged care but are faced with an aged care system which often re-triggers the trauma of institutionalisation.”
- Redress schemes for financial compensation: “Queensland is yet to introduce a redress scheme, and other state and territory schemes are flawed.”
- Accessing records: “Many survivors and families still don’t have access to their records which hold their stories.”
- Sustainable funding: “Stolen Generations organisations that support survivors on the ground are often either volunteer-run or receive project funding only, which doesn’t allow for the workforce and organisational investment needed to build and retain organisations, staff and expertise.”
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In a media release today, the government announced $2.6 million in additional funding to support Stolen Generations survivors.
The Healing Foundation will receive up to an additional $1 million to support its “critical work with survivors and their descendants”. One-off funding of up to $1.6 million will go to eight Link-Up service providers across the country, who also provide family tracing, reunion and counselling services.
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, said in the statement, “On this National Sorry Day, we reflect on the pain and harm caused to Stolen Generations by past policies of forced removal.”
“The Healing Foundation and Link-Up services continue to play a critical role in supporting Stolen Generations survivors and their families,” she continues. “This investment recognises that next year marks the 30th anniversary of the landmark Bringing Them Home report and will underpin a range of community-led programs to support the healing of our Stolen Generations.”
You can find events to commemorate Sorry Day near you via the Healing Foundation.
What is National Reconciliation Week?
The theme for this year’s National Reconciliation Week is ‘All In’. Artwork by Otis Hope Carey.National Reconciliation Week (NRW) falls on 27 May to 3 June every year, also commemorating landmark dates in the history of Indigenous rights in Australia. 27 May marks the day that the 1967 Referendum succeeded in recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the census, and the government being able to make laws for them. 3 June commemorates the handing down of the Mabo Decision by the High Court in 1992, which established a basis of Native Title thanks to Mer Island man Eddie Koiki Mabo overturning the legal fiction of terra nullius.
NRW began in 1993 as the “Week of Prayer for Reconciliation”, and was followed in 1996 by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation launching the first NRW. In 2000, during NRW, over 250,000 people walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge in the Walk for Reconciliation.
In 2026, the theme for NRW is “All In”, which is “a call for all Australians to commit wholeheartedly to reconciliation every single day”.
“All In makes clear that reconciliation is not a spectator sport and that all of us must step away from the sidelines and take action to make change,” says Reconciliation Australia.
“The theme also reminds us that reconciliation and advancing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights isn’t a passive activity, and it is not solely the responsibility of First Nations people, who have carried the weight of championing, explaining and acting for far too long.”
You can find a calendar of NRW events at Reconciliation Australia here.
What is the national Walk for Truth?
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This year, NRW will coincide with the national Walk for Truth’s arrival in Canberra.
The first Walk for Truth occurred last year in 2025. Travis Lovett, a Kerrupmara Gunditjmara man and former Yoorrook Justice Commissioner, walked across Victoria to mark the conclusion of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, a truth-telling Inquiry into historical and ongoing injustices against First Nations people.
On 19 April 2026, Lovett began a national Walk for Truth from Naarm/Melbourne to Canberra, set to arrive at Parliament on 27 May at the beginning of NRW. The Walk, which is open to all, has seen Lovett embrace cultural customs, like carrying message sticks between different Indigenous communities, and communicating with elders about coming onto Country with the correct protocol.
Lovett will give an open letter, burned onto kangaroo skin, to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling on him to establish a national truth-telling process. “We’re asking the prime minister to deliver on the commitments that he’s already made to not just First Peoples in this country, but all Australians when he committed to implementing the Uluru Statement from the heart in full, and truth-telling is a key pillar of that,” Lovett told ABC News.
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