This page contains:
- About the Walk for Truth
- Public sections of the walk
- How can Catholic parishes, schools and social services get involved?
- A prayer for the walk
- A blurb for your parish bulletin
Building on CSSV’s engagement with the Yoorrook Justice Commission and reconciliation more broadly, we invite you to join us in supporting the National Walk For Truth. You can read our statement of support for the Walk at the link below.
In 2025, more than 22,000 people joined the Victorian Walk for Truth at the conclusion of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Victoria’s first formal truth-telling process, and the first in Australia.
Beginning in Melbourne on 19 April 2026 and concluding in Canberra on 27 May 2026, the National Walk For Truth is calling for a national truth-telling process, following the success of the Yoorrook Justice Commission. With Catholic social services, schools and parishes operating all along the walk route, let’s organise our communities to show up!
Get involved by registering to join the Walk and signing the open letter to the Prime Minister. More information about joining the walk can be found below.
About the Walk
On Sunday 19 April, Travis Lovett, a Kerrupmara/Gunditjmara man who served as Deputy Chair and Commissioner for the Yoorrook Justice Commission, will begin the National Walk for Truth from the Steps of Victoria’s Parliament House.
This journey aims to bring Australians together to walk toward truth, celebrate the strength and resistance of First Nations Peoples, and be proud to have the oldest living culture in the world.
As the nation’s first formal truth-telling process, over the past four years, Yoorrook heard powerful truths from people right across the Victoria, giving evidence on the impacts of colonisation, including systemic injustice, as well as the strength, resistance and achievements of First Peoples. These truths formed the basis of Yoorrook’s final reports, documenting the past and providing a roadmap to transform the future.
The National Walk is a passing of the torch of truth from Victoria to the Federal Government. Upon arriving in Canberra, Travis Lovett will present Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with a letter, signed by community members, calling for a National Truth-telling process.
Community members can take part in public legs of the walk. Events will also be held along the way.
More information about each leg of the walk and community events is available at the link below.
How can parishes, schools and Catholic social services get involved?
If your parish or service is located along the route of the Walk, we encourage you to get a group together and register to walk in a local leg!
Any promotional support you can provide is appreciated. Posters are available to print and share. We encourage you to post this blurb in your Parish Bulletin.
Prayer for the Walk for Truth
We encourage you to use and share this prayer, written by Catholic Education Sandhurst Limited.
Creator Spirit,
We come together in this moment of prayer, walking in our hearts for truth, for justice, and for healing.
We give thanks for the First Peoples of this land, for their strength, their culture, their stories, and for the truth they continue to carry and share.
We acknowledge the pain of the past, the silence that has too often covered truth, and the courage it takes to walk forward together.
As people across this country walk for truth, we stand beside them in spirit.
Even when we cannot walk the path ourselves, we walk in solidarity, step by step, towards a future built on honesty, respect, and justice.
Help us to listen deeply, to learn bravely, to speak truthfully, and to act with courage and kindness.
May this walk remind us that truth is not always easy, but it is always necessary.
May it lead us towards healing, understanding, hope, and unity.
May we walk together in truth, towards a better future for all.
And together we say:
May we all stand tall, stand firm, grounded in truth, together as one.
Amen
Parish Bulletin Blurb
Truth-telling is fundamental to reconciliation and justice, and links well with the ongoing work of Catholic schools, hospitals, parishes and social services in pursuit of reconciliation, and what has been encouraged by Church leadership at the national level — the Plenary Council decrees, the Australian Bishops’ 2023-2024 statement Learn Listen Love, and NATSICC’s endorsement of the Uluru Statement From the Heart. The bishops, in Listen Learn Love, acknowledged the need for injustices to be recognised, and for deep listening and change, urging ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples need to be welcomed from the margins into the centre so that they can lead the discussions about change and implementation of actions to bring about healing and justice’. We encourage your parish to join the National Walk for Truth to demonstrate support for truth-telling and in solidarity for a healed and reconciled country. Find out more by scanning the QR code below.
