b'to transforming your business, your sector, and ourLISTENING WORKS country? Will you lean into your leadership? Will you redouble your efforts to listen to the voices ofReconciliation is about building strong, respectful First Nations peoples? Will you tackle racism headrelationships between the broader Australian on? Will you commit to truth-telling? community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. That work was made harder by LAW FIRMS AND TRUTH TELLINGthe referendum outcome. Reconciliation Australias vision for reconciliation isBuilding respectful relationships begins with based and measured on five dimensions: historicallistening. Many RAP organisations accepted the acceptance; race relations; equality and equity; institutional integrity and unity.These five dimensions do not exist in isolation but are interrelated. Our progress as a nation is only possible as far as the least developed of these five dimensions. We know through our research that there are particular barriers facing our progress on historical acceptance and race relations. Building knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledges, rights, and histories through truth telling is a key component of historical acceptance. The legal community has an important role to play in ensuring Australians understand the structural barriers that have been embedded within the justice system that perpetuate disadvantage in First Nations communities across Australia. PIACs Towards Truth project has produced a resource for policymakers and researchers to understand the ongoing impact of Australian law and institutions on the lives ofgenerous invitation in the Uluru Statement from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Heart and supported the Yes campaign because Law firms can contribute to progress inthey had seen the positive results of listening. historical acceptance by reflectingThousands of RAP organisations have seen on their own past and presentfirsthand that listening has delivered more engagement with First Nationswelcoming workplaces, better ways of doing stakeholders and bybusiness, more diverse supply chains, and better ensuring Australiansoutcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander understand the needpeoples and the broader community. for structural andWhile a constitutionally enshrined voice is out systemic justiceof reach for now, law firms must consider how reform.to enshrine the principle of voice in their own governance practices. Leading RAP partners have robust First Nations advisory bodies and some have crafted a specific voice to the board and executive. Now is the time for those organisations who embraced the Uluru Statement from the Heart to show that they are still listening. 15'