Comprehensive public education is essential to a framework that has the intention of eliminating the experience of racial discrimination. By educating institutions and communities about both the overt and less visible acts of racial discrimination, individuals and organisations will be able to identify and address racial discrimination when and where it would otherwise occur. — submission from Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR), NARF project, May 2021 – April 2022 Education around the history and ongoing impacts of European colonisation on First Nations peoples was viewed as fundamental in fostering this understanding. Specifically, First Nations experts cited the lack of public awareness around the violence experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities since colonisation, and the harms of this violence, including its intergenerational and ongoing effects. Experts noted that failure to acknowledge these harms perpetuates structures and institutions that reinforce these harms. Non-Indigenous community members and organisations also said that truth-telling was a necessary component of any antiracism work. Any anti-racism work must include education and information informed and designed by First Nations peoples to encompass truth telling. — submission from Jenny Leong MP, NARF project, May 2021 – April 2022 Non-Indigenous community members articulated the importance of being actively given the opportunity to connect with First Nations history and truth. For newly arrived and emerging communities in particular this was identified as a critical omission from narratives around Australian history and identity, which affected their understanding of, and relationship with, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Members of new and emerging communities and their representatives told the Commission that information on the unique experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in terms of European colonisation and its ongoing impacts, as well as the unique rights of First Nations peoples, is not easily accessible; and this often meant there is a lack of opportunity to foster understanding of and solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. For many, there hasn't been that interaction with Indigenous communities. The need for opportunities to learn the true history of Australia. That’s the first priority in creating a foundation. An opportunity to actively teach this - it's not a good history but that shouldn’t stop it from being taught. We need to be open and honest about the history. Reconciliation can’t happen unless we acknowledge peoples' experience… the importance of First Nations needs to come first not just in the framework development but also within everyday life. — community consultation participant, NARF project, May 2021 – April 2022 National Anti-Racism Framework Scoping Report 2022 | 103