On National Sorry Day, we pause to reflect on where we have been, where we stand today, and where we are walking together, with courage, with humility, and in the spirit of Saint Mary MacKillop.
A day to remember, and to act
National Sorry Day, observed every 26 May, is a moment for all Australians to acknowledge the profound pain caused by the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, the Stolen Generations, and to honour those who continue to carry that history today.
At Mary MacKillop Today, we hold this day close. Saint Mary MacKillop herself was a woman who refused to look away from injustice. She walked alongside those who were made poor, marginalised, and forgotten. Continuing in her footsteps means showing up, not only in words, but through action.
That is the spirit behind our Reconciliation Action Plan. And on this Sorry Day, we want to share honestly where our journey has taken us.
Our Reconciliation Action Plan: progress to date
Our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) outlines our commitment to building genuine relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, creating respectful workplaces, and contributing to meaningful change in the communities we serve.
This year has brought meaningful milestones.
Our Programs team travelled to Broome for the community screening of a new documentary centred on the Yawardani Jan-ga Equine Assisted Learning Program, which Mary MacKillop Today proudly supports. Watching community members see themselves reflected with dignity, strength, and joy on screen, was a powerful reminder of what reconciliation can look like in practice.
Our First Nations Scholarship Program continues to walk alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students pursuing tertiary education, students carrying both their own aspirations and the hopes of their families and communities. Their courage and determination remind us every day of why this work matters.
And this week, something quietly powerful is taking place in our Sydney office.
Weaving our Shared Story: Cassandra Gibbs and a painting made together
Earlier this year, our team participated in the creation of a collaborative artwork with Cassandra Gibbs, a proud First Nations artist. The process was simple in form, but deep in meaning: team members added their handprints to the canvas, each one a representing presence, commitment, and solidarity.
This week, Cassandra will bring the completed artwork to our office. It will hang on our wall as a permanent reminder of this moment in our journey, and team members will reflect on what the experience meant to them.
The painting is not simply decoration. It is a promise, a visible reminder that reconciliation is not a destination, but something we commit to practise every day.
Healing through horses: the Equine Assisted Learning Program
One of the programs we are most proud to support is the Yawardani Jan-ga Equine Assisted Learning Program, developed by Professor Juli Coffin. Based in in the Kimberley, the program works with young Aboriginal people, using the unique and honest relationship between horses and humans to support healing, connection, and wellbeing.
More than 3,500 young people have participated in the program. For many, it has offered something no clinical service or classroom intervention could: a safe, culturally grounded space to feel what they feel and be met without judgement by a horse responding honestly to who they are in that moment.
Sean O’Reilly, the filmmaker behind a new documentary telling this story, describes how this program differs from the forms of therapy many people are familiar with:
“If you’re going out and hanging out with some horses, that’s cool. That’s a cool thing to do. There’s no prescriptions, there’s no big words around it. But what you’re doing is having an opportunity to simply connect with how you’re feeling and learn how you’re feeling. Because sometimes you just don’t even know how you’re feeling. And horses show you.”
Filmed across more than 100 days in the Kimberley, the documentary follows the real stories of young people in the program. It features Auntie Di Appleby, a Yawuru elder whose wisdom around Country, nature, and healing anchors the story. It is the kind of film that stays with you long after the credits roll.
What makes this program distinctive, and what the film captures so beautifully, is that it is a locally led, culturally grounded solution created by people who know the community deeply. As Sean reflects:
“This film is about a solution created by a community of people that know the issue – and know the solution – better than anyone else would propose to know it.”
Our programs team attended the community screening in Broome, and we were moved by the warmth and pride that they held. We are honoured to be walking alongside this work.
Our First Nations Scholarship Programme: standing alongside the next generation
Across Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students pursuing tertiary education often face barriers many Australians never have to consider: distance from family and Country, financial pressure, and systems not designed with them in mind.
Cameron, has chosen a University Course in Paralegal Studies. A proud Aboriginal man from the Jaru and Kija peoples in the Kimberley, Cameron spent his teenage years working on the cattle stations. Reflecting on his journey, Cameron shared, “I never imaged tertiary education for myself. Where I grew up these sorts of things are not meant for people like me. That was not what we were brought up to believe.”
Now a father, Cameron is passionate about, “unbogging a cluttered legal system”. He has spent the last five and a half years working in prisons as a Program Officer with the Department of Justice and seeing firsthand where change is needed and wants to become a bridge between the courts and his community.
Speaking about the challenges he faces, Cameron explained: “The cost of living in the Kimberley is astronomical, I live two and a half hours north of Broome, you have to rely on unreliable technology and also there is the challenge with timings, as the on-line classes are timed with the Universities in NSW.
These are exactly the kinds of barriers, our First Nations Scholarship Program is designed to help address, practical, structural, and geographical barriers that too often stand in the way of opportunity. It exists to walk alongside students through those barriers, offering not just financial support, but genuine connection and encouragement.
“I feel men need more responsibility to try and do something with the issues up here at the moment”, Cameron continued, “and I want to be part of the solution.”
The students we support are not recipients of charity. They are trailblazers, daughters and sons, and mothers and fathers, from communities that have endured unimaginable loss and continue to thrive. Their success is a shared success.
Where we go from here
Reconciliation is not a statement. It is a practice that is repeated, sustained, and honest about its own shortcomings.
We are proud of the progress we have made., and clear-eyed about the work that remains. Our RAP is a living commitment, not a finished document. We will continue to listen, learn, and show up in ways that are genuinely useful, not simply well-intentioned.
On National Sorry Day, we say: “We remember. We are sorry. And we are walking alongside, in the spirit of Mary MacKillop, practical, compassionate, and unafraid.
To support our programs you can donate here today.
