Why more than 250,000 people walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge for reconciliation in May 2000

Australia Broadcast Center

27-05-2025

On a crisp Sunday morning in May 2000, a crowd of around 250,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
At the head, Elders wrapped in woollen blankets travelled in golf carts, while more and more people poured out of North Sydney and Milsons Point train stations — a continual unfurling of the crowd's serpentine body heading for Darling Harbour's Tumbalong Park.
Warning: The following contains names and images of First Nations people who have died.
That march on May 28, 2000 has become known as the 2000 Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk — an historic walk in support of reconciliation and Indigenous rights, bringing people together from all corners of Australia.
However the event was more than mere symbolism.
It was the culminating action in a weekend that started with the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation holding a ceremonial gathering at the Sydney Opera House and presenting the federal government with the Australian Declaration Towards Reconciliation and the Roadmap for Reconciliation.
And 25 years later, the ripples of this weekend continue to be felt.
So, what did it take to energise a nation into turning up in support of reconciliation with Blackfullas?
The word "reconciliation" is broadly understood today, but in the decade before the Bridge Walk it was rarely associated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. So when the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation was established by legislation in 1991 by the Hawke government with unanimous cross-party support, they had their work cut out for them.
Professor Jackie Huggins is a member of the Bidjara and Birri Gubba Juru peoples, and served two terms on the Council between 1996-2001. Speaking with ABC Radio National's Awaye!, Huggins says the Council was starting from "ground zero".
"The baseline was people didn't know about us Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our own country. They didn't know the history, they always just shoved it in the 'too hard' basket".
Bringing awareness and getting people involved in reconciliation was the first phase of the Council's plan.
"The second phase was to start documenting all those policies and programmes that the government had around Indigenous affairs … almost like an audit of what was around and what was being done," she explains.
"And then the third phase was that we would put all that we knew into a document, to display that and give it to the Australian public as our wishes. It was a bit like the Uluru Statement from the Heart."
With a tight deadline, Huggins knew she and her 24 fellow council members had their work cut out for them to deliver by 2000.
"The Council felt very under pressure in those years leading up to providing a document and a declaration for reconciliation … We knew we would never have it done in 10 years," Huggins says.
The members of the Council travelled extensively across the country, gathering information and raising awareness of their mission. Then in 1997, they faced a major test in the form of the inaugural Australian Reconciliation Convention at which the Bringing Them Home Report was handed down.
Held in Melbourne, the convention was open to the public and attracted around 2,000 people from across the country. However proceedings hit a snag during the opening address of then-prime minister John Howard.
"People [were] getting up and turning their backs because we [the Council] had a set of demands [regarding] where we'd like to take reconciliation. He was against most of it, certainly against the apology [to the Stolen Generations]," Huggins remembers.
Although the convention continued, the actions of the attendees seemed to demonstrate a significant shift in people's understanding and support of First Nations people and issues.
Veteran journalist Ray Martin also attended the convention. He had first been appointed to the Council by the Hawke government in 1991, and reappointed by the Howard government for a second term.
Reflecting back on the day, Martin is still struck by the "powerful political statement" made by those who turned their backs on the prime minister.
"I think that John Howard showed his lack of courage in not going forward on the 'Sorry' question that Kevin Rudd was able to do a couple of years later," Martin says.
Martin believes that as a lawyer and "an old-fashioned conservative" Howard was afraid that by apologising to the Stolen Generations, there would be legal action against the government and multi-billion dollar compensation claims.
"But I just think he was wrong and I think he misunderstood … He was certainly not a racist … but he was ignorant, as most Australians have been and are about Indigenous affairs," Martin explains.
As the Council's deadline approached, an ambitious plan was devised to punctuate the delivery of their work: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge together with non-Indigenous people.
"It was a great symbol, the idea of bridging the gap, which [still] hasn't been bridged, but the idea of the walk was to go from one community to another, effectively to try and fill up the gap of discrimination or disadvantage. So the bridge was a good symbol of that, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge is better than almost anywhere in terms of the symbol," explains Martin.
Along with Linda Burney, the New South Wales council representative, Martin was integral to the planning of the day. He says that for about a year it was up to the two of them to "plan and raise the money that was needed for all the ancillary staff, security, and all that sort of stuff for the walk".
When Corroboree 2000 finally arrived, state and federal government leaders came together with the Council and other First Nations people to gather at the Sydney Opera House.
Huggins says the event was "finely tuned" to ensure the moment the Council's chairperson Evelyn Scott handed the documents to Prime Minister Howard would carry the full weight of the Council's 10 years of work.
"We were very proud and relieved. [It] felt like all these 10 years had amounted to something that would be real and tangible," she says.
The following day, Huggins and many others walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
"[While walking] I thought about our ancestors and our history and where we had come to the present day, and [thanked] them for delivering such a beautiful day, even though it was a bit cool and windy," she says.
She also remembers being struck by the diverse mix of people who attended: young and old, community groups, schools and trade unions, all coming together to walk across the bridge for reconciliation. "I'd never seen a crowd like that before. Never in my entire life," she says.
"I must say that was the first time I ever felt that I was an Australian, that day in 2000 walking over the Sydney Harbour Bridge with all those other people.
"And you know, that's why I'm forever a convert and a disciple, because I saw how people's minds would change when you gave them a little bit of information and story and truth-telling — which is the big one now — and we knew that that day would lead to more truth-telling."
The Bridge Walk had a profound impact on Martin too.
"It was an extraordinary occasion … I'd say the bulk of the people who were there were people who hadn't been involved in campaigns, political campaigns of any kind before, but just felt the need, especially the last two or three years of the Council leading up to that walk. It had become very much a people's movement," Martin says.
Reflecting on Corroboree 2000 and the Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk 25 years on, Martin says it was a "really important step forward" — although one that's "still not far enough".
It's a sentiment reflected in this year's theme for National Reconciliation Week 'Bridging Now to Next' that urges people to allow lessons of the past to guide the way forward.
"As we saw with the last election, it's too easy for politicians on both sides of the fence — especially after the failure of the Voice referendum — it's too easy to say it's too hard and put it in that basket and turn away. So the end result is we had next to no discussion of Aboriginal [issues] during the [last] election," Martin explains.
For Huggins, one way forward would be to implement the recommendations put forth by the Council, along with the recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Deaths and Custody (1991), the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families (1997), and the Little Children are Sacred Report (2007).
"They're all still with us. They're still valid. And I often wonder what would have happened if they were all ticked off and implemented … and whether we would be having the wide disparity [between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people]," she explains.
"And I think the legacy of the Council was to show that we are still here. We've survived, and we will continue to do the good work, no matter how hard and difficult the situation.
"And you know what? Nobody will ever ask the question: 'Reconciliation what? Or reconciliation who?' because it's deeply in the minds of people now".