National Reconciliation Week is a time for Australians to reflect on our shared history and to recommit to building respectful relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This year’s theme, “All In”, is a call for every Australian to take meaningful action towards reconciliation and to recognise that lasting change requires a collective effort.

For Diabetes Australia, reconciliation is central to improving health outcomes and addressing inequities faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This week is not only a moment for reflection, but also a reminder of the ongoing responsibility to listen, learn and act in partnership.

The need for action is clear. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are experiencing the world’s highest rates of youth onset type 2 diabetes. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes among young people aged 15 to 24 has doubled between 2019 and 2024. Overall, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are also almost four times more likely than non Indigenous Australians to live with diabetes or pre diabetes. These disparities are reflected across the health system, with diagnosis rates around three times higher and hospitalisation rates up to five times higher than for non-Indigenous Australians.

Addressing these inequities cannot occur in isolation from reconciliation. Diabetes Australia acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of this country and recognises that improving health outcomes requires long term partnerships and culturally safe care. Reconciliation provides the framework for this work, ensuring that solutions are shaped with, and led by, communities.

A key step in this journey is Diabetes Australia’s Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), which sets the foundation for and embeds reconciliation across the organisation’s work and culture.

RAPs are designed to create practical and measurable change, and today more than 5.9 million Australians work or study in organisations with a RAP, demonstrating the growing national commitment to reconciliation.

Diabetes Australia’s Reflect RAP focuses on building organisational capability, strengthening partnerships and embedding accountability. That includes integrating reconciliation goals into business planning, improving reporting and tracking of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation within the workforce and membership, and developing policies that support equity and inclusion.

Building cultural capability is also a key focus. Staff education, recognition of NAIDOC Week, Coming of the Light, Sorry Day and Close the Gap Day, as well as ongoing engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and leaders are helping to deepen understanding and strengthen respectful partnerships.

Membership with Reconciliation QLD and Reconciliation NSW is another important step, enabling Diabetes Australia to collaborate, learn and take practical action alongside others committed to reconciliation. These partnerships help ensure that efforts are informed, respectful and responsive to community needs.

Following the successful implementation of its Reflect RAP, Diabetes Australia is now progressing towards an Innovate RAP, which will focus on practical long term actions to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This next stage reflects a deepening commitment to reconciliation as an ongoing process, one that requires sustained action, accountability and collaboration.

Reconciliation is not achieved through a single initiative or moment in time. It happens person by person, community by community, through sustained, collaborative effort. National Reconciliation Week runs from 27 May to 3 June each year, marking significant milestones in Australia’s history including the 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision.

The 2026 theme, “All In”, reminds us that reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australians if we are to move forward together. Reconciliation will not happen by itself, and it will not happen without all of us.