Guiding principles

Truth-telling is political praxis. It is a collective act of resistance to denial and erasure. The Forum will facilitate public hearings and support community-led efforts to build and share knowledge.

Reparation is transformation. It requires the redistribution of resources and power, alongside recognition of the harms that continue into the present. It may involve the return of land, the repatriation of ancestors, the revitalisation of language, or the abolition of institutions that carry colonial logic forward. Apology and compensation are necessary, but they are not enough on their own.

Cognitive justice requires knowledge production to be grounded in lived experience and led by those historically silenced. The archive belongs to the people who contributed to it. Oral testimony, song, dance, and silence stand alongside the written record as legitimate forms of evidence.

Solidarity and autonomy must operate together. Participating communities act locally and on their own terms while remaining connected through shared ethics and mutual accountability. No community speaks for another, and every community must be heard.

Care, consent, and reciprocity govern the Forum’s work. Process matters as much as outcome, so the Forum must model the world it seeks to build. Witnesses retain control over their testimony. Communities decide how their stories are used and who may access them. Any use must remain consistent with the purpose for which consent was given.

Transnational imagination is essential to this work. The struggle against empire crosses borders and connects lands, waters, and peoples. A child removed from her family in Arnhem Land; a young man enslaved and trafficked from West Afrika to the Caribbean; a labourer brought from Bihar to Fiji under indenture; a farmer displaced in Kenya to make room for a settler; and a family separated by the border drawn through Ireland: these are distinct histories that reveal a shared story.