In this Lunch & Learn, Brendan Moore and Sarah Nelson from the City of Fremantle (Walyalup) shared an honest, generous account of the City's reconciliation and truth-telling journey — from the courage to introduce One Day as an alternative to Australia Day in 2017, through to today's dedicated Truth-Telling program.

The City of Fremantle is one of only two Australian councils (alongside the City of Melbourne) with a Reconciliation Action Plan pillar dedicated specifically to Truth-Telling. The truth-telling program demonstrates that local government can be a powerful and courageous vehicle for reconciliation — not through grand gestures alone, but through sustained, First Nations-led, community-embedded practices that support genuine relationship-building over many years.

Key takeaways

• Truth-telling isn't a single conversation — it's a practice, one that starts with ourselves and reshapes the systems around us over time.
• Bold decisions — like Fremantle's 2017 move to an alternative Australia Day event — can carry real institutional risk, but also unlock deep community trust and support.
• Formal structures like Reconciliation Action Plans and Working Groups hold the mandate — but individual relationships are what actually carry the work day to day.
• You don't need to build it all yourselves: Fremantle's Backyard Truth-Telling Series exists through partnership with an organisation with the right expertise, the Centre for Stories.
• Safety in this work isn't about comfort — it's about care: welcome, food, pacing and choice of voice all shape whether people can sit in discomfort together.

• Not every community is ready for a full truth-telling process — but every person is ready for a first step.

  What participants said they'd take with them:

  "Is anyone else struck by the fact that, in an ethical and democratic society, truth-telling is not always regarded as the only acceptable course of action?"

  "deep embodied listening — taking this into daily work life, creating space and shifting focus"

"renewed resolve to keep going!"

Brendan and Sarah so beautifully expressed their commitment to this work and were candid about what this work asks of them personally — sitting with discomfort, resisting the urge to rush toward solutions, and learning to carry both the "spreadsheets" and the "cup of tea."

One storyteller from the Backyard Truth-Telling Series put it simply: “I share this story not only for what I went through. But I share this story because I know there's a lot we can do moving forward. It's about walking hand in hand, side by side.” — Ruben Hayden Nelson

Resources and links shared on the day:

• City of Fremantle Truth-Telling Program (video, pathways, pillars and scroll down to the bottom of the page for a growing resource hub): https://www.fremantle.wa.gov.au/services-and-support/community-support/aboriginal-engagement/truth-telling-program/
• Walyalup Bidi — Fremantle's Journey (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scfrOww70B0
• Centre for Stories, partner for the Backyard Truth-Telling Series: https://centreforstories.com
• The Walyalup Oration (Thomas Mayo), recorded for ABC Big Ideas —https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/bigideas/thomas-mayo-ray-martin-building-a-better-australia/106341060
• Embodied listening - Practice loosely based on the work of The International Focusing Institute - https://focusing.org/

You can also see the presentation here: