Australia is the only Commonwealth country that has not signed an official treaty with its Indigenous peoples. It is not surprising then that a treaty between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians has been cited as a goal of the reconciliation process by bodies including the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Unfortunately, there has been little academic examination of the merits or content of a treaty, or of how a treaty might be accommodated within Australia's constitutional structure. With the benefit of comparative analysis, this project will provide a scholarly investigation of the role that a treaty could play under Australian law.

As part of the Treaty Project the Centre co-hosted a national forum called Indigenous Health and the Treaty Debate: Rights, Governance & Responsibility. Papers and other information relating to the event can be found here. A video and audio webcast is available here.

The Centre's Treaty project has published a series of Issues Papers dealing with important issues. For further reading on the Treaty Project, refer to Treaty Resources page.

The Australian Research Council has awarded the Centre and its partners funding for this project: This project is also supported by funding from the Myer Foundation.

This project came to an end on 31 May 2005.