Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The statement called for a treaty and said a commission should be established to supervise the process and engage in "truth-telling about our history".

The recommendations will be delivered to Australia's political leaders, who will decide whether to hold a national referendum. Mr Pearson said he hoped the referendum could take place within the next 12 months.

'Turn around'

The summit was scheduled to coincide with the 50th anniversary of a historic vote that allowed indigenous Australians to be included in a national census.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten declined invitations to the meeting, not wanting to influence discussions.

Tasmanian delegate Michael Mansell said he hoped the process would help end indigenous disadvantage in areas such as imprisonment, employment and education.

"Hopefully in the next 10 years thingsby vote of the cabinet and two-thirds of the Congress for mental or physical incapacity) seems also to have flickered away to the dustbin for hair-raisingly absurd ideas, such as the national television campaign in November to persuade a handful of members of the Electoral College to break their pledges to vote for Trump after he had won the election.

The press-confected weekly Trump outrage has addicted half the country and bored the other half numb. It peaked at the nonsense over the temporary travel ban from terrorism-sponsoring or infected countries (when Senator Schumer purported to believe that the Statue of Liberty was weeping, like a statue of Saint Mary in western Ireland), and again after Virginias governor, Terry McAuliffe, and Charlottesvilles mayor, Michael Signer, facilitated the tag-team riot