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Travis Lovett’s kangaroo skin cloak bears the words, “Truth is not about blame, it’s about healing”. It’s a message that will be delivered to Anthony Albanese via a slow, 38-day walk from Melbourne to Parliament House in Canberra, and a reminder of the importance of facing uncomfortable truths.

Lovett, a Kerrupmara Gunditjmara man, served as a commissioner and co-chair on the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the country’s first formal, Indigenous-led truth-telling inquiry. He completed the first stage of his walk for truth in May last year, when he trekked 486km from Portland in Victoria’s south-west, on Gunditjmara country, to the steps of state parliament in Melbourne.

On Sunday he will set off again, carrying message sticks and visiting sites of deep cultural and historical significance along the 500km journey from the steps of the Victorian parliament to the lawns of the Australian parliament.

Before departing, Lovett says he sent letters to “every federal politician in the country” on “all sides” of parliament – including the prime minister – inviting them to meet and walk alongside him. Ten replied to say they will walk with him and two declined – the rest have yet to respond.

The aim of the walk is to bring about a national discussion on truth-telling, a subject Lovett says is often misunderstood by the wider public. The aim is not to “name and blame everyday Australians”, he says, but to invite them on a path of healing.

“We’ve heard it all before, the: ‘why do I gotta say sorry to your people, I did nothing wrong’. That’s true. That is absolutely true,” Lovett says. “But we don’t walk for you, we walk because we need the institutions to be accountable for the institutional harm that they have caused our people.

“We are walking for a national truth-telling process, not a new election commitment ... This is not just for our people, but for all Australians.”

Establishing a national truth-telling process was one of three asks of the Uluru statement from the heart in 2017, which the Albanese government committed to implement. The voice to parliament, which failed at referendum in 2023, was just one part.

“He also said in the last election win [in 2025] a really important point,” Lovett says. He said ‘nobody left behind’. We are being left behind.”

The latest report on Closing the Gap shows only four of the 19 targets are on track. Rates of suicide, incarceration, and child removal are increasing.

Progress on a national truth-telling body has been quietly shelved in the wake of the failed referendum. Asked by Guardian Australia if the government had abandoned the truth and treaty elements of the Uluru statement, a spokesperson for Albanese says it is “important Australians have a deeper understanding of our shared history” and that the prime minister supported work being done at a state and territory level.

“The Albanese government supports the work being done in jurisdictions like Victoria which has signed Australia’s first treaty, following the significant work of the Yoorrook Justice Commission,” they say. “Truth-telling is taking place across the country in community-led projects.”

They noted that the federal minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, met with Lovett during his walk for truth last year, and said the government “acknowledges the important work he did as a Yoorrook Commissioner”.

The leader of the Australian Greens, Larissa Waters, says Lovett’s campaign is an opportunity for the Albanese government to reconsider establishing a truth-telling process.

“We’ve seen the federal government walk back its commitment to a makarrata commission,” she says. “This walk for truth is a call to reconsider, and to acknowledge that truth-telling is at the heart of reconciliation and justice.”

Waters plans to join Lovett on the last leg of his walk as he heads into Canberra.

“This is an opportunity to walk with First Nations people and hear their stories about connection to the land and their experiences since colonisation,” she says. “Some of these stories are difficult and some are beautiful, but we have a responsibility to acknowledge the truths of Australia’s past.”

Independent senator for the ACT, David Pocock, also plans to meet with Lovett, saying that the walk is a “powerful way to bring attention back to the truth-telling and reconciliation that we need to do as a country”.

“While the referendum’s outcome was deeply disappointing for many Australians, particularly First Nations Australians, the result was a vote against the proposed constitutional changes, not a vote against reconciliation,” he says.