Reconciliation TV ad featuring Deborah Mailman and Ray Martin

This clip is a television advertisement from 1999 featuring Ray Martin and Deborah Mailman talking about the concept of Reconciliation in Australia with the tagline 'We can do it. We must do it.'

In 1999, Reconciliation Australia ran a series of ads featuring Indigenous and non-Indigenous celebrities, actors and high-profile Australians, including Deborah Mailman, Rachel Ward, Matthew Swadling, Ray Martin and others.

This advertisement has an obvious 1990s look and feel. The use of green screens, bright colours, casual typeface and the stock footage montage featuring Indigenous and white Australians working together suggests a simple, low-budget production.

The focus on the sign with a symbolic fork and a long, empty road ahead is an obvious message that it's time for all Australians to get on the same path and take a journey together.

This ad was broadcast at a time when the Reconciliation movement was gaining momentum. In May 2000, an estimated 250,000 people walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the largest show of public support for Reconciliation in Australia's history.