Professor Andrew Gunstone joined Victorian Aboriginal News (VAN) as Reconciliation Advisor in June 2026. A long-time collaborator of VAN Founder Uncle Charles Pakana, he is an internationally recognised authority on reconciliation, truth, justice, and Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs).
He is passionate about the importance of genuine and substantive reconciliation, which he has long argued includes addressing constitutional change, structural reform, sovereignty, self-determination, Indigenous rights, reparative and distributive justice, racism, and education.
He is Co-Chair of Reconciliation Victoria, Foundation Editor of the Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues (which he established in 1998), serves on several international, national, and regional advisory boards, is a sought-after public speaker, and contributes to public debates.
He provides expert advice and strategic guidance regarding reconciliation, truth, justice, and RAPs to numerous organisations, including corporates, industry, governments, academia, community, non-for-profit groups, and non-government organisations.
Over more than 30 years in higher education, he lectured, researched, and published on substantive and performative reconciliation, RAPs, reparative justice, truth, history, education, racism, white fragility, and allyship. He continues to write and research in these areas.
A nationally recognised leader in RAPs, he authored and led two Elevate RAPs, the highest level, including the first Elevate RAP in the higher education sector. He also conceived and established the inaugural National RAP Conference, now a major biennial event.
His leadership in reconciliation includes establishing Australia's only two national reconciliation centres, founding annual reconciliation lecture series at two universities, creating a university Indigenous centre, and writing the first book on the Australian reconciliation movement.
