The very first Garma Festival of Traditional Cultures was held in 1999, and it was very different from the high profile four-day Arnhem Land event that’s held these days. Back in 1999, just a handful of people showed up at was little more than a backyard barbeque.

Since then it’s evolved into a few other things, notably a forum on indigenous issues and policies. Academics and business leaders are regular attendees along with politicians. Attendance itself carries a high political charge. Depending on the party, an invitation to a politician can mean they’re going to be berated and criticised when they show up or they will be berated and criticised for not showing up. Peter Dutton declined his invitation this year.

Anthony Albanese, of course, faced up to the first Garma since the failure of his voice to Parliament referendum. He brought his new Minister for Indigenous Australians – Senator Malarndirri McCarthy – with him. Remarkably, after months of a post-referendum indigenous policy vacuum, these two effectively walked back Labor’s election night commitment to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart “in full”.

In addition to demanding a constitutionally enshrined indigenous voice to Parliament, the statement also demands the establishment of a “truth-telling” or “Makaratta” commission and a treaty between Australia and its indigenous citizens.

Albo is not a babe in the political wilderness, and like many experienced politicians, he knows how to read the room. The devastating defeat of his voice to Parliament sent a clear signal there is nowhere near enough support in Australia for yet more racial division in the form of a “truth-telling” commission rewriting objective history to maximise financial settlements put in a treaty. Albo knows he can’t implement the rest of the statement—or even commit to it – and save the votes he needs to hold onto power.

So he’s walked it all back. In a now-typical feat of linguistic gymnastics – worth at least a bronze medal in Paris – he basically backflipped on his promise to establish a “Makaratta” commission by redefining what it was.

As opposition leader in 2021, he explicitly described what a commission would be: a “…Makaratta commission, which would oversee a national process of truth-telling, agreement and treaty making. As a priority Labor will establish a Makaratta commission with responsibility for truth-telling and treaty. It will be established through a process of open nominations and review. The commission will facilitate local truth-telling and advise on a national framework for treaty making, and it will work with a voice to Parliament. This is how we can go forward. Until promises are transformed into reality, a production line of announcements and re-announcements amounts to nothing more than building a mirage.”

At the Garma event on Saturday, however, he said that a federal body to oversee truth and treaty was “not what we have proposed,” and he told the ABC’s Insiders programme: "And w with regard to Makaratta, a Yolngu word that simply means a coming together after struggle, I’m somewhat perplexed at why people see that as being complex…”.

‘Perplexed’ more accurately describes the confusion he created at Garma among indigenous activists like leading voice campaigner Pat Anderson, who asked if he was rolling back Labor’s commitment and said: “…we understand that a constitutional voice didn’t get up, but the Australian people didn’t vote on truth or treaty.”

It’s a line that’s been trotted out many times since the voice referendum failed but unlike Pat Anderson, Albo understands that the rejection of the voice has thrown a giant monkey wrench into the plan to implement the Uluru Statement. The promise he made in the euphoria of an election win has dissolved in the face of reality: Australians overwhelmingly do not support this idea.

Ultimately, it’s good news for Australians who support equal rights for all and special rights for none. Indigenous activists will continue to behave as if their grand plan for “voice, truth and treaty” will be realised and the failure of the referendum never happened but with a Federal election coming in the next nine months, harsh political reality has forced Labor to back out.