Canberra's first Reconciliation Day will fall on Monday, May 28, 2018, 51 years after the historic referendum that amended the constitution to allow the Federal Government to pass laws relating to indigenous Australians.

The historic vote, supported by more than 90 per cent of the electorate, paved the way for the inclusion of Aboriginal people in the census and the abolition of racist and segregationist laws that had been passed by many Australian states.

Canberra's decision comes as the debate over whether or not Australia Day, which is currently celebrated on January 26, should be moved to a less controversial date.

January 26 marks the anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney in 1788. Indigenous Australians have been observing the same date as "The Day of Mourning" since 1938.

It is seen as an annual reminder of invasion, dispossession and genocide at the hands of European colonists who claimed to have discovered an unoccupied country that belonged to nobody; certainly not to the estimated 750,000 indigenous people living here at the time.

National recognition of January 26 as Australia's national day only dates back to 1935 when the nearest weekend became a long weekend.

January 26 itself was not celebrated as an immovable national public holiday until 1994.

While the jury is still out on whether or not the ACT will move to change the date of its own Australia Day celebrations in the future that possibility should not be overlooked.

Greens MLA, Shane Rattenbury, has already flagged he would be open to discussing such a move.

While there are doubtless many people in the community who will be quick to write Thursday's historic decision off as a piece of ideologically motivated tokenism that will do little or nothing to improve conditions for the indigenous community, symbolism has its place too.

No, this is not a treaty. But it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Canberra's first Reconciliation Day will mark the beginning of Reconciliation Week, an initiative that has laboured to gain traction thanks to a lack of public awareness for many years.

Kicking it off with a long weekend that replaces one based on the rather nebulous proposition we deserved a day off simply by virtue of having a job or going to school in the ACT will change this.

The challenge is for the indigenous community, working in conjunction with their many supporters and the ACT Government, to develop a program of activities designed to engage and educate the broader public on the many issues they face and on the unfinished business dating back to 1788 and even before.

It is equally important Canberrans rally behind the event.