Experts discuss how failing to confront colonial pasts is linked to present lack of progress in global health equity, why health leaders need historical educations, and how, for Indigenous peoples, it’s not just a colonial history but a colonial present. Our panel Seye Abimbola, editor of BMJ Global Health, and health systems researcher from Nigeria currently based at the University of Sydney, Australia Catherine Kyobutungi, Ugandan epidemiologist and executive director of the African Population and Health Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya Sanjoy Bhattacharya, head of the school of history and professor of medical and global health histories, University of Leeds, UK Chelsea Watego, professor of Indigenous Health at Queensland University of Technology, Australia Host - Navjoyt Ladher, clinical editor for The BMJ