Legislative reforms, redress among Yoorrook recommendations

First Peoples’ Assembly co-chair and proud Gunditjmara man Rueben Berg said the final report has shown a clear need for change.

“Truth and treaty go hand in hand – treaty will acknowledge our shared history and be an agreement between First Peoples and the Victorian government on how we move forward to help right past wrongs,” Berg said in a statement.

“Victorians know that we can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. When it comes to issues facing First Peoples, we need a different approach, one that draws on the expertise of First Peoples to design and deliver practical solutions to local challenges – that’s what treaty is all about.”

Held over four years, the commission heard the injustices of First Peoples continued to be an “ongoing, everyday reality”, and systemic racism, as well as individual racist attitudes, “lies at the heart”.

The Yoorrook for Transformation report added that First Peoples have been locked out of building intergenerational wealth from lands, water and resources, while the state, churches and private landowners continued to profit “from the atrocities of dispossession”.

Further, mass killings, disease, sexual violence, exclusion, linguicide, cultural erasure, environmental degradation, child removal, absorption and assimilation from 1834 have brought about the “near-complete physical destruction of First Peoples in Victoria”.

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The decimation of the First Peoples population by 1901 was the result of a “coordinated plan of different actions aimed at the destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups”.

“This was genocide,” the commission said.

The second-to-last recommendation urged the Victorian government to acknowledge the responsibility of its predecessors in law, policies and practices that contributed to systemic injustices.

The 100th recommended that the government provide redress for injustice that occurred during and as a result of colonial invasion and occupation of First Peoples’ territories “and all consequent damage and loss, including economic and non-economic loss for genocide, crimes against humanity and denial of freedoms”.

The redress should take the form of restitution of traditional lands, waters and natural resources ownership rights to First Peoples, monetary compensation, tax relief, and other financial benefits as may be requested by the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.

Other recommendations include the funding of a First Peoples’ Assembly to establish an ongoing truth-telling body, the transfer of decision-making power to First Peoples, and reverse burden of proof for connection to country so the state would be required to disprove the asserted connection, rather than traditional owners proving it.

Yoorrook also suggested the government implement reforms to strengthen the recognition and protection of intangible heritage under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 and enact reforms so that extinguishment of native title is not necessarily permanent but may be revived once the extinguishing interest has ended.

The First Peoples’ Assembly is currently negotiating the first Statewide Treaty agreement with the Victorian government.

Berg said the negotiations have focused on First Peoples’ ongoing representation in Victoria and mechanisms to keep the government accountable to positive outcomes for First Peoples.

“While Yoorrook has wrapped up, truth-telling is an ongoing process, and our negotiations have also included how the assembly will make sure our peoples can continue to have our truths heard, recorded and shared,” Berg said.

Assembly co-chair and proud Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, Dhudhuroa and Dja Dja Wurrung woman Ngarra Murray said the last four years have been part of an important healing process.

“Yoorrook has woven the threads of individual First Peoples’ experiences together into a rich account of our collective history and, for the first time, many non-Aboriginal Victorians would have learnt this shared history because of Yoorrook,” Murray said.

Premier Jacinta Allan thanked the commission for the reports and said the government acknowledges the immense undertaking.

The government will now review the findings and recommendations.

“Victoria’s truth-telling process is a history opportunity to hear the stories of our past that have been buried – these are stories that all Victorians need to hear,” Allan said.