By Jed Lanyon
The Victorian Government has announced the establishment of the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission as the nation’s first truth-telling process into injustices experienced by Aboriginal people since colonisation.
Deputy Premier James Merlino made the announcement alongside the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Gabrielle Williams and representatives of the First People’s Assembly of Victoria, Marcus Stewart and Aunty Geraldine Atkinson at Coranderrk near Healesville on 9 March.
The commission will investigate both historical and ongoing injustices committed against Aboriginal Victorians across all areas of social, political and economic life by engaging Victoria’s Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community to achieve its aims of truth telling and truth listening.
“It’s amazing to be on Coranderrk with such significant aboriginal history,” said Mr Stewart, a Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung people
“Today, words kind of escape me with how we describe what this means. It’s historic, It’s significant but I think it’s a true testament of the decades of advocacy, the generations of activism of our community.”
Mr Stewart said the joint announcement marked the “start of the process of healing”.
“We ask our fellow Victorians to stand with us as we take this path towards healing and then we’ll ask that they walk on this journey side-by-side with us as we step forward with our journey towards treaty.”
Aunty Geraldine shared the injustices experienced by her family, events she described as “traumatic memories”.
“I thought of my mother, who read 14 children, plus numerous grandchildren, who lived their lives in tin shacks with dirt floors, who struggled to keep her family from being taken away and stolen.
“My brother was taken to jail for stealing a bottle of milk. A bottle of milk. We lived on a reserve and he used to pass houses where, you know, the milkie would leave out bottles and he was sentenced to jail for that.”
Oonah CEO Anne Jenkins said she hopes the commission will bring unity and help non-Aboriginal Victorians understand what Aboriginal Victorians have gone through.
“It’s really important for the truth to be told and for everybody to know the stories and have the same understanding,” she said. “Hopefully it will be a good opportunity for everybody to move forward.
“Healesville has a really rich Aboriginal history going back to Coranderrk, so it’s really great that the announcement could happen out there, not just for Melbourne but for Victoria. Coranderrk has that very rich and deep history for the Victorian community.”
Mr Merlino said that expressions of interest would be taken in the coming months to appoint five commissioners and that the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission would have all the powers of a royal commission.
“This is long overdue. It’s an acknowledgement that the pain in our past is present in the lives of people right now,” he said.
“It’s a recognition that without truth, without justice, you can’t have a treaty. You can’t take that incredibly powerful step forward until we go through this process of truth and justice.”
Mr Merlino said that while a truth and justice commission will be a first for Australia, 30 other nations have gone through a similar process including Canada, South Africa and New Zealand.
“This is something that has been happening around the world… This is an important, an historic path that we must all go through.”
“We cannot ask Aboriginal Victorians or our community as a whole to move forward until we have acknowledged and reconciled with a painful past and the impacts of that past to this very day,” Ms Williams said.
“We know that Aboriginal people are over-represented in school absenteeism, in incarceration rates, in poor life expectancy. We know that all of that needs to be looked at holistically.”
