‘We’re always going to fight’: Victoria’s groundbreaking path to Treaty

A warning for Abergin Ontario Straight Islander listeners. The following episode contains voices of deceased First Nations people.

It may be that this county had become the most valuable acquisition Written has ever made.

It's been a long call for treaty and truth telling, especially here in Victoria.

And with the preperation of everyone here assemble to render this settlement advantageous and honorable to our homeland written.

The fight really did start with the ancestors and the current deputation to the Parliament.

My grandfather was part of that.

It went all the way through to the day a morning where my grandfather, SADG. Nichols, was marching in the streets of Sydney.

And I want to suggest three things why you should bother about the Aborigines. Firstly, we belong to a great family of God and he had made out of one blood all nations of men.

And then the nineteen sixty seven referendum.

We want to become a part of it our country with becoming referendum.

This should give us some power if we get yes.

My grandfather Short Murray, he wrote a letter to the Premiere in nineteen eighty eight calling for treaty and compensation. So we carry that legacy that's in our blood. You can't escape it, but we can make sure that treaties will be in our future and that will change our future and our kids to come.

From sports media, I'm Daniel James. This is seven AM. Change in the First Nation's affairs is often glacial in its pace, and in the aftermath of the resounding defeat of last year's referendum on the Voice to Parliament, political will for progress is scarce, with some states walking away from their planned treaty processes trying to capitalize on the

Today. Co Chair of the First People's Assembly of Victoria and Gara Murray on how they reached this point and how the process of truth and treaty in Victoria can be instructive for the rest of the country. It's Monday, August twenty sixth in Ghara. After decades of calling for treaties from First People's in Victoria, now the First People's Assembly of Victoria is at the point where negotiations on

Yeah, So we are independent.

We are a democratically elected body, got really our law and cultural authority out the core of who we are and the way we govern.

This meeting today signifies our intention to reclaim our rightful position as protectors of country and disrupt the current dominant structures.

We're a big mob.

So when we roll who kind of rolled together and we're thirty three members now we were thirty two. We've got an extra seat on for the Wambawamba people, so we're thirty three members. We have four Assembly chambers a year, so we're out in the communities. We're heading up to Swan Hill for our next chamber and we've worked really hard to build consensus and collective support across our communities.

We will not be rushed. We have survived. We will never be assimilated. We need genocide to end, sovereignty acknowledged, and treaties to be made and.

Main objective is to negotiate the statewide treaty. So we've got two.

Pieces of law in this state that binds us to treaty making with the state, and there's been a number of steps to get to this point.

History has been made in Victoria with the state's Indigenous representative body formally declaring it's ready to begin negotiations with the government on a statewide treaty.

So we will commence treaty negotiations around November. It's an exciting time for first people's in Victoria. It's a big job and it's a big responsibility and something that we take seriously. But we also carry that burden as well.

And you know, we.

Feel the gravity of our mob because it is something that we have never done before.

And when we ask for treaty, what do we mean by that in practical terms? What are some of the practical outcomes we're looking for when it comes to treaty with the crown through the state government.

Yeah, I think firstly, you know, what we're calling for through treaty is around the recognition and respect that as the first, people's obvious land that we're calling for around our sovereignty, our inherent rights responsibilities that have never been seeded. So I think that is a fundamental piece to our identity and our place in this nation. Secondly, I think that a key component of treaties, in particular with the local true showners, must address land rights, and restoring and

That's really the lifeblood.

Of our identity, so there's got to be investment in that, and it should also support I think, educational programs that teach our histories, not only just within our own communities but across the country. So there's a number of things. There's many things that people have and obviously there'll be

You started out this process with bipartisan support in Victoria, but at the beginning of the year John Pursudo, the leader of the Opposition, and his coalition partner Peter Walsh, leader of the Nationals, walked away from their support for treaty.

I can understand why people see the appeal of treaty, but unless you can deliver better education, better justice, better child protection outcomes for Indigenous people, it doesn't matter what document you might sign.

Despite giving the First People's Assembly assurances as late as December of last year, the decision to pull their support came on the back of the referendum result an outcome. We're sure a swaths of leaders on the every side of politics walk away from their support for Truth and Treaty across the country, seeking to capitalize on the public mood. How did it feel when they made that announcement.

Yeah, it was disappointing.

I think at the time like we just had to keep moving because there's so much work that's been put into it, and we'll always have our door open. We're still meet with all sides of politics, and I think, you know, at the federal level there's been discussions too around what's next, and I think the federal government, after spending so much political capital on the Voice a referendum, it seems, are not really willing to spend anymore and they're obviously, you know, reassessing their approach.

And their commitment to the Lary's statement from the heart.

But what gives me confidence is that there are state and territory and initiatives that are happening across the country. So you've got states like Queensland, they've now got their treaty and truth telling process in place. South Australian mob got the Voice. So it can be really disheartened by some of these politicians.

But at the end of the day, we're always going to be here.

I'll always fight for what is right, and I'll always fight for justice for our people and long overdue recognition and respect that we really seek through.

Treaty coming up. We've all heard of it, but what is truth telling?

Beginning with a smoking ceremony? The eurok Justice Commission launched its landmark report calling for an overhaul of Victoria's criminal justice and child protection systems, which it found have failed.

First, Peoples and Gara, I want to talk to you about the eurok Justice Commission and its importance as a truth telling body in the treaty process. It's historically significant and it's based in Victoria. Can you tell us a bit about its connection to your own creaty negotiations.

Yeah, it's so important. Like when we talked about the truth telling in the first term of the Assembly, it was something that we felt, I'm really passionate about because we can't have treaties, you know, without the truth. And then out of our conversations and through our chamber came the idea of a truth telling commission, which isn't something new, it's something that's been called upon for a long time. When it has happened obviously in other countries.

Canada has been awakened the words of a residential school survivor today, as the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was submitted.

It has been twenty eight years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed. Now the objective of the Commission was to promote reconciliation and forgiveness among perpetrators and victims of a party who suffered groups.

So activating the europe Justice Commission was really important to us to undertake that process.

Established in twenty twenty one, the Urok Justice Commission is Victoria's unique truth telling process.

It's the nation's first truth telling forum, which, along with Voice and Treaty, is one of the pillars of the Uluru Statement from the heart.

Yeah, so it has the powers of a royal commission too.

Yeah, it has those coersive powers and obviously appointed with Aboriginal commissioners where they've been able to have that coercive power to you know, get premiers and ministers on the witness stand.

Premier just In to Allen today told the Commission she believed there'd been systemic attempts to erase Victoria's Aboriginal history.

Growing up and living as I have all my life in Central Victoria on Jojo Run Country, I did not know about.

The massacres that occurred so close to home.

And also exposing some of the atrocities in justices of our people that we've always known. A Daniel like we know our history, but the wider mainstream public they haven't always understood who we are and why we need you know, treaty, why we need truth telling, and why we need to have a voice. So they're in their last kind of hearings.

The commissions calling for changes to a range of legislation, including new bail laws that go beyond the state's recent proposed reforms, a new independent police oversight body to stop the force investigating all but the most minor complaints about its own officers, an increase of the minimum age of criminal responsibility to fourteen years, and no detention for children under sixteen.

So those recommendations will really, you know, shape some of our treaty proposals. So yeah, I think rookstun are really deadly job, and it won't.

Finish just there eve at the report.

We want to look up to how we can continue to tell their truths. Maybe that's something that we'll ask in the state wide treaty to how we can do that.

Gar Do you think that the process of developing a negotiating treaty is is culturally affirming and empowering as the outcome itself in some ways.

Yeah, Like we've had to develop guiding principles around the cultural elements of it because we didn't want it to be this foreign process. We are trying to decolonize and deconstruct the way that we take part in formal structures. So our treaty negotiation framework itself is a really solid document.

Our bom Gara. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, Daniel.

Also in the news today, the Country Liberal Party has won the Northern Territory election in a landslide victory. It's a huge turnaround for the party after an electoral wipeout in twenty sixteen left them with just two seats. Incoming Chief Minister Lea Finiciio ran on a promise to crack down on crime. In their acceptance speech, she sees she