Latest news with #Gunditjmara
SBS Australia
a day ago
- Science
- SBS Australia
Gone fishing: DNA tech helps Traditional Owners map species at Budj Bim
Budj Bim is home to the oldest dated aquaculture system on earth. Comprised of channels, dams and weirs that control water flow, the aquaculture system has been used to contain floodwaters and trap, store and harvest eels for millennia. The World Heritage-listed landscape in southwest Victoria has been cared for by Gunditjmara people for generations. Now, traditional knowledge is being combined with western science to continue safeguarding the important cultural and environmental landscape at Budj Bim. Traditional Owners are using environmental DNA sampling to map fish populations and track ecological changes in the waterways. The surveys have already detected 53 species. Gunitj Mirring Traditional Owner Corporation Aboriginal water officer Nicole Hudson has been monitoring waterways at Budj Bim in Victoria. "We are able to trace where the Kooyang (short-finned eel) are travelling through our system, identify key endangered species and invasive species that are threatening our native cultural species," Ms Hudson told AAP. The technology, developed by EnviroDNA, takes a sample of particles left by living organisms in an ecosystem. "We're able to pick up the presence of that DNA that's left behind and take it to our laboratory and assign that to different taxonomic groups to tell you what animals are absent or present," EnviroDNA chief executive Jim Stuart said. Mr Stuart said the technology was a more powerful tool than observational techniques, as it provided definitive evidence on whether a particular species was present. The technology enables users to hone in on just one species or map the biodiversity of the entire ecosystem. For Ms Hudson, being able to map the biodiversity at Budj Bim helps fulfil a cultural responsibility thousands of years old. "It's our obligation to protect what our ancestors left for us," she said. "They planted the seeds and paved the path for us to walk in harmony with Country. "We read Country. It tells us what it needs, and when to step in to help it heal from pollution and unnatural changes. "Our connection is ongoing. We'll always care for our Country." EnviroDNA's technology has been employed in 25 projects involving 19 Traditional Owner groups across Victoria, NSW, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. The projects have already covered more than 21,000 square kilometres of land and sea, and Mr Stuart said it was hoped the program could be further expanded to become national. "If we want to make lasting impact, we need to back Indigenous-led programs that are already working," he said.
SBS Australia
2 days ago
- Politics
- SBS Australia
End of Walk for Truth begins closing chapter in Yoorrook truth-telling process
In one of the final steps on the truth telling journey, Yoorrook Justice Commissioner Travis Lovett welcomed by over five thousand people gathered at Victoria's parliament house. Gunditjmara man, Travis Lovett finished his nearly 500 kilometre trek across the state. Beginning in Portland on May 25 where Victoria's earliest colonial settlement began, this historic walk has traced the deep scars of colonisation across the state, while also opening space for shared action. Mr Lovett trekked all the way to Naarm, Melbourne. His walk aimed at bringing all Victorians - including Elders, jarjums, community leaders and allies along the truth telling journey. "The walk for truth was about walking with all Victorians in solidarity, encouraging all to come and listen and learn and engage in truth telling. We have worked really hard over the last four years, the documents, it's part of our terms of reference to document the ongoing and systematic injustices experienced by First People's in the state of Victoria. We've engaged with more than 9,000 people through that time." This supporter says truth telling should be led by mob for mob. "This is just a small showing of what mob can do, and its the real way that truth telling should be led, by mob for mob. And in opposition to the state, because the state was never made for us. It was made only to progress colonisation, and they continue genocide - like that's the only thing. These are all arms of the law made against mob, and will trickle down all of the communities that stem from that." Mr Lovett's efforts have been inspiring others, including Mauritian woman Adele. "I understand deeply what the pain of colonisation has been over basically 400 years so we are here for humanity - we want better humanity, progress, future, hand in hand brothers and sisters regardless of what we look like. We want treaty, we want treaty. We want our Aboriginal brothers to be recognised, to say okay yeah you are here before us. We respect you, we love you and we are here to support you." The Yoorrook Justice Commission is the first formal truth-telling inquiry of its kind in Australia. Established in 2021 as part of Victoria's Treaty process, its work has been led by First Peoples, for First Peoples, with a mission to tell the full story of colonisation and its ongoing impacts. For over four years, the Yoorrook Justice Commission has investigated systemic injustices faced by Indigenous people in Victoria. They're also due to release a comprehensive reform report which outlines their recommendations and a road map for change. That final report is likely to make more than 100 recommendations, many of which may be implemented via the statewide treaty process, which is currently being negotiated by the state government and the First People's Assembly. Levi Power is a First People's Assembly of Victoria member. He tells NITV the truths must be told to guide their decisions forward. "We must have these truths told to guide these decisions and to guide our journey forward, not only for this first treaty but going into the future as well." Yoorrook has heard testimony from thousands of people - Stolen Generations survivors, Elders, legal experts, historians, and non-Indigenous allies - across areas such as land, law, education, health and child protection. Its interim report released in 2023 detailed entrenched injustices and called for sweeping reforms to Victoria's criminal justice and child welfare systems. Yet only a handful of those 46 recommendations have received full support from the state government. Victoria's Premier Jacinta Allan says we can't have treaty, without truth. "It is well understood that to drive a treaty process you need to have truth. And truth telling is a part of that which is what the justice commission has been focused on and I want to thank the commissioners, but also particularly thank the hundreds of people who have engaged through the formal hearings process, particularly many of our First People's community here in Victoria who did tell some challenging, challenging stories about their experiences." She says that will be an important part in guiding the truth. "And treaty is all about making the practical common sense changes that are about lifting, lifting the outcomes about First People's here in Victoria, because it is well understood that the best way to close the gap, the best way to get the best outcomes, is by listening to people directly impacted by government decision making policies and programs involving them in the process, and that is the best way to get an improvement in outcomes that we absolutely need to strive towards, here in Victoria and indeed across the nation."
ABC News
3 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Long walk for truth and Victoria's plan for treaty
Cheers erupted among the thousands of people gathered on the steps of Victoria Parliament as the Yoorrook Justice Commissioner, Travis Lovett, reached his destination after 508 kilometres and 25 days of walking. "The silence ends here, the time of not knowing, of choosing not to know, is over," Commissioner Lovett told the sea of supporters. "Truth-telling is not a ritual, it's not symbolic. It's a reckoning, it's a commitment to change. Truth-telling is treaty in motion. "The work of truth-telling, of treaty, of transformation, that belongs to us all now." Commissioner Lovett set out on the Walk for Truth on Gunditjmara land, his traditional country in Portland, where first European settlement began in Victoria. His walk is one of the final steps of the state's four-year truth-telling Yoorrook Justice Commission, ahead of a "new chapter" with an official report detailing the impacts of colonisation on Victoria's First Peoples. The findings will also inform Victoria's statewide treaty, currently being negotiated between First Nations people and the government — the first of its kind in the country. "In our culture, [we] listen before we talk," Commissioner Lovett told the ABC. "Before the treaty, we need to have the truth to understand what has happened to our people, and what is continually happening." The walk began with 500 people, swelling to around 3,000 in Melbourne for the final day. Conversations on the road focused on the past and the present. Participants opened their hearts during the walk. Like Stolen Generations survivor Lionel Dukasis, who met cousins for the first time during the journey, an experience that reinforced the power of family for him. "When I'm on the phone to my kids or grandkids I tell them I love them, because I never heard that and as a kid those are the words you want to hear: 'I love you,'" Mr Dukasis said. The commissioner of the country's first truth-telling body stood tall as he handed over a message stick marked with symbols, initials and markings from people along the way — one "he carried for all Victorians". "This message stick comes with expectations that the government will implement Yoorrook's recommendations," Commissioner Lovett said. It was also for the opposition, who withdrew their bipartisan support for treaty soon after Victorians delivered a majority no vote in the Voice referendum. "We are coming in here to give this to you. We as people have expectations on them too … for them to support truth-telling and treaty." Commissioner Lovett had also exchanged message sticks from Country to Country as he walked across the state to meet the Victorian premier today. "When we walk through other people's Country, we have always taken a message stick to let them know our intentions," the proud Kerrupmara Gunditjmara man said. "These message sticks are about truth, they are about expectations, they are about learning from history." The route was mapped out with guidance from local traditional owners of each town. "We began where the first wounds were struck into the earth, where footsteps came ashore not as visitors but as claimants, where the smoke of fires long burning were ignored and where our presence was declared absent," he said to the thousands who gathered on the steps of Parliament House. "A path drawn across Country, never straight, never simple. It bent with memory, with resistance, with the shape of old scars but new hope." Commissioner Lovett said he walked for his children and for other children so they could "dance in celebration". His journey was inspired by activists who stood on the steps with placards, like Wurundjeri leader William Barak who made the trek to Parliament House to fight for change. "Since 1856, parliament has made decisions that have controlled and segregated First Peoples' lives, but it's also the place where we can transform our futures, not just for First Peoples but for all Victorians," Commissioner Lovett told the ABC. It has been an almost month-long journey through torrential rain, pockets of hail, and wintry sunshine. The conversations revisited painful memories of the past but there were also moments of laughter and joy, described by some as a "transformative energy". "We're here to walk together in unity," Commissioner Lovett told hundreds of attendees in Geelong. "We're not blaming everyday Australians for what has happened to our people. "We are asking for the institutions to be accountable for the institutional harm that they've caused, and the current systems that are still informed and embedded by their colonial roots." Walkers would often hear Commissioner Lovett refer to himself as an "emu" — his strides so long and fast that attendees jested it should be a "Run for Truth" not a Walk for Truth. Lionel Dukakis, the First Nations traffic management director, was essential to the success of the walk. Wearing a hi-vis vest directing traffic, he ensured the safety of the particpants. "Walking for all those days or sitting in the truck, protecting the crowd and travel and all that is paramount. But [the highlight was] meeting cousins for the first time at 63 that I'd never met in my life," the Gunditjmara man said. At just 18 months old, Mr Dukakis was forcibly removed from his family under the power of government policies at the time. He would spend his life between institutions and a foster family. It's an experience almost too difficult to talk about. "I'd have to tell you personally it was hell on Earth for us, the way we're treated," he reflected. He has turned his adversity into success running a business and raising a big, loving family. "Being part of history is really what it is about for me and a legacy that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren will read about in years to come," he said from his truck. Lionel was one of the 9,000 First Nations people who engaged with the Yoorrook Commission. Victoria has the highest rates of Aboriginal child removal in the country, and it is one of the issues that the commissioners raised in their 46 urgent interim recommendations two years ago — to give decision-making power and resources back to First Peoples, negotiated through a treaty. The government accepted 30 recommendations to varying degrees, six in full, with a further 13 under consideration. Commissioners were "beyond disappointed at the lack of action", condemning the government's decision to toughen bail laws and backflip on a commitment to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14. The Yoorrook Commission has heard from 229 witnesses, including the Victorian premier eliciting 16 government apologies, notably from the Victorian police commissioner. Another 100 recommendations will be laid out in the final report that will be tabled in parliament by the end of this month. It will be reviewed before the government's official response. "Our people as First Peoples get to write the full history of what's happened," Commissioner Lovett said. The Yoorrook Justice Commision report will bring a statewide treaty closer to reality. In Parliament House, traditional owners handed over message sticks directly to Premier Jacinta Allan. "Truth does not end today, rather truth marks a beginning," Ms Allan told politicians and First Nations leaders who had gathered. "We know the important work of the commission will inform negotiations on treaty now and into the future. "Negotiations on treaty that will ultimately lead us back to this place Naarm. "So to the members of parliament who are here today, it will come back to this place and present us with that historic transformative opportunity to create a foundation on which justice is built and on which healing can begin and where real lasting change can take route." Ngarra Murray, a Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung and Dhudhuroa woman, is in the room negotiating with the Victorian government as the co-chair of the First People's Assembly, established with a mandate to negotiate treaty. "That call was really strong from our community, that we can't have treaty without truth," Ms Murray said. "We know that treaty is the pathway to a better future for our people … whether it's child protection, the criminal justice system, whether it is health, housing or education." Ms Murrays great-grandfather was Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls, an activist who was part of the Day of Mourning calling for rights for Aboriginal people in 1938. "We come from strong blood," she said. "It's a responsibility that we have, and it has been a lot of contributions of our old people to get us to where we are today." The government says they hope to sign a treaty ahead of the state election next year. "We're working really hard across the parliament and the political sphere to bring people on this journey with us," Ms Murray said. Victoria has embarked on a "hybrid" approach in which statewide treaties will be negotiated alongside local treaties with traditional owner groups. "The expectations are really high. It's the very first treaty and there's only so much we can achieve in the first one. That is why there will be many treaties," she said. At the local level, Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation (DJAARA) recently became the first group to register to start treaty negotiations with the Victorian government. Gunditjmara man Reuben Berg, also co-chair of the First Peoples' Assembly, explained that this treaty will be groundbreaking. "It's not intended that this first treaty will resolve all those matters, but it's going to set a framework so that we can continue to have those conversations and wherever possible, place decision making in the hands of First Peoples," he said. A key aspiration for the First Peoples' Assembly is to be an ongoing representative body for shared decision-making, such as keeping the government to account on Closing the Gap targets. "My hope [is] for a First Peoples' Assembly that can make decisions about First Peoples' business," Mr Berg told the crowd in Melbourne. He invited everyone to continue to walk with them as the end of Yoorrook drew to a close and their work continues to negotiate the first statewide treaty. "At the moment [we're] a democratically elected body of First Peoples solely focused on treaty," Mr Berg said. "We want to see that body evolve into a much stronger body that can actually talk directly to parliament." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
ABC News
3 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Thousands join Walk for Truth as Yoorrook Justice Commission truth-telling inquiry concludes
More than three thousand people are expected to join the final day of a 500-kilometre walk to mark the closure of Australia's first formal truth-telling process, the Yoorrook Justice Commission. The four-year Aboriginal-led inquiry will become Victoria's longest-ever state-run royal commission when it formally concludes on June 30. Since 2021, the inquiry has been tasked with establishing an official record of the history of colonisation of Victoria and its ongoing impacts on First Peoples. In the inquiry's final weeks, Yoorrook Commissioner Travis Lovett has walked across half of the state in an attempt to raise awareness of the commission's historic work. The Kerrupmara Gunditjmara traditional owner has already been joined by thousands of supporters on his 25-day Walk For Truth. The walk began on Commissioner Lovett's traditional country near Portland, the earliest site of permanent European settlement in Victoria. "It's about walking side by side, listening deeply with respect and taking steps toward a fairer Victoria for everyone." Today the walk led by Commissioner Lovett is scheduled to arrive at Melbourne's Parliament house. Yoorrook's final report is expected to be delivered to government in coming days and then made public sometime next month. Over the last four years, Yoorrook has collected evidence from thousands of people as part of its comprehensive investigation into the past and ongoing impacts of colonisation in Victoria. Designed and led by Victorian First Peoples, its mandate has been unprecedented in Australia. It has heard from Stolen Generations survivors, elders, historians, experts and non-Indigenous advocates about the true impacts of colonisation and ways the state can improve outcomes for future generations. In interim findings, Yoorrook, which means 'truth' in the Wamba Wamba language, uncovered evidence of grave and ongoing human rights abuses against First Peoples. In September 2023, it called for sweeping reforms to Victoria's criminal justice and child protection systems. Those proposals received a lukewarm reception from government, which now fully supports just six of the inquiry's 46 interim recommendations. It is understood Yoorrook's final report will include more than 100 recommendations including changes to the way Victoria's history is taught in schools. While this truth-telling process ends, it's expected a call for further and ongoing- truth-telling opportunities will be pushed for as part of state-wide Treaty negotiations. Australia's first formal Treaty negotiations are now underway in Victoria, though Victoria's Liberal opposition no longer support a treaty between the state and First Peoples. While Victoria has participated in joint state-Commonwealth royal commissions which have run for more than four years, upon its conclusion Yoorrook will become the longest ever state-run royal commission in Victoria.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Walk for truth: hundreds of people join 486km trek from Portland to Melbourne for reconciliation
Travis Lovett began his 486km journey with a single step and a long-held hope to bring the people of Victoria with him on a journey through the state's colonial past. It's a traumatic past that Lovett has been peering into for the past three years through his work as a commissioner and co-chair on the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the county's first formal, Indigenous-led truth-telling process. 'Truth telling has never been more important than it is right now, with the commission coming to an end.' Lovett says. 'That's what I've emphasised on this walk.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email As he talks about his journey on Tuesday, the Kerrupmara Gunditjmara man is walking through Footscray on the second-last day of the Yoorrook commission's walk for truth. The walk will arrive at state parliament on Wednesday. The public inquiry has heard from thousands of Australians through hundreds of public submissions and hearings investigating the injustices and inequities experienced by Aboriginal Victorians. Lovett began walking on 25 May in Gunditjmara country in the coastal town of Portland – the first contact for Victorian settlement in the 1820s – through Warrnambool, Colac, and Geelong and on towards Melbourne. The route was informed by discussions with elders and traditional owner groups. 'What I'm most proud of about this walk is walking alongside our people … [guiding] where we went and which areas of historical and cultural significance that they've wanted to highlight and share with all of society,' he said. He's walked through driving rains and blustering winds; through fields, highways and city streets. For some stretches he has been joined by hundreds of other walkers, but much of the distance has been traversed alone. 'That's when it was really hard going. Walking for eight hours in the wet and soaked. It's hard,' he says. The stories shared with the Yoorrook commission propelled him forward. 'The walk has really culminated in elevating those lived experiences of our people, which is incredible,' he says. 'That's when you dig deep. I've reflected on the truths that I've heard since being a commissioner on this commission as well about our people's lived experience.' Reconciliation Victoria co-chair, Andrew Gunstone, says the sections of the walk where members of the public were able to join have helped people come together and allowed healing to begin. 'There's not a lot of knowledge about the impact of Portland on the history of Victoria but there were several hundred people [that] turned up that first day,' Gunstone says. 'There's been a lot of excitement, a lot of community and it was really interesting to hear lots of people's different ideas about why they're walking for truth and why they're walking for reconciliation.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion For many, the failure of the voice to parliament referendum strengthened their desire to take part in a public truth-telling process. 'There's been a real desire to do something since the referendum, there was a lot of disappointment among those 6.2 million Australians who voted 'yes',' Gunstone says. He says it is vital that truth-telling, justice and treaty are supported through all levels of government. Among those who joined the walk were Peter Sharp, a historian and great-grandson of Australia's second prime minister, Alfred Deakin. Deakin, as Victoria's chief secretary, was responsible for the 1886 Aboriginal Protection Amendment Act (known offensively as the 'Half-Caste' Act), which changed the definition of 'Aboriginal' to exclude those who had one Indigenous parent. The law enabled the forced removal of mixed-race children from reserves and was later implemented in other jurisdictions. It is acknowledged as the start of the Stolen Generations policy. Sharp spoke before the commission in September about how he felt learning of the influence of his famous ancestor on one of darkest parts of Australian history. 'It was in the last place I would have ever expected to find it, in my own family history,' he says. 'The Walk for Truth from Portland to parliament has been, in a very personal way, for me, a retracing of my steps over the past 35 years from ignorance to understanding.' Lovett says it is that commitment to coming together, uncovering the past, and moving toward truth and treaty that can allow the state to settle its painful past. 'We want to move forward, but it needs to be underpinned by truth and by justice,' he says. 'Healing can happen, so we can all live in a more shared and prosperous future together.'
