TRANSCRIPT
The sounds of a Gunditjmara smoking ceremony - one sign of a culture that is still strong and thriving in the face of colonisation.
Their stories are now being heard as part of Victoria’s truth telling commission at the site where the state's colonisation started - near Portland in south western Victoria at the Tae Rak Aquaculture centre.
Commissioner Travis Lovett opened the historic hearings.
"As a Kerrupmara/Gunditjmara man and a Commissioner of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, it is a great honour to stand here on country for the historic opening of the land injustice hearings. Land injustice, justice hasn't been done yet.”
The Yoorrook Justice Commission will listen to testimonies of injustices against Victoria's First Nations people in a first-of-its-kind truth-telling inquiry.
The ceremonial hearing in Tae Rak begins three weeks of evidence into issues relating to land, skies and waters.
"First Peoples’ land, water and resources were illegally and forcibly taken. We were denied access and the ability to practice our culture and speak our language. Our ancestors were slaughtered in massacres.”
The loss of land and resources and the impact of that on First Nations peoples to this day forms a key part of the Yoorrook inquiry.
Elders took commissioners to nearby Kurtonitj - showing them ancient eel traps and a smoking tree, where Gunditjmara people cured eels.
This area of Victoria is particularly significant for the commission’s evidence, as the nearby town of Portland was the first permanent European settlement in the state.
Commissioners were also shown the site of the Convincing Ground massacre, Victoria’s first recorded massacre site.
"It is there that the European whalers used their guns to fend off the Kilcarer Gundidj people from accessing their own resources which they had done for thousands of years prior."
These Yoorrook hearings are the first formal truth-telling process of its type in Australia, charged with investigating both historical and ongoing injustices committed against Indigenous Victorians.
Aunty Donna Wright, a member of the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, says the commission holds massive significance for her people and her family in particular.
"We are the modern day warriors now taking over that legacy, and especially here as we bore the brunt of colonisation, to talk about the injustices inflicted on generations of our children. My mother was stolen from the mission where she grew up with her parents and she didn't get to grow up in a loving home, she was taken. So to be here today, to be here at the Yoorook hearings, is very important for my family - especially my mother."
She says for a long time Australia has glorified its colonial history and processes like these hearings will ensure Australians have a true and honest understanding of their history.
"In this part of our country there is a glorification for the colonisers who stole our land, the massacres, the murders, the frontier violence, the violence against our women and children. And it did not stop us, we’re still here and we’re still fighting."
This won’t be the only on-country hearing for the Yoorrook inquiry.
The state's water minister will give evidence to the inquiry in Robinvale on the Murray River and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan is set to give evidence in Wurundjeri Country on land that was previously part of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Mission.
This will mark the first time the premier will appear as a witness at a commission.
