July 1, 2025 • 17 mins
For generations, First Nations people have called for a truth telling process so their stories can be heard.
In Victoria, for the first time in Australia’s history, that has finally happened.
For the past four years, the Yoorrook Justice Commission has been gathering the testimony of thousands of Victorians to put on record the truth about the state’s history.
The culmination of that work has now been handed to the Victorian government.
Today, we hear the story of the Yoorrook Justice Commission – and find out how knowing the truth about Australia’s history sets us up for a better future.
This is part one of a two part series.
If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.
Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram
Guest: Daniel James, host of 7am and author of the Yoorrook report Truth Be Told
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just a warning before we get started. Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander listeners should be aware that today's episode features
the voices of people who have died. This episode is
the first part in a two part series.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome Uncle Jack, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
We are delighted and honored the Duke to join us today.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
One of the first people that we heard from in
the Commission was the late great Uncle Jack Charles as well.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I am a well known nun Collingwood Vitroy Bloke, Melvernion,
and I am self proclaimed in my community as the
local goodcha man law man feed afoot of the Smeth
Street Strip.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
In April twenty twenty two, Uncle Jack Charles told the
story of his life to the York Justice Commission. Uncle
Jack is known and loved for his work as an actor,
but the role most important to him, the one that
he focused on when he gave testimony at Yuruk, was
his role within his own community.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And that's my job as an elder. We've lived experiences
to be yet a source for people to gravitate towards
in their own journey of coming out of their own
heart of darkness, and it's been.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Proven sadly it was probably unless there's something else. I'm
not aware of his final public act as an elder
because he died shortly afterwards.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Over four years, thousands of Victorians shared their stories with
the York Justice Commission. It had all the powers of
a royal commission and was the first truth telling process
of its kind in Australian history. Yesterday its findings were
handed to the Victorian government. My co host Daniel James,
has spent the last seven months documenting Europe for the
official report, Truth Be Told. It's a powerful, unflinching account
(01:52):
of Victoria's past and present. I'm Ruby Jones. This is
seven AM today. Daniel James on how knowing the truth
of the past sets us up for a better future.
It's Wednesday, July two. Daniel, thank you for being here.
(02:17):
Let's talk about Uncle Jack's testimony and how it's set
up the stage for how Europe unfolded from there.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Of course, his testimony was very moving. He talked about
the impacts of being a member of the Stolen Generation.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Being born under the Assimilation Policy EL babies was supposed
to be taken from the hospital bed from their mothers
and then placed into babies' homes City Mission over in
Brunswick managed to keep me for flaw months and I
was discovered with her a dasher's paddock.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
And so he was put into a children's home where
he was abused both physically and sexually. How that led
to a life of petty crime, all.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
B eggs and pain. The woes of existing, you know,
with a heavy addiction and having to do, you know,
burglaries to do to support the funding of the drugs
and etc. Came to a stop, a full stop.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
But also the great thing about his hearing was that
he was able to you know, quote unquote redeem himself.
He was able to make something of himself in the
face of all of that. And it wasn't until very
very late in life that he was actually able to
discover who his father was.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
But Edinburgh re Gardens, I was given this side below
and I opened it up and there was Hilton Hamilton
Bosh and leaning on a walking stick which he carved himself.
And the irony there struck me between you know, and
the eyes that when I found my mum at eighteen
(04:00):
on the air whichever between mill I mean, what else?
He was carving walking sticks, snakes around walking sticks.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
And that was a process that thankfully became a circular
moment for him and I'm so glad that he got
to realize exactly who he was and where he was
from before he passed away, and Uruk assisted with that, and.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Uncle Jack was one of thousands of people who gave
testimony to the commission this process. It's been a long
time coming. So tell me where the story of rock starts.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
The story actually really starts at the point of first
contact between European settlers and First Nations people really in
the western districts of Victoria, and what Euruk has been
doing is trying to investigate the fallout from that point
and everything that's followed subsequently. I think one thing that's
(04:54):
really important to note is that Victoria was probably the
heaviest populated section of this land mass that we now
call Australia at the time of invasion, and so there
has been a plethora of political movements here. Europe is
a wamba wamba word for truth, and it is something
(05:18):
that is the combination of a movement that has been
going for generations and generations. It started at a place
called cornderk on or Andrey Country near Hillsville. There was
a mission, one of the early missions that were established
once Melbourne was settled, and the residents of Coron Dirk,
(05:38):
headed by a fellow called Uncle William Barrick, protested not
only their conditions but the colonies I guess reluctance to
let them play a full and vital role in the
life of the colony and the life of their local
communities by participating in the economic life of where they
were situated. They wanted to grow hops to feed some
(06:00):
of the emerging buries that were being established around the place,
so they were quite entrepreneurial in that way. But they
didn't get what they want, so they petitioned the colony
and they eventually marched from Cronder to what is now
State Parliament to protest their rights, their land rights, their
rights as citizens.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Quite a new media people saying I don't like the
black man, but he's then blood to live in a
black man's country.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
All the things.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I am calling a crowbie of all the leaders in
New South Wales to send a petition to the King
in an endeavor to improve our conditions.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
And there's been a series of movements since then, and
in many ways Europe is a major, major chapter in
that story.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And so at what point would you say that those
protests and political movements really crystal into what we're seeing now.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I would say probably around the early seventies there was
a very strong push to establish some of our own organizations.
So we've got things like the Victorian Original Legal Service,
which was the first community controlled organization in Victoria, the
second in Australia, that, in combination with the establishment of
health services and cooperatives around the state, really enabled Aboriginal
(07:26):
people to talk about the politics of our plight, to
talk about ways of moving forward across portfolio areas like
education and health. So the steps towards treaty in particular
really sort of started around that point. It was seen
as a way of not only improving outcomes for Aboriginal people,
(07:47):
but also moving towards things like land rights and native title,
which was all to come much later on. But if
you were to look at how that actually crystallized into
the very sort of jagged path we're on now towards
truth and treaty, the formal process of Europe would have
started about seven years ago once the First People's Assembly
(08:09):
of Victoria had been formally established, because it was them
who called for.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It, and so they're calling for this commission. How does
the eurok Justice Commission become a reality?
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Though? So, the First People's Assembly, in one of its
first acts, called for a truth telling process.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Victoria is one step closer to a landmark treaty with
its First People's Indigenous leaders delivered a stirring address on
the floor of Parliament marking laws to create a special authority.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Their view is, and I think it's a view that's
proven around the world in many ways, is that you
can't have a treaty process without a truth telling process.
And so what they were doing was calling for the
first truth telling process to be formalized in Australia in
which we could actually hear for the first time from
a first people's slash Aboriginal people's perspective on what happened.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And here there's no escape in the harsh reality that
actional people have suffered immensely at the hands of the
Victorian state.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
And only once the broader Victorian public and the broader
Australian public understands what happened here can you actually start
treating negotiations in good faith.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
We cannot move forward using the same systems that have
been used against us and that have held us back.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
So they were the ones that called for it, and
the Victorian government, led by Dan Andrews at the time,
to their credit, said yes, you can have that.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
For far too long we've had white belts telling our
first nations, Victorians how it ought to be and I
don't intend to do that.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
And so one of the major challenges in the first
place is okay, well, what does this look like, what
powers is it given, and what do we want from it.
A tremendous amount of work went into that, both from
the First People's Assembly but also through the establishment of
the Commission itself, which had to work out what it was,
areas it would explore and what outcomes it was looking
(10:02):
to achieve from exploring those areas.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
And I want to talk more about those parts of
the Commission, but as it moved forward and established itself
with their other challenges.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Yeah, there were a number of challenges. Major one was
this has never happened before in Australia, It's happened in
other parts of the world. How much does it cost,
who do you get to chair it, what areas does
it look at, where do you house it? I mean,
one of the things that I discovered, to my astonishment,
(10:37):
was when the Commission was looking for premises to house itself,
it meant what one would call sort of passive resistance.
They would get to a point where they were close
to negotiating a lease, and then once the landlord sort
of discovered that it was an organization run by and
(10:58):
for Aboriginal people, those lease would sort of fail to materialize.
So it wasn't until the Victorian government, by chance happened
to be building a new government building in Collingwood that
the Commission was actually able to house itself and create
an environment where people coming in and providing testimony before
the Commission could actually feel safe. One of the things
(11:23):
that seemed to take a while for a number of
people to get their head around was that the Commission
had all the powers of a royal commission. So a
royal commission can request any document that at once and
get a hold of that document, they can summoned people
to appear before the commissioner androde testimony. One of the
(11:44):
early hurdles was a tardiness from the Victorian bureaucracy in
terms of getting the thousands of documents that commissioners and
the Commission itself had actually asked for and it got
to a point where they had to actually all a
direction's hearing for non compliance.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
So the state's response over the past few weeks to
Yurook's request for documents to me demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding
of the truth telling process.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
They've brought all of these senior public servants in and
the people that were in charge of these systems and said, listen,
we're telling you nicely now that this is a royal commission.
When we ask for something, you give it to us.
Speaker 6 (12:30):
The state recognizes that compliance dates for recent notices have
passed oologizers to the Commission for the delay in providing
responses to the notices, and.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Was from that point on that I think not only
did the bureaucracy start taking Europe seriously, interested parties within
the Victorian community realized that this was very much the
real deal when it comes to inquiries.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Coming up after the break. The Formidable woman chosen to
lead Europe.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Racism and inequality affect First peoples in almost every aspect
of our lives, from schooling and work, to getting housing
and to accessing healthcare.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Daniel let's talk more about the direction that the Commission
took once it was established. Tell me about the chair.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Well, the chair is a remarkable woman, Auntie Eleanor burke Am.
She is a Wagaya Wamba Wamba elder.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
There is an unbroken line of injustice which runs from
the original theft of our lands and waters until today.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
She is someone who has dedicated her entire life to
Aboriginal people, one of the first Aboriginal public servants in Canberra.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
The truth is we cannot secure justice for First peoples
without transforming the laws and policies which by design continue
to disadvantage us.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
She is now eighty two years old, so she would
have been in her late seventies when she was called
upon to be the chair of this commission. Her main
area of interest has been education and research, and so
she's a professor and director of the Aboriginal Research Institute
at the University of South Australia. She's been inducted into
the Victorian Honor Roll for women here in Victoria and
(14:27):
also into the Aboriginal Honor Role. She's someone that is
universally respected and has been tireless in her efforts. I
couldn't think of a better chairperson to undertake this role
because it not only is still a resolve, it requires
a truckload of empathy and has required a truckload of
strengths as well. To hear some of the things that
(14:49):
these commissioners have heard over the last four or five
years has been amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, tell me more about that. What have they heard?
What has stuck with you?
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Yeah, there are a number of massacres that took place
that I didn't know about that came to light. Those
sort of revelations were profound and very moving and very distressing.
But the hardest thing from my perspective, and I would
dare say from a commissioner's perspective, would be hearing from
(15:18):
members of the Stolen Generation in particular, and hearing their
first person accounts of what happened to them or that
they missed out on the clinical brutality of the state
taking children away from the clutters of their mothers and fathers.
So hearing what happened to people in the first person
(15:38):
with the most moving moments from a people who had
had horrific ordeals with the child protection system, either as
a parent or as a child, seeing their bravery in
terms of fronting the commission, which is something that so
many original people don't want to do because why would
they trust systems, Why would they trust another inquiry? Why
(16:01):
would they trust a royal commission? Given what's happened previously?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
And as you say, truth telling is important because how
do you attempt to change things if you haven't even
identified what was wrong? But what else changes when the
truth goes on record like.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
This, Well, one of the things that does change, and
it's something that requires a little bit of lateral thinking,
but shame and guilt no longer become a concern. So
the truth has been told. We've heard from Indigenous people,
We've heard from descendants of some of the early landholders
in Victoria. We've heard how they are descendants of people
(16:41):
that were complicit in the attempt to genocide of aoriginal
people in this place we now call Victoria. And there
were no ramifications for them, there was no pushback. They
were heard respectfully and openly. And so the idea of
being able to then move forward with the truth means
that not only does it empower First Nations people, but
(17:02):
it also lifts the veil of shame and guilt on
non Aboriginal people who have been involved in some of
the things that have harmed us most. And we don't
have to keep revisiting the past because the past has
now been written and is now part of the public record,
and it's there for all to see. So what has
(17:23):
happened in many ways in the past is not our business,
but what happens next is and that's what telling the
truth has enabled us to do.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Thank you for listening to this episode of seven Am.
It's the first part in a two part series about
the York Justice Commission. Part two is available in a
seven AM feed now
Just a warning before we get started. Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander listeners should be aware that today's episode features
the voices of people who have died. This episode is
the first part in a two part series.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome Uncle Jack, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
We are delighted and honored the Duke to join us today.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
One of the first people that we heard from in
the Commission was the late great Uncle Jack Charles as well.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I am a well known nun Collingwood Vitroy Bloke, Melvernion,
and I am self proclaimed in my community as the
local goodcha man law man feed afoot of the Smeth
Street Strip.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
In April twenty twenty two, Uncle Jack Charles told the
story of his life to the York Justice Commission. Uncle
Jack is known and loved for his work as an actor,
but the role most important to him, the one that
he focused on when he gave testimony at Yuruk, was
his role within his own community.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And that's my job as an elder. We've lived experiences
to be yet a source for people to gravitate towards
in their own journey of coming out of their own
heart of darkness, and it's been.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Proven sadly it was probably unless there's something else. I'm
not aware of his final public act as an elder
because he died shortly afterwards.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Over four years, thousands of Victorians shared their stories with
the York Justice Commission. It had all the powers of
a royal commission and was the first truth telling process
of its kind in Australian history. Yesterday its findings were
handed to the Victorian government. My co host Daniel James,
has spent the last seven months documenting Europe for the
official report, Truth Be Told. It's a powerful, unflinching account
(01:52):
of Victoria's past and present. I'm Ruby Jones. This is
seven AM today. Daniel James on how knowing the truth
of the past sets us up for a better future.
It's Wednesday, July two. Daniel, thank you for being here.
(02:17):
Let's talk about Uncle Jack's testimony and how it's set
up the stage for how Europe unfolded from there.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Of course, his testimony was very moving. He talked about
the impacts of being a member of the Stolen Generation.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Being born under the Assimilation Policy EL babies was supposed
to be taken from the hospital bed from their mothers
and then placed into babies' homes City Mission over in
Brunswick managed to keep me for flaw months and I
was discovered with her a dasher's paddock.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
And so he was put into a children's home where
he was abused both physically and sexually. How that led
to a life of petty crime, all.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
B eggs and pain. The woes of existing, you know,
with a heavy addiction and having to do, you know,
burglaries to do to support the funding of the drugs
and etc. Came to a stop, a full stop.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
But also the great thing about his hearing was that
he was able to you know, quote unquote redeem himself.
He was able to make something of himself in the
face of all of that. And it wasn't until very
very late in life that he was actually able to
discover who his father was.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
But Edinburgh re Gardens, I was given this side below
and I opened it up and there was Hilton Hamilton
Bosh and leaning on a walking stick which he carved himself.
And the irony there struck me between you know, and
the eyes that when I found my mum at eighteen
(04:00):
on the air whichever between mill I mean, what else?
He was carving walking sticks, snakes around walking sticks.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
And that was a process that thankfully became a circular
moment for him and I'm so glad that he got
to realize exactly who he was and where he was
from before he passed away, and Uruk assisted with that, and.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Uncle Jack was one of thousands of people who gave
testimony to the commission this process. It's been a long
time coming. So tell me where the story of rock starts.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
The story actually really starts at the point of first
contact between European settlers and First Nations people really in
the western districts of Victoria, and what Euruk has been
doing is trying to investigate the fallout from that point
and everything that's followed subsequently. I think one thing that's
(04:54):
really important to note is that Victoria was probably the
heaviest populated section of this land mass that we now
call Australia at the time of invasion, and so there
has been a plethora of political movements here. Europe is
a wamba wamba word for truth, and it is something
(05:18):
that is the combination of a movement that has been
going for generations and generations. It started at a place
called cornderk on or Andrey Country near Hillsville. There was
a mission, one of the early missions that were established
once Melbourne was settled, and the residents of Coron Dirk,
(05:38):
headed by a fellow called Uncle William Barrick, protested not
only their conditions but the colonies I guess reluctance to
let them play a full and vital role in the
life of the colony and the life of their local
communities by participating in the economic life of where they
were situated. They wanted to grow hops to feed some
(06:00):
of the emerging buries that were being established around the place,
so they were quite entrepreneurial in that way. But they
didn't get what they want, so they petitioned the colony
and they eventually marched from Cronder to what is now
State Parliament to protest their rights, their land rights, their
rights as citizens.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Quite a new media people saying I don't like the
black man, but he's then blood to live in a
black man's country.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
All the things.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I am calling a crowbie of all the leaders in
New South Wales to send a petition to the King
in an endeavor to improve our conditions.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
And there's been a series of movements since then, and
in many ways Europe is a major, major chapter in
that story.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And so at what point would you say that those
protests and political movements really crystal into what we're seeing now.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I would say probably around the early seventies there was
a very strong push to establish some of our own organizations.
So we've got things like the Victorian Original Legal Service,
which was the first community controlled organization in Victoria, the
second in Australia, that, in combination with the establishment of
health services and cooperatives around the state, really enabled Aboriginal
(07:26):
people to talk about the politics of our plight, to
talk about ways of moving forward across portfolio areas like
education and health. So the steps towards treaty in particular
really sort of started around that point. It was seen
as a way of not only improving outcomes for Aboriginal people,
(07:47):
but also moving towards things like land rights and native title,
which was all to come much later on. But if
you were to look at how that actually crystallized into
the very sort of jagged path we're on now towards
truth and treaty, the formal process of Europe would have
started about seven years ago once the First People's Assembly
(08:09):
of Victoria had been formally established, because it was them
who called for.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It, and so they're calling for this commission. How does
the eurok Justice Commission become a reality?
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Though? So, the First People's Assembly, in one of its
first acts, called for a truth telling process.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Victoria is one step closer to a landmark treaty with
its First People's Indigenous leaders delivered a stirring address on
the floor of Parliament marking laws to create a special authority.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Their view is, and I think it's a view that's
proven around the world in many ways, is that you
can't have a treaty process without a truth telling process.
And so what they were doing was calling for the
first truth telling process to be formalized in Australia in
which we could actually hear for the first time from
a first people's slash Aboriginal people's perspective on what happened.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And here there's no escape in the harsh reality that
actional people have suffered immensely at the hands of the
Victorian state.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
And only once the broader Victorian public and the broader
Australian public understands what happened here can you actually start
treating negotiations in good faith.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
We cannot move forward using the same systems that have
been used against us and that have held us back.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
So they were the ones that called for it, and
the Victorian government, led by Dan Andrews at the time,
to their credit, said yes, you can have that.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
For far too long we've had white belts telling our
first nations, Victorians how it ought to be and I
don't intend to do that.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
And so one of the major challenges in the first
place is okay, well, what does this look like, what
powers is it given, and what do we want from it.
A tremendous amount of work went into that, both from
the First People's Assembly but also through the establishment of
the Commission itself, which had to work out what it was,
areas it would explore and what outcomes it was looking
(10:02):
to achieve from exploring those areas.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
And I want to talk more about those parts of
the Commission, but as it moved forward and established itself
with their other challenges.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Yeah, there were a number of challenges. Major one was
this has never happened before in Australia, It's happened in
other parts of the world. How much does it cost,
who do you get to chair it, what areas does
it look at, where do you house it? I mean,
one of the things that I discovered, to my astonishment,
(10:37):
was when the Commission was looking for premises to house itself,
it meant what one would call sort of passive resistance.
They would get to a point where they were close
to negotiating a lease, and then once the landlord sort
of discovered that it was an organization run by and
(10:58):
for Aboriginal people, those lease would sort of fail to materialize.
So it wasn't until the Victorian government, by chance happened
to be building a new government building in Collingwood that
the Commission was actually able to house itself and create
an environment where people coming in and providing testimony before
the Commission could actually feel safe. One of the things
(11:23):
that seemed to take a while for a number of
people to get their head around was that the Commission
had all the powers of a royal commission. So a
royal commission can request any document that at once and
get a hold of that document, they can summoned people
to appear before the commissioner androde testimony. One of the
(11:44):
early hurdles was a tardiness from the Victorian bureaucracy in
terms of getting the thousands of documents that commissioners and
the Commission itself had actually asked for and it got
to a point where they had to actually all a
direction's hearing for non compliance.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
So the state's response over the past few weeks to
Yurook's request for documents to me demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding
of the truth telling process.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
They've brought all of these senior public servants in and
the people that were in charge of these systems and said, listen,
we're telling you nicely now that this is a royal commission.
When we ask for something, you give it to us.
Speaker 6 (12:30):
The state recognizes that compliance dates for recent notices have
passed oologizers to the Commission for the delay in providing
responses to the notices, and.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Was from that point on that I think not only
did the bureaucracy start taking Europe seriously, interested parties within
the Victorian community realized that this was very much the
real deal when it comes to inquiries.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Coming up after the break. The Formidable woman chosen to
lead Europe.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Racism and inequality affect First peoples in almost every aspect
of our lives, from schooling and work, to getting housing
and to accessing healthcare.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Daniel let's talk more about the direction that the Commission
took once it was established. Tell me about the chair.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Well, the chair is a remarkable woman, Auntie Eleanor burke Am.
She is a Wagaya Wamba Wamba elder.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
There is an unbroken line of injustice which runs from
the original theft of our lands and waters until today.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
She is someone who has dedicated her entire life to
Aboriginal people, one of the first Aboriginal public servants in Canberra.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
The truth is we cannot secure justice for First peoples
without transforming the laws and policies which by design continue
to disadvantage us.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
She is now eighty two years old, so she would
have been in her late seventies when she was called
upon to be the chair of this commission. Her main
area of interest has been education and research, and so
she's a professor and director of the Aboriginal Research Institute
at the University of South Australia. She's been inducted into
the Victorian Honor Roll for women here in Victoria and
(14:27):
also into the Aboriginal Honor Role. She's someone that is
universally respected and has been tireless in her efforts. I
couldn't think of a better chairperson to undertake this role
because it not only is still a resolve, it requires
a truckload of empathy and has required a truckload of
strengths as well. To hear some of the things that
(14:49):
these commissioners have heard over the last four or five
years has been amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, tell me more about that. What have they heard?
What has stuck with you?
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Yeah, there are a number of massacres that took place
that I didn't know about that came to light. Those
sort of revelations were profound and very moving and very distressing.
But the hardest thing from my perspective, and I would
dare say from a commissioner's perspective, would be hearing from
(15:18):
members of the Stolen Generation in particular, and hearing their
first person accounts of what happened to them or that
they missed out on the clinical brutality of the state
taking children away from the clutters of their mothers and fathers.
So hearing what happened to people in the first person
(15:38):
with the most moving moments from a people who had
had horrific ordeals with the child protection system, either as
a parent or as a child, seeing their bravery in
terms of fronting the commission, which is something that so
many original people don't want to do because why would
they trust systems, Why would they trust another inquiry? Why
(16:01):
would they trust a royal commission? Given what's happened previously?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
And as you say, truth telling is important because how
do you attempt to change things if you haven't even
identified what was wrong? But what else changes when the
truth goes on record like.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
This, Well, one of the things that does change, and
it's something that requires a little bit of lateral thinking,
but shame and guilt no longer become a concern. So
the truth has been told. We've heard from Indigenous people,
We've heard from descendants of some of the early landholders
in Victoria. We've heard how they are descendants of people
(16:41):
that were complicit in the attempt to genocide of aoriginal
people in this place we now call Victoria. And there
were no ramifications for them, there was no pushback. They
were heard respectfully and openly. And so the idea of
being able to then move forward with the truth means
that not only does it empower First Nations people, but
(17:02):
it also lifts the veil of shame and guilt on
non Aboriginal people who have been involved in some of
the things that have harmed us most. And we don't
have to keep revisiting the past because the past has
now been written and is now part of the public record,
and it's there for all to see. So what has
(17:23):
happened in many ways in the past is not our business,
but what happens next is and that's what telling the
truth has enabled us to do.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Thank you for listening to this episode of seven Am.
It's the first part in a two part series about
the York Justice Commission. Part two is available in a
seven AM feed now
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