July 1, 2025 • 13 mins
This is the second installment of a two part series about the history and impact of the Yoorrook Justice Commission.
In this episode, we hear the stories of First Nations elders whose loved ones were stolen, and who lived through the racist policies whose legacies are still felt in society today. We also hear what happened when the Victorian Premier became the first sitting leader to testify.
And now that the truth has been told, Daniel discusses the recommendations of the report and what happens next.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is the second episode in a two part series.
If you haven't yet, go back and listen to part one.
It's called The Road to Europe. In this episode, we
find out what happened when the Europe Justice Commission started
taking evidence and what should happen now that the truth
has been told. Daniel, you've been documenting the Europe Justice Commission.
(00:28):
Tell me more about who else we heard from.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Aw heard from people like Uncle Jim Berg, who has
been a seminal figure in the original community here. He
was the person that established the Curity Heritage Trust As
an example.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
However, that is often wondered about my dad and his family.
None I ever known or soon I was total. He
was taken away from his mum and became part of
the Stolen generation.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
People like Jill Galligher. She is someone that has come
from a very traumatized background and was able to articulate
her story beautifully.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
These social determinants are the invisible shackles that constrain us
as Aboriginal people, impacting on our lives far more than
genetics or individual choices.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Ever, could we heard from other people like Aliam of Thorpe,
who is Senatorlia Thorpe's mother presented before the Commission.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
You got a name because that your Aboriginal name was
run away.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
You didn't know it, so I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I've still lost. She was an absolute stalwart and helping
to establish the community controlled sector down here in Victoria,
the retauring Aboriginal Legal Service and the return Abriaginal Health Service,
and hearing all these stories from all these elders before
they're gone is something that we just can't sort of
(01:56):
underestimate the power of that because having it down on
the official record as part of the true history of
this place from the people that experienced them themselves is
something that and I'm assuming a lot of other people
involved in the process will never take for granted.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
So we've got these collective stories of abuse, particularly from
members of the Stolen Generation, as they are giving their evidence.
What do you think became clear about the way that
various systems in this country have the role that they've played.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
That's a very good question, because what became clear is
that not only were systems initially designed at the exclusion
of Aboriginal people. What became clear as Aboriginal people became
more and more of a problem for the system and
for politicians and everyone else in between. Those systems actually
(02:55):
started to adapt to breed the Aboriginal community out into
the white community. So in the late nineteenth century, there
was this thing called, and it's a terrible term, called
the half Caste Act, which initially just prevented half casts
and quarter casts, all these terrible eugenic terms members of
(03:16):
the Aboriginal community from dealing with the full blooded members
of their community. So the idea was that you would
leave the full bloods on missions to die, and you
would keep the half casts and quarter casts and everyone
else in between away from them, so there couldn't be
any more sort of procreational or strengthening of Aboriginal blood
(03:37):
by Aboriginal people getting together. And the idea is that
eventually the half cast would fade away into the general
population over time, so we will just have a bunch
of people that wouldn't identify as being Aboriginal, but they
would tan up very well during summer. And Victoria is
full of those stories. Now, that is a specific act
(03:59):
that was specifically designed to do that. That is cultural genocide.
Every Aboriginal person lived under the purview of the Half
cast Act, and then informed the way things like the
criminal justice system and the child protection system, the health
system dealt with First peoples. These things were very, very real,
(04:21):
and these things were highlighted at a very granular level
throughout the workings of Europe and the.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Victorian Premier Sinator Alan. She became Australia's first sitting state
leader to testify to an Indigenous Ledge Truth Commission. Tell
me about her appearance, the questions that she faced.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Premier, the evidence that you were about to give, do
you undertake to provide truthful evidence to the europ Justice Commission?
Speaker 5 (04:46):
I certainly do well.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It was quite extraordinary because it's the first time that
someone with that much authority has been called before Aboriginal
people to provide testimony, and it's the first time that
Aboriginal people have been in the powerful One of the
extraordinary things from that day was that the premiers acknowledged
ignorance on some of the massacres and killings that had
(05:11):
happened in her part of the world. On jud j
our own country in Bendico, I have.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Learned much that I did not know in terms of
the true history of the dispossession, what the settlers, the
colonizers did when they came to Victoria. I did not
know of the massacres. I'm ashamed to say I did not.
I have learned about the size and scale of the
(05:39):
murders and the massacres.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
She also said that she didn't learn about any of
this in school. She wouldn't have had a clue who
the traditional owners were. That moment really highlighted why we
needed a truth telling commission and why Europe was so important.
The europe commiss I actually heard from two hundred and
(06:02):
twenty nine witnesses, eliciting sixteen government apologies from various ministers
and chiefs of various departments. One of the most notable
apologies was from the Victorian Police Commissioner.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
The result of systemic racism, racist attitudes and discriminatory actions
of police have gone undetected, unchecked, unpunished or without appropriate sanctions,
and of course significant harm across generations of Aboriginal families.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
It was something that wasn't called for, but it was
also something that really left the police force open to
criticism every time from thereon it acted in a way
that was seen as being prejudicial against Aboriginal people.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
After the break, the truth has been told so what
comes next, Daniel. The final report from the Europe Commission
has now been handed to the government. Can you talk
me through what the Commission wants the government to do
with its findings, What the recommendations are.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
They cover a whole bunch of different areas, things like
strengthening the treaty process to make sure that the lessons
of Europe are better than those processes, and obvious one
is a set of recommendations that go to the idea
of strengthening cultural competence and responsiveness. That's where the story
of Europe and the history and the reports that it
(07:37):
on earthed will hopefully find their way not only into
the curriculum, but also into some of these potential cultural
competence frameworks that may be established as a result of that.
Linking so much of what we do here in Victoria
back to human rights and basic human rights, including aboriginal
cultural rights. There are a set of recommendations that go
(07:58):
to that and ongoing truth telling as we move forward.
That's something that the First People's Assembly of Victoria has
been calling for and there's something that the eurok Justice
Commission has been very cognizant of as it's been moving forward.
Oversight of the trial protection system's early prevention and intervention
when it comes to child removal. When original children are
(08:21):
removed from home, if they go to a non Aboriginal setting,
that they have an opportunity to reunify with their Aboriginal
heritage and with their Aboriginal culture.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
And you've spoken about the personal stories the Commission heard
and about the systemic failures of governments. So how did
you address the issue of reparations.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
We know because it was presented before the Commission that
there was two hundred and eighty seven billion dollars worth
of gold extracted in Victoria since eighteen fifty one, and
of that money, none of it has been seen by
Indigenous people. There has been eighty three billion dollars in
revenue generated from water rivers and the damming of those rivers,
(09:03):
one point eight billion generated from friestry and grazing licenses
in the last thirteen years alone. So what the government
decides to do with that is yet to be seen.
Let's just hope that it isn't another case of another
rural commission that has provided a lot of thorough and
meaningful recommendations that aren't acted upon by the government. Receives
(09:26):
them all the successive governments that still haven't acted on them.
And of course I'm thinking of the Rural Commission that
through Aboriginal dests and custody as a prime example of that.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah, the issue of trust is so key here. As
you say, there have been so many reports, inquiries and
yet nothing changes. So what sense do you get of
the willingness of those in power to take accountability, to
make meaningful change, to accept and adopt what the Commission
is telling them.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I think we're in a unique situation because we have
a Victorian government. There's been in power for a long
time now, but it is a government that took the
advice of Aboriginal people to instigate the treaty process, took
the advice of the First People's Assembly of Victoria to
instigate the truth telling process in Europe. You would think
they would be more open to receiving the recommendations from
(10:18):
the Commission than potentially any other government in the history
of Australia. They're certainly making the right noises, they have
been supportive of the Commission. But the one great thing
that we have to our advantage at this point that
has never happened anywhere else in this country is that
we have the First People's Assembly of Victoria there as
(10:40):
a separate, powerful entity that will be able to hold
government to account in real time. So many of the
recommendations and reports that have befallen here in Victoria and
around the country have fallen by the wayside because there
hasn't been any sort of apparatus for governments and departments
systems to be how to account in real time. And
(11:02):
here in Victoria we have that through the First People's
Assembly of Victoria. One of the things I'm always mindful of,
and I'm not sure how much other people have been
thinking about it, but post the disastrous result of the
voice and the political capital that many in our political
(11:23):
class have been trying to obtain from that defeat, it's
unlikely in my view that we'll ever see anything like
this in this country again. Something that has given the
powers that Uruk has had the Prime Minister post the
defeat of the referendum, has seemingly walked away from any
(11:44):
notion of a truth telling process. We've seen truth telling
processes kiboshed in Queensland. We're in a much more thwart
political environment now that makes what's happened at Uruk and
the people that presented to Yuruk and the work the
commissioners have done even more powerful because it is unlikely
(12:04):
that we'll ever see anything like this in this country. Again.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Well, Daniel, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Always good space you Ruby.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Also in the news today, Victorian health authorities have recommended
twelve hundred children linked to a childcare worker charged with
sexual abuse get tested for infectious diseases. Victorian Premier descent
To Allen has called the case shocking and distressing, after
the twenty six year old man was charged with seventy
child abuse offences while working at twenty different childcare centers
(12:41):
between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty five. Police say the
alleged victims will all aged between five months and two
years of age, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnyahoo is
set to meet with US President Donald Trump next week
in Washington of amounting pressure to broker a new ceasefire
agreement in Gaza. The news comes as Israel ramps up
(13:02):
its bombing of Gaza with air strikes killing sixty Palestinians,
including twenty two women, children and a journalist. Hiding in
a cafe. Over the weekend, the US President took to
social media to call on Yahoo to quote make the
deal in Gaza. I'm Ruby Jones is seven am. Thanks
for listening.
This is the second episode in a two part series.
If you haven't yet, go back and listen to part one.
It's called The Road to Europe. In this episode, we
find out what happened when the Europe Justice Commission started
taking evidence and what should happen now that the truth
has been told. Daniel, you've been documenting the Europe Justice Commission.
(00:28):
Tell me more about who else we heard from.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Aw heard from people like Uncle Jim Berg, who has
been a seminal figure in the original community here. He
was the person that established the Curity Heritage Trust As
an example.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
However, that is often wondered about my dad and his family.
None I ever known or soon I was total. He
was taken away from his mum and became part of
the Stolen generation.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
People like Jill Galligher. She is someone that has come
from a very traumatized background and was able to articulate
her story beautifully.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
These social determinants are the invisible shackles that constrain us
as Aboriginal people, impacting on our lives far more than
genetics or individual choices.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Ever, could we heard from other people like Aliam of Thorpe,
who is Senatorlia Thorpe's mother presented before the Commission.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
You got a name because that your Aboriginal name was
run away.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
You didn't know it, so I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I've still lost. She was an absolute stalwart and helping
to establish the community controlled sector down here in Victoria,
the retauring Aboriginal Legal Service and the return Abriaginal Health Service,
and hearing all these stories from all these elders before
they're gone is something that we just can't sort of
(01:56):
underestimate the power of that because having it down on
the official record as part of the true history of
this place from the people that experienced them themselves is
something that and I'm assuming a lot of other people
involved in the process will never take for granted.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
So we've got these collective stories of abuse, particularly from
members of the Stolen Generation, as they are giving their evidence.
What do you think became clear about the way that
various systems in this country have the role that they've played.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
That's a very good question, because what became clear is
that not only were systems initially designed at the exclusion
of Aboriginal people. What became clear as Aboriginal people became
more and more of a problem for the system and
for politicians and everyone else in between. Those systems actually
(02:55):
started to adapt to breed the Aboriginal community out into
the white community. So in the late nineteenth century, there
was this thing called, and it's a terrible term, called
the half Caste Act, which initially just prevented half casts
and quarter casts, all these terrible eugenic terms members of
(03:16):
the Aboriginal community from dealing with the full blooded members
of their community. So the idea was that you would
leave the full bloods on missions to die, and you
would keep the half casts and quarter casts and everyone
else in between away from them, so there couldn't be
any more sort of procreational or strengthening of Aboriginal blood
(03:37):
by Aboriginal people getting together. And the idea is that
eventually the half cast would fade away into the general
population over time, so we will just have a bunch
of people that wouldn't identify as being Aboriginal, but they
would tan up very well during summer. And Victoria is
full of those stories. Now, that is a specific act
(03:59):
that was specifically designed to do that. That is cultural genocide.
Every Aboriginal person lived under the purview of the Half
cast Act, and then informed the way things like the
criminal justice system and the child protection system, the health
system dealt with First peoples. These things were very, very real,
(04:21):
and these things were highlighted at a very granular level
throughout the workings of Europe and the.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Victorian Premier Sinator Alan. She became Australia's first sitting state
leader to testify to an Indigenous Ledge Truth Commission. Tell
me about her appearance, the questions that she faced.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Premier, the evidence that you were about to give, do
you undertake to provide truthful evidence to the europ Justice Commission?
Speaker 5 (04:46):
I certainly do well.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It was quite extraordinary because it's the first time that
someone with that much authority has been called before Aboriginal
people to provide testimony, and it's the first time that
Aboriginal people have been in the powerful One of the
extraordinary things from that day was that the premiers acknowledged
ignorance on some of the massacres and killings that had
(05:11):
happened in her part of the world. On jud j
our own country in Bendico, I have.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Learned much that I did not know in terms of
the true history of the dispossession, what the settlers, the
colonizers did when they came to Victoria. I did not
know of the massacres. I'm ashamed to say I did not.
I have learned about the size and scale of the
(05:39):
murders and the massacres.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
She also said that she didn't learn about any of
this in school. She wouldn't have had a clue who
the traditional owners were. That moment really highlighted why we
needed a truth telling commission and why Europe was so important.
The europe commiss I actually heard from two hundred and
(06:02):
twenty nine witnesses, eliciting sixteen government apologies from various ministers
and chiefs of various departments. One of the most notable
apologies was from the Victorian Police Commissioner.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
The result of systemic racism, racist attitudes and discriminatory actions
of police have gone undetected, unchecked, unpunished or without appropriate sanctions,
and of course significant harm across generations of Aboriginal families.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
It was something that wasn't called for, but it was
also something that really left the police force open to
criticism every time from thereon it acted in a way
that was seen as being prejudicial against Aboriginal people.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
After the break, the truth has been told so what
comes next, Daniel. The final report from the Europe Commission
has now been handed to the government. Can you talk
me through what the Commission wants the government to do
with its findings, What the recommendations are.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
They cover a whole bunch of different areas, things like
strengthening the treaty process to make sure that the lessons
of Europe are better than those processes, and obvious one
is a set of recommendations that go to the idea
of strengthening cultural competence and responsiveness. That's where the story
of Europe and the history and the reports that it
(07:37):
on earthed will hopefully find their way not only into
the curriculum, but also into some of these potential cultural
competence frameworks that may be established as a result of that.
Linking so much of what we do here in Victoria
back to human rights and basic human rights, including aboriginal
cultural rights. There are a set of recommendations that go
(07:58):
to that and ongoing truth telling as we move forward.
That's something that the First People's Assembly of Victoria has
been calling for and there's something that the eurok Justice
Commission has been very cognizant of as it's been moving forward.
Oversight of the trial protection system's early prevention and intervention
when it comes to child removal. When original children are
(08:21):
removed from home, if they go to a non Aboriginal setting,
that they have an opportunity to reunify with their Aboriginal
heritage and with their Aboriginal culture.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
And you've spoken about the personal stories the Commission heard
and about the systemic failures of governments. So how did
you address the issue of reparations.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
We know because it was presented before the Commission that
there was two hundred and eighty seven billion dollars worth
of gold extracted in Victoria since eighteen fifty one, and
of that money, none of it has been seen by
Indigenous people. There has been eighty three billion dollars in
revenue generated from water rivers and the damming of those rivers,
(09:03):
one point eight billion generated from friestry and grazing licenses
in the last thirteen years alone. So what the government
decides to do with that is yet to be seen.
Let's just hope that it isn't another case of another
rural commission that has provided a lot of thorough and
meaningful recommendations that aren't acted upon by the government. Receives
(09:26):
them all the successive governments that still haven't acted on them.
And of course I'm thinking of the Rural Commission that
through Aboriginal dests and custody as a prime example of that.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah, the issue of trust is so key here. As
you say, there have been so many reports, inquiries and
yet nothing changes. So what sense do you get of
the willingness of those in power to take accountability, to
make meaningful change, to accept and adopt what the Commission
is telling them.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I think we're in a unique situation because we have
a Victorian government. There's been in power for a long
time now, but it is a government that took the
advice of Aboriginal people to instigate the treaty process, took
the advice of the First People's Assembly of Victoria to
instigate the truth telling process in Europe. You would think
they would be more open to receiving the recommendations from
(10:18):
the Commission than potentially any other government in the history
of Australia. They're certainly making the right noises, they have
been supportive of the Commission. But the one great thing
that we have to our advantage at this point that
has never happened anywhere else in this country is that
we have the First People's Assembly of Victoria there as
(10:40):
a separate, powerful entity that will be able to hold
government to account in real time. So many of the
recommendations and reports that have befallen here in Victoria and
around the country have fallen by the wayside because there
hasn't been any sort of apparatus for governments and departments
systems to be how to account in real time. And
(11:02):
here in Victoria we have that through the First People's
Assembly of Victoria. One of the things I'm always mindful of,
and I'm not sure how much other people have been
thinking about it, but post the disastrous result of the
voice and the political capital that many in our political
(11:23):
class have been trying to obtain from that defeat, it's
unlikely in my view that we'll ever see anything like
this in this country again. Something that has given the
powers that Uruk has had the Prime Minister post the
defeat of the referendum, has seemingly walked away from any
(11:44):
notion of a truth telling process. We've seen truth telling
processes kiboshed in Queensland. We're in a much more thwart
political environment now that makes what's happened at Uruk and
the people that presented to Yuruk and the work the
commissioners have done even more powerful because it is unlikely
(12:04):
that we'll ever see anything like this in this country. Again.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Well, Daniel, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Always good space you Ruby.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Also in the news today, Victorian health authorities have recommended
twelve hundred children linked to a childcare worker charged with
sexual abuse get tested for infectious diseases. Victorian Premier descent
To Allen has called the case shocking and distressing, after
the twenty six year old man was charged with seventy
child abuse offences while working at twenty different childcare centers
(12:41):
between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty five. Police say the
alleged victims will all aged between five months and two
years of age, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnyahoo is
set to meet with US President Donald Trump next week
in Washington of amounting pressure to broker a new ceasefire
agreement in Gaza. The news comes as Israel ramps up
(13:02):
its bombing of Gaza with air strikes killing sixty Palestinians,
including twenty two women, children and a journalist. Hiding in
a cafe. Over the weekend, the US President took to
social media to call on Yahoo to quote make the
deal in Gaza. I'm Ruby Jones is seven am. Thanks
for listening.
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