Victoria’s first treaty with Aboriginal people has been signed by members of the Aboriginal community, the premier and state governor.<\/p>\n
“It was such a momentous occasion. Some of the words that were spoken just brought tears to my eyes, as they do now,” as her voice wavered with emotion.<\/p>\n
“Kids will grow up without racism in their lives because they’ll have an understanding of what really happened to our people,” she said.<\/p>\n
“And we finally get to have a say about our lives and have the power to hold government to account, to make sure that they’re doing the right thing for our people.”<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Victoria wrote a new chapter in Australia’s history books by becoming the first jurisdiction to sign a treaty with First Nations peoples.<\/p>\n
Parked on the side of the road \u2014 a pit stop in her five-hour-long journey home \u2014 Aunty Thelma relived that moment.<\/p>\n
The day prior, elders, mums, dads and their babies gathered on the banks of the Birrarung in Melbourne to celebrate the first signing of the treaty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Geared with umbrellas and expecting a downpour of rain, they were gifted a surprise when the smoking ceremony began.<\/p>\n
“The sun just shone the entire time that we were still there, and I just thought, ‘our old people are happy with us,'” Aunty Thelma said.<\/p>\n
“I thought about my grandmother, grandfathers, my mother, father and uncles. I thought about what they had to go through.”<\/p>\n
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Aunty Thelma celebrating with other elders and members of the First Peoples’ Assembly. (Supplied: Leroy Miller)<\/p>\n
Aunty Thelma was part of the elders’ committee that provided cultural advice to the elected body \u2013 the First Peoples’ Assembly \u2013 which negotiated the treaty with the Victorian government.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now signed into law<\/a>, the Treaty of Victoria will officially come into effect on December 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n The treaty establishes a new body, Gellung Warl, with three arms:<\/a><\/p>\n Nyerna Yoorrook Telkuna \u2014 a truth and healing body that will document local history.Nginma Ngainga Wara \u2014 an accountability body to ensure the government holds up its end of the agreement and;The First Peoples’ Assembly \u2014 an elected body which will be consulted on laws and policies affecting First Peoples.’I feel like I want to cry’<\/p>\n Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss followed the news from her home state in Queensland.<\/p>\n “Most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia never thought we would get to see a treaty signed in this country and today we are sitting here as witnesses,” she said.<\/p>\n “My hair is standing up, I’m emotional, I feel like I want to cry.” Katie Kiss says Australia\u2019s first treaty was not the ‘finish line’ but the start to a ‘positive future’. (Supplied: Interim Truth and Treaty Body)<\/p>\n Until this week, Australia was the only developed country colonised by the British that never signed a formal treaty with First Nations people.<\/p>\n “I don’t think we can underestimate the importance of this,” Ms Kiss said.<\/p>\n “Human rights have not been achieved here for First Peoples.<\/p>\n “They’ve been abused, they’ve been denied, and treaty is the first step in providing redress and reset and reframe that relationship between the state and Australia’s First Peoples.”<\/p>\n Since the Voice referendum defeat in 2023, Commissioner Kiss said the Australian government’s commitment to implement the rest of the Uluru Statement from the Heart \u2014 Treaty and Truth-telling \u2014 has “gone silent”.<\/p>\n Reckoning with Australia’s secret history<\/a><\/p>\n Australia has a painful past. For the first time, the country has been grappling with recording the stories of that history in a truth-telling commission.<\/p>\n Those key pillars are what she believes will help close the gap around issues like health, housing, youth incarceration and suicide because First Nations people “will be in the driver’s seat”, leading the solutions.<\/p>\n She also said they would play an important role in helping the nation heal.<\/p>\n “I think this process that’s unfolded in Victoria is the exact demonstration of what Voice, Treaty and Truth is all about. It’s about putting our people in the driver’s seat of issues that are affecting our mob,” Commissioner Kiss said.<\/p>\n “[It] puts in place those critical foundations to make sure we can address the past, deal with that together, and move forward in a way that delivers justice, healing and truth for all Victorians but also for Australia.<\/p>\n “Telling the truth didn’t bring the house down, if anything, it strengthened it.”<\/p>\n In a statement, Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy said Victoria’s treaty “showed what can be achieved when local communities and government come together and acknowledge the truths of the past, realities of the present and hopes for the future”.<\/p>\n “The government remains committed to the principles of the Uluru Statement from the Heart,” she said.<\/p>\n The road to treaty in Victoria has taken almost a decade. (ABC News: Joseph Dunstan)<\/p>\n ‘Courage’ shown by Vic government<\/p>\n Until November last year, Queensland was on its own path to truth-telling and treaty.<\/p>\n Waanyi and Kalkadoon barrister Joshua Creamer was the chair of the Truth Telling and Healing Inquiry before the Crisafulli government abolished it<\/a>, but not before countless accounts of traumatic and shocking experiences were brought forward by First Nations people.<\/p>\n Mr Creamer congratulated the First Peoples’ Assembly on signing a treaty and said it was a “hugely significant outcome”.<\/p>\n “We’ve all watched with a real sense of pride in what the community in Victoria has led through the truth-telling process and now the treaty process, and it’s set an example for the rest of us,” he said.<\/p>\n The journey took more than a decade, led by the unwavering advocacy of First Nations people in Victoria, he said, along with what he called the “courage” of the Victorian government, led by Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan.<\/p>\n “Few political leaders actually possess that courage,” Mr Creamer said.<\/p>\n “Sometimes to do things that aren’t popular, but are important and right, takes a lot of courage, and Victoria’s had a vision now for more than a decade in getting to this point \u2026 and they’ve held firm on that.”<\/p>\n To this day, he said, Indigenous and non-Indigenous people stop Mr Creamer on the street, expressing their “disappointment” in the decisions made by the Crisafulli government.<\/p>\n But the unwinding of progress will not stop their fight for justice and healing, he said.<\/p>\n Joshua Creamer says the treaty reflects the tireless advocacy of First Nations people in Victoria. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n “It’s the rights, interests and the advocacy of Indigenous people who outlive government.<\/p>\n “We’re happy to wait the course because we’ve got a sense of responsibility for recognising those who came before us but ensuring those who come after us, the world’s a better place.”<\/p>\n In a statement, Queensland’s Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Fiona Simpson said the repeal of the Path to Treaty Act was an election commitment, and its funds were redirected to Closing the Gap priorities “which deliver tangible outcomes on housing, education and health”.<\/p>\n ‘It makes us feel empowered’<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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