Despite the fallout from the failed federal referendum last year, in Victoria 2024 has been a remarkable year, filled with powerful moments.

The long-awaited opening of Treaty negotiations took place between the Victorian Government and the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria.

The Yoorrook Justice Commission, of which I am a Deputy Chair, conducted inquiries into systemic injustices facing our people in relation to land, sky and waters, education, health, housing and the economy.

Many of the recommendations made by Yoorrook – Victoria's truth telling process – will be the subject of Treaty negotiations. These two processes are intertwined.

In March, Yoorrook commenced public hearings into land on Gunditjmara Country in Portland, where Edward Henty landed in 1834 to establish the first permanent European settlement.

One boat, one moment, that began a cascade of destruction in what was described to the Commission as the "swiftest expansion within the British empire of any occupation of land".

Within months Melbourne emerged.

Within years, squatters had established 700 stations on stolen land and brought in millions of sheep.

At the same time, our ancestors were being slaughtered in massacres and decimated by foreign diseases. Between first European contact and the 1850s, the population of First Peoples plummeted from around 60,000 to less than 2,000.

Yoorrook heard how the state's education system used a "white settler national master narrative" to portray the "benevolent progress of the superior white civilisation", while reinforcing racist perceptions and stereotypes about First Peoples.

Racism and discrimination infiltrated and embedded itself within colonial systems, including in health, housing, child protection and justice.

The evidence First Peoples gave to Yoorrook was often raw and emotional. I cannot thank our people enough.

Through truth-telling, we also saw non-Indigenous Victorians become powerful allies for change.

Some shared how learning about the impacts of intergenerational trauma transformed their understanding of their First Peoples neighbours, colleagues and friends.

In September, three non-Indigenous witnesses gave evidence to Yoorrook's Descendants Day hearing, shedding new light on key moments in our shared history.

Among them was Peter Sharp, a great grandson of former Prime Minister Alfred Deakin.

Sharp talked about Deakin's role in the creation and passing of 1886 Amendment to the Aboriginal Protection Act, commonly known as the Half-Caste Act.

The legislation had a devastating effect on Victorian First Peoples and was central to the beginning of the Stolen Generations.

The hearing day was powerful because each witness not only acknowledged past wrongs but how those wrongs continue to shape current realities for First Peoples.

Through truth-telling, Yoorrook has documented how policies of child removal, from the Stolen Generations to present-day child protection interventions, create ripples of trauma that extend across generations.

It has helped explain that "intergenerational trauma" is not some abstract concept, but of real, measurable impacts on brain development, stress responses and family functioning.

The trauma responses we see today – the hypervigilance, the deep-seated fear of authority, the protective mechanisms interpreted as aggression – are not inherent traits.

They are natural responses of a people who have endured generations of systemic attempted destruction of their families, culture and identity.

Through truth-telling, we are not just documenting injury, we are creating space for healing.

Every truth shared helps dismantle false narratives used to justify ongoing discrimination.

Every truth told helps restore our rightful place as sovereign peoples who, despite everything, have maintained our connection to culture, Country and community.

In 2025, Yoorrook will continue to share the truths we have gathered over the past three years to build our collective understanding of this shared history.

It will also make recommendations to reform the systems which continue to cause harm and injustice to our people.

The more we open our hearts and our minds to the full story of our shared history, and to understand how the past continues to impact the present, the better off we all will be.

When I walk the lands of my Wurundjeri ancestors, I feel the pressing weight of expectations - expectations to achieve justice for those who have spent decades fighting for their rights; expectations to honour truths shared, often at great personal cost; expectations to create real and lasting change for all First Peoples in Victoria, who deserve nothing less.

When we share this load, we lighten the weight of expectations.

History will be the ultimate judge of how we do. As we get ready to begin 2025, I am confident better times are ahead.

Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter is Deputy Chair of the Yoorrook Justice Commission and a proud Wurundjeri and Nguari illum wurrung woman.