Kerrupmara Gunditjmara man Travis Lovett has begun an 820-kilometre walk for truth, leading a large crowd from the steps of Victorian Parliament on Sunday to Dights Falls Park, where a ceremony with Wurundjeri Elders and community members took place.
Mr Lovett is scheduled to arrive at Parliament House in Canberra, on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, on May 27, where, at the end of his 39-day journey, he will deliver a letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calling for a national truth-telling process.
He told National Indigenous Times they have written to politicians from across the country to "invite them to come and walk with us". But also, he argued, "to get behind the national call for a national truth-telling process".
"We extend that invitation to the Prime Minister to come and walk with us," Mr Lovett said.
"Not to wait until the end — but come and walk with us on this journey. Come and listen, learn and engage with our people about our lived experience, about the injustices our people have experienced. But also, the strength, the resistance, and the contributions that our people continually make to this nation."
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On a brisk Naarm morning, he told the crowd they were walking because Australia has "lived inside a story that was never true".
"A story that pretended not to see us, not to hear us, not to know the truth of how this nation was built," he said. "A story that asked us to disappear so someone else could feel comfortable."
Mr Lovett argued the truth-telling process must be "grounded in "independence", "integrity", and with the "authority of First Peoples", describing it as "a process that many in this country have been calling across generations".
"Let's take those steps together. Let's walk side by side. Let's walk for truth."
The inaugural executive director of the University of Melbourne's Centre for Truth Telling and Dialogue said the walk, which will take place "alongside every day Australians," would hear from Traditional Owners on their own Country along the route.
They will highlight the "science, the knowledge and understanding that our people have, not had, but have in caring for Country, even today".
The journey to the nation's capital follows Mr Lovett's 513-kilometre walk last year, which drew more than 22,000 Victorians along the route from Portland to State Parliament, including more than 5,000 people at the finish line.
That trek came ahead of the Yoorrook Justice Commission's final reports.
While many recommendations remain unfulfilled, the Victorian government issued a formal apology last year, a key recommendation from the commission.
That apology — delivered by Premier Jacinta Allan to Parliament in December — came as a direct result of the truth-telling process, with the Premier acknowledging during her appearance before the commission that she had been unaware of many of the events that occurred on the Country where she grew up.
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Mr Lovett and other advocates argue a similar process is needed nationally.
While the federal government supported the unsuccessful 2023 Voice to Parliament referendum, the other two pillars of the Uluru Statement from the Heart — truth and treaty — remain unfulfilled.
Since then, the government has shown little inclination to commit to either, arguing some states and territories are already progressing elements of truth-telling and treaty. This comes despite the Northern Territory and Queensland abandoning their own processes following the referendum.
Indigenous leaders have continued to call for both to be returned to the national agenda.
Delivering a Welcome to Country, Wurundjeri man Thane Garvey told the crowd on Sunday: "Truth-telling is symbolic to us, because you don't have any integrity without truth."
"How can you be seen as a reliable or credible source, or a credible person, if you don't have the truth?" he asked.
"As we move forward, we have an opportunity to come together and share the truth. If we embrace these truths, we uncover these truths, it only leaves an opportunity for growth, understanding and better perspective."
