A former AFL player and a former journalist are among the new faces elected to the next term of Victoria's First Peoples' Assembly.
Results of the Assembly's third election were announced on Friday by the Treaty Authority, with 17 new members elected.
New members include former Essendon player and Gunditjmara, Yorta Yorta, Wemba Wemba, Dja Dja Wurrung and Dhudhuroa man, Nathan Lovett-Murray, and former ABC journalist and Wemba Wemba, Yorta Yorta, Mutti Mutti, Barapa Barapa woman, Jedda Atkinson-Costa.
A further 12 Reserved Seats for Traditional Owner groups are elected through separate community processes.
The elections, held from March 21 to earlier this month, come after the Assembly negotiated the country's first Treaty with the Victorian Government last year.
The elected body of Traditional Owners will oversee delivery of outcomes under Treaty through a new governance structure known as Gellung Warl, meaning "tip of the spear" in Gunaikurnai.
Under the framework, the Assembly, alongside a permanent truth-telling body and an accountability commission, will oversee policies aimed at closing the gap in Victoria.
More than 80 candidates contested 22 General Seats across five regions, including 10 representatives from Metro and three each from the North East, North West, South East and South West.
The Assembly said more than 10,000 of the 43,000 eligible Aboriginal Victorians enrolled to vote in the non-compulsory election — four times the number enrolled in the first election in 2019 — with more than half casting a vote. Almost a third of Victoria's Indigenous population is aged 14 or younger and ineligible to vote.
Outgoing co-chair Ngarra Murray, who did not seek re-election, said since the first Assembly election in 2019, the "seeds of our Aboriginal democracy in Victoria" had continued to grow.
"At a time when people are losing trust with democracy, I am so proud that the number of First Peoples enrolling and voting in the Treaty Elections keeps going up," she said.
"This is a huge achievement when our elections are not compulsory."
All successful candidates will serve four-year terms, though the state Coalition has pledged to abolish the Assembly and tear up Treaty if it wins November's state election, arguing it would not help close the gap.
Ms Murray — a Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung and Dhudhuroa woman —said there had been significant work since 2019, with more still to do, but said the results show "our people are committed to Treaty".
"We're the experts on our own lives, we know what does and doesn't work for our communities, and Treaty is how we make the most of our local knowledge to get better outcomes for our people," she said.
New members will be inducted in the coming weeks, with the Assembly expected to hold its first official meeting on Dja Dja Wurrung Country next month to elect new co-chairs.
The full provisional results of the 2026 Treaty Elections can be viewed online.
