Australia's first truth-telling body has launched a new campaign featuring the truths of First Peoples to coincide with Reconciliation Week.
The Yoorrook Justice Commission, who are expected to make more than 100 recommendations when they deliver their final report due at the end of next month, have heard past and ongoing systemic injustices faced by Victorian First Peoples over the last four years, with the aim of documenting the "real" history of Victoria since colonisation.
Over the next six weeks, the "First the talk. Now the walk," campaign will elevate truths told by First Peoples, the Commission said, sharing truths and stories from Indigenous people across Victoria.
Yoorrook chair, Professor Eleanor Bourke AM, said the campaign is about sharing the truths heard by the Commission "so we can all understand this past and move forward together".
"Keep an eye out for these stories as you move through the city and other locations and make the time to listen and learn," she said
"We are deeply appreciative of those who have shared their stories, which are now on the public record – a gift for us all to benefit from."
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The stories will include those of the Chief Executive of the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations, Paul Paton, who discusses Country and the importance of family, culture, language, customs and lore.
"Land is us and we are land," he says. "Land is central to what we call Country.
"Country is part of us and we are part of it. Country is our family, Country is our culture, our language, our customs and spiritual beliefs. Our traditional knowledge and teachings."
Wolithiga Elder Uncle Henry Atkinson, who was awarded the prestigious Patron/Elder award for his lifelong contribution to cultural awareness at the 2022 Victorian NAIDOC awards, speaks about experiencing racism at school growing up.
"We weren't allowed to have playtime at the same time as the other kids," he says.
"We weren't really encouraged to be good at school. We weren't allowed to play sport, you weren't allowed to really exceed educational wise. You're always kept down, and you really didn't get any grading of any kind."
Promoted through the Commission's digital channels, the stories will also be found in key cultural institutions across the state, including the state library, Geelong Arts Centre, The Wheeler Centre, the Melbourne Museum, and on the large screens at Fed Square.
Having overseen the vast swathes of evidence from First Peoples across the state, Professor Bourke said earlier this month it showed "that our own people want to tell their story further".
"We heard from people in prison and Premiers; from descendants of those who took the land; descendants of those whose land was taken; from those who wrote the laws and those broken by those very rules," the Wergaia/Wamba Wamba Elder told the Melbourne Press Club.
"We listened to Elders who buried their grandchildren taken by the state and sat with mothers criminalised for being poor. We heard about Aboriginal babies being marked for removal by child protection before they were born. We've listened to communities fighting for access to their own Country, and to men whose lives were swallowed by prisons before they ever had a chance.
"These are not stories from the distant past, these are stories from now."
