The Victorian Government has announced it will deliver a historic apology to First Nations people.
The apology, scheduled for December 9 in Victorian Parliament, was recommended by the Yoorrook Justice Commission's final report and follows the state formally signing a Treaty with First Peoples — the first such agreement in the nation's history.
The Commission urged the government to formally recognise the "responsibility of its predecessors for laws, policies and practices that contributed to systemic injustices against Victorian First Peoples" and to issue an official apology.
On Thursday, Premier Jacinta Allan said the government is "addressing the injustices of the past to build a better future for all Victorians, grounded in mutual respect and understanding".
She had earlier indicated she supported an apology when she became the first Australian leader to appear before a truth-telling commission last year.
"To move forward as a society, and to mend wrongs and heal wounds, the state needs to publicly reckon with its role in perpetrating injustice," Ms Allan's witness statement to the commission said. "It takes more than just admitting the historical facts, though they are important."
She added that apologising "provides space for healing and creates hope that together, the State and First Peoples can reconcile with their past".
"It provides the opportunity to transform the relationship and rebuild it in the service to all Victorians."
The Victorian Government worked with the First Peoples' Assembly to deliver the apology through the Treaty process, arguing that both provide a path for all Victorians to move forward together.
"It's a pathway to acknowledging the past and making real, practical changes to achieve better outcomes for First Peoples and close the gap," a government statement said.
In the foreword to Yoorrook's report, Chair Professor Eleanor Bourke reflected: "Our lands were taken, and with them, something deeper: the essence of culture, and the ability to continue traditional practices and maintain identity."
"Death, violence, disease, dispossession and government control changed the landscape."
Outgoing Minister for Treaty and First Peoples, Natalie Hutchins, who championed the Treaty internally, said Yoorrook's report "laid bare the impacts of the past on First Peoples".
"It's important that we apologise for injustices and acknowledge their enduring strength," she said.
Earlier this year, VACCHO CEO and Gunditjmara woman Jill Gallagher told the ABC: "We don't blame anyone alive today for these atrocities, but it is the responsibility of those of us alive today to accept that truth — and all Victorians today must accept, recognise and reconcile with these factual findings."
Responding to the report, which contained 100 recommendations, Ms Allan said at the time: "When you read about the violence, you read about the massacres, you read about the decisions in the past to forcibly remove children from their family, from their loved ones, from their culture, and their people ... many parts of the report are challenging."
During her testimony before Yoorrook, Ms Allan said she felt distressed and ashamed learning of the massacres of Aboriginal people on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, where she grew up.
"I did not know of the massacres, I'm ashamed to say. I have learnt about the size and scale of the murders and the massacres through my preparation for my appearance today," she said.
"It brings me a sense of shame and distress personally that I did not know that, and it brings me a sense of shame and distress that this was done by people, all in the pursuit of taking land off First Peoples."
The apology can be viewed by the public at Parliament House on December 9. It will also be live-streamed on the Parliament of Victoria website.
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