‘Not enough to merely know history’: Premier fronts Indigenous truth-telling inquiry for first time

Premier Jacinta Allan has fronted Victoria’s Indigenous truth-telling inquiry for the first time, where she said she wanted to send “a clear, unequivocal message” that her government is determined to work towards a treaty.

Allan was warned by the Yoorrook Justice Commission to live up to her words on Monday before she was questioned for nearly three hours about issues being examined by the inquiry, including the dispossession of Indigenous land and the exclusion of Aboriginal people from state resource revenues.

Commissioner Travis Lovett presents Premier Jacinta Allan with a message stick on Monday that symbolises the history of colonisation in Victoria and hopes for healing through truth telling and a treaty.Credit: Justin McManus

The commission also asked Allan, who is the first premier to appear before an Indigenous truth and justice inquiry in Australia, about the implementation of self-determination principles in government and embedding truth-telling into the state school curriculum.

Yoorrook chair Eleanor Bourke said the premier’s evidence must lead to real change.

“Your words will live on the public record for generations to come,” she said.

“When you leave here today, I ask you to live up to your words and actions. First Peoples have faced a long history of being let down by successive governments and their leaders. Broken promises, unfulfilled commitments and apologies followed by inertia.”

In her opening statement, the premier said that the policies and practices of past governments had created the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Victorians.

“There is an unbroken line between the dispossession and violence of the past and the lives of First Peoples today,” she said.

“Whether ignorance or deliberate intent, we have driven that disparity ... and that disparity continues to play out in the lives and life outcomes of Aboriginal people. Acknowledging that ongoing injustice demands an honest recognition that despite efforts and intentions, we still have a long way to go.”

Allan said the record of Victoria’s history was incomplete and that a greater understanding of the past would benefit everyone.

Djiri Djiri dancers perform before Monday’s hearing.Credit: Justin McManus

“Truth matters to our past, our present and to our future. Many Victorians’ ... education of Aboriginal peoples’ histories and experiences was limited. [...] that limitation was not an accident, an oversight, or absent-mindedness. It was part of a deliberate and systematic attempt to erase First Nations people from our state’s history. The process of truth-telling is a refusal to submit to that silence.

“The record this commission will hand down will mean at long last, the truth of our state’s history is told. The murder, the massacres, the dispossession of culture and Country. The land taken away, the way of life destroyed, the children who never came back home, and those who are still trying to find their way back.

“It’s not enough to merely know this history. We do need to learn from it, and we do need to act on it, too …

“That history continues to live on in our present.”

Allan acknowledged that First Peoples’ sovereignty had never been ceded to colonial settlers or governments.

“[First Peoples’] ties to land and waters … can never be extinguished,” she said.

Tony McAvoy, SC, senior counsel assisting the commission, asked the premier if state agencies could make the necessary reforms to implement the principles of true self-determination required to achieve a meaningful treaty.

Allan said that would require deep structural change within government and would challenge the views of people “in our government systems”.

She also repeated her comments from last week about including the work of the truth-telling commission in the state education curriculum.

“In shining a light on how our state was settled, we can genuinely start to work towards better outcomes and that is part of the outcomes of treaty,” she said.

Following the commission’s second interim report last year, the state government accepted 28 of the commission’s 46 recommendations in full or in principle, but it is still considering 15 more and has rejected three outright. The commission said at the time that the government’s response was disappointing.

Yoorrook is expected to deliver its final report by mid-2025.

With AAP