I was kept from my Indigenous family as a child. Then my own kids were taken from me

As the Yoorrook truth-telling hearings start back up this week, a Gunditjmara woman recalls what it’s like to go through child protection services – first as a child, when she was removed from her Aboriginal family, and then as a mother, fighting for custody of her children.

• by Mikaila Frost

‘Family violence is not part of Aboriginal culture’, but Katrina knows it too well

In her submission to the Yoorrook Justice Commission and its examination of the impacts of Victoria’s criminal justice and child protection systems on the lives of First Nations peoples, Indigenous woman Katrina Harrison  lays bare her lifetime of despair and her reasons for hope.

• by Katrina Harrison

First Peoples’ elder demands rise in age of responsibility

The co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria has implored the state government to urgently raise the age of criminal responsibility and has warned that Indigenous children “will not be used as bargaining chips” in a statewide Treaty negotiation process.

• by Jack Latimore

Child protection workers racist towards Indigenous families, commission hears

Child protection workers within the former Department of Health and Human Services were racist and disparaging towards the Aboriginal families and community-controlled organisation they were supposed to be working with to keep children safe, the Yoorrook Justice Commission has heard.

• by Jack Latimore

The Yoorrook testimony of Uncle Jack Charles in his own words

As Victoria’s Yoorrook Justice Commission resumes its public hearings, The Age has been permitted to publish an edited excerpt from the testimony of Uncle Jack Charles.

‘The embodiment of everything’: Preserving the language of Indigenous Victorians

The restoration and preservation of Indigenous languages has attracted considerable popular interest over the past two decades, but more funding is required if many are not to be lost forever.

• by Jack Latimore

Learn some Woiwurrung words for everyday use

Wurundjeri woman Mandy Nicholson explains the meaning of some of the most common Woiwurrung words.

How preserving First Nations languages is a key part of preserving culture

Indigenous affairs journalist Jack Latimore joins Nathanael Cooper to discuss the importance of language in this edition of Please Explain.

• by Nathanael Cooper

A people torn apart by bloody dispossession and disease

White invaders drawn to a bountiful landscape unleashed a murderous assault on Victoria’s First Peoples in a brutal, illegal land grab that remains a stain on the state’s history.

• by Tony Wright

We must walk with Victoria’s First Peoples on the land they made beautiful

As Victoria pursues justice for its First Peoples, we begin the search for truth by exploring what life was like here before Europeans changed everything.

• by Tony Wright and Justin McManus

Kalloongoo’s story lays bare the horrors of slavery and subjugation

A rare direct account from an Aboriginal woman almost 200 years ago exposes the brutality of colonisation and is evidence that the truths uncovered by the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission will be neither easy nor pleasant.

• by Tony Wright

Truth-telling: What it means for us to come home

Gunditjmara writer, musician and filmmaker Richard Frankland reflects on his ties to Country and his belief that facing the truth can set all Australians free.

• by Richard Frankland

Tomorrow Australia - A poem from Richard Frankland

Gunditjmara man Richard Frankland shares a hopeful vision for our country in his poem Tomorrow Australia. Video: Justin McManus

I was born into a web we must now untangle

Victorian First Peoples have embarked on a land justice journey whereby we wish to be recognised for who we are and maintain connection to Country.

• by Eleanor Bourke

The Age’s truth: Indigenous stories told by white writers

An examination of our 167-year history by former editor Michael Gawenda found The Age’s coverage has changed over the years, but has too rarely allowed Indigenous people to tell their own stories.

• by Michael Gawenda

A rising force: how Blak media rewrote the script from its own ground

For decades Blak media have been truth-telling for anyone prepared to pick up a paper, turn the dial or log on, but now their reach is growing.

• by Jack Latimore

Learning history from Indigenous viewpoint crucial to truth-telling

For every non-Aboriginal Victorian I have shared my knowledge with, there are countless others who continue to believe a false or only partial history of our people.

• by Wayne Atkinson

Learning the truth of Indigenous abuse key to fixing justice system

The Yoo-rrook truth telling process will help redefine relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Victorians.

• by Rob Hulls

Telling the truth in Victoria

We are beginning an ongoing effort to tell the truth of our history and to allow the space for Indigenous Victorians to tell their stories of the past, and their hopes and plans for the future.

• by Gay Alcorn

William Barak: Artist, activist and born leader

William Barak witnessed traditional Indigenous life upended when Europeans flooded across Bass Strait and occupied the country that had sustained his people and their lore for tens of thousands of years.

• by Tony Wright