First The Talk. Now the WALK.
The true path forward starts here
Through Yoorrook, meaning 'truth' in Wamba Wamba language, over the past four years people across Victoria have shared their truths as evidence.
Now we invite everyone to listen and learn from the truths Yoorrook has heard.
“Your name, your kinship, your totems, your clans tell you who you are.
“They tell you how you are related to each other, including the place or the tree or the bird or the animal, fish, insect, grass, everything, and how you are in relationship, so no one is left out.
“And to be removed from Country is to have all those things threatened.”
Dr Vicki Couzens
Keerray Woorroong Gunditjmara
“Our ancestors worked out you don't need the whole tree.
“If you wanted a canoe, one choice is you could go and chop down a tree and you could make a canoe, but then there is no more tree left.
“You can just take off this single sheet of bark, make a canoe and the tree will still get to live.
“The scar trees are a powerful reminder of that connection we have to the land, and that is why they are such a critical element of our heritage to be protecting.”
Rueben Berg
“I chose not to identify, just so I could take a break from the constant racism.
Dr Aleryk Fricker
Dja Dja Wurrung
“Our purpose is to care for the land, and our right to do so has been denied.
Dr Nikki Moodie
“Land is us and we are land. Land is central to what we call Country.
Paul Paton
“But we are still here. We have survived.
Nerita Waight
“Having all the facts means not making the same mistakes again.
“When we say self-determination, I just think of the end goal, which is black joy, but never forgetting how far we've come.
“That sounds like all very kumbaya, but it's not for whitefellas. It's for me and my family to feel black joy.”
Keicha Day
“It really stood out to me how other children were treated.
“Treated compared to how I seen my cousins get treated and how I was treated. The lack of support from the teachers in the mainstream schooling was definitely a big factor in the way my direction in my life went the way it did.
“I was homeless, I dropped out of school early, criminal record. So I had to break down this person that I've created, that the system created.”
Jarvis Atkinson
“Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, the rate of Aboriginal deaths in custody has risen.
“As a mother, I am deeply troubled by the thought of my children becoming part of these statistics.
Ebony Phillips
“The massacre sites in Victoria are well-known.
“As is the history of government child removals.
“The truth I want to hear is what has government done or failed to do for Aboriginal Victorians, knowing this history.”
Aunty Muriel Bamblett
“My mother was born in a time when humanity was absent.
“My mother was born in this country where she had no rights as an Aboriginal woman. She could not vote. She could not own land. And she could not practice her culture, and yet my mother survived to be a strong Aboriginal woman.
“It is because of her I can.”
Dr Jill Gallagher AO
“I can't remember my life before the institutions.
“I was never told that I was loved, wanted, or needed. I wasn’t hugged, kissed, or ever remember being encouraged to think what it is that I might achieve in life.
“Overall, I was institutionalised for 13 years.”
Aunty Eva-Jo Edwards
“I think it's really important that the Half-Caste Act is scrutinised...
Alister Thorpe
“We weren't allowed to have playtime at the same time as the other kids.
Uncle Henry Atkinson
Produced by: Yoorrook Justice Commission
Creative Agency: Thinkerbell
Campaign Strategy: Shape Agency
Production Support: Marden Dean, Cam Matheson