Submissions Library

Heathcote Health is working with local community groups in reconciliation yarning and narrative interviews along with Loddon Mallee First nations research group.

This submission outlines the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural awareness training provided to staff at Heathcote Health.

Environmental Justice Victoria is a public interest environmental law practice. It provides legal advice and support to the community on public interest environmental issues, advocates for better environmental laws, and provides legal education to the community on environmental matters. It acts primarily for community organisations, Traditional Owners groups and NGOs on matters concerning environment and natural resources laws and policy.

This second submission covers the significance of laws governing land-use planning, environmental protection (pollution and waste), and environmental assessment to truth-telling, justice and treaty-making in relation to lands, waters and natural resources.

Reconciliation Australia is the national organisation promoting reconciliation between the broader Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This submission details how the Reconciliation Action Plan Program provides insights into strategies developed and utilised to support self-determination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through economic participation.

Andy Govanstone is a historian who has been connected with the restoration of Taerak.

This submission reflects on the impact of invasion and proposes an appropriate location to include in a ceremony or process of recognition.

Theresa Morgan is a  full-blooded member of her race and the second to claim to write an enduring record of our customs, culture, beliefs and imagination-ing.

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) is an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation with 50 years of experience providing culturally safe legal and community justice services to First Peoples across Victoria.

This submission highlights the impact of systemic racism and discrimination in responding to family violence against First Peoples; the need for transformative change across all legal systems, including civil and family law systems to contend with family violence; the family violence intervention order process; criminal responses to family violence; and the family law system.

This submission raises concerns about racist leadership at a school.

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) is an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation with 50 years of experience providing culturally safe legal and community justice services to First Peoples across Victoria.

This submission looks at: governance, oversight and accountability; Aboriginal housing and homelessness; overarching issues impacting culturally safe, adequate and secure housing for Aboriginal peoples; positive approaches demonstrating good practice, innovative approaches to improve housing and homelessness experiences; and a self-determined approach to addressing housing and homelessness.

The Australian Education Union (AEU) represents 251 members who identify as First Peoples in addition to 59 student members in kindergartens, schools, TAFEs, Adult Migrant English, Services, and disability services.

This submission covers past and contemporary educational injustices against First Peoples, the source and breadth of these injustices across the education sector, the causes and consequences of those injustices, ways to improve State accountability to prevent continuance or recurrence, and pathways to remediation.

The Find & Connect web resource is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services to document the history of child welfare in Australia. The resource assists people who grew up in out-of-home care, including Forgotten Australians, Former Child Migrants and members of the Stolen Generations, to discover and access information and records about their time in care. It is managed by the Find & Connect web resource team, based at the University of Melbourne.

This submission makes recommendations to address the ongoing inequality between Victorian First Peoples and other Australians trying to discover their history in care, their families, and their experience of records access.