Submissions

Steph Tashkoff, a teacher, describes the ongoing impact of colonisation and stolen land she sees first-hand on young Koorie people. She highlights the financial insecurity due to a lack of generational wealth, structural racism, trauma, and distrust of white institutions she has witnessed. She shares her family’s history on Gulidjan Country, acknowledging the lack of recognition for the land’s original owners and expressing hope for a more positive community through truth-telling.

Meyer Eidelson is the President of the Middle Park and Albert Park History Group. The submission discusses the former Aboriginal Graveyard 1842 at Queen Victoria Market, highlighting its historical significance and the exhumation of Indigenous bodies in 1877. They call for the City of Melbourne to apologise for the graveyard’s destruction, protect remaining Aboriginal remains, and ensure respectful interpretation and appropriate memorial/s.

Melissa Turnbull describes the brutal colonisation of Victoria, including undocumented massacres and displacement of First Peoples. Her education on First Nations history was inadequate, and she advocates for investment in languages, reparations, and comprehensive cultural education. She suggests non-First Nations Victorians contribute to truth-telling and treaty by researching history, listening to First Peoples, and supporting their organisations.

Barbary Clarke and Jason Clarke, descendants of Alfred Deakin and William John Turner, also known as Big Clarke, discuss aspects of their family’s history with Australia. The first aspect is about how both their ancestors and they themselves have lived unconsciously, failing to understand the cultural protocols that should have been observed from the start in interacting with First Nations people of this country. The second aspect is what they are doing to act consciously and with integrity in this country.

Anthony Kelly highlights the unveiling of the “Standing by TunnerMinnerwait & Maulbouyheenner” memorial in Melbourne on 11 September 2016. Created by artists Brook Andrew and Trent Walter, this memorial is first public monument to a Frontier Wars event in a major Australian city. The memorial was the result of an 11-year campaign by a committee of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Watch the opening ceremony.

Viki Sinclair is a direct descendant of one of the original settlers of Gippsland, Colin McLaren. In this submission, she tells her personal story of her family’s part in white settlement enacting genocide on the original Aboriginal peoples in Gippsland. She hopes her submission brings about real and lasting change to Gippsland’s documented and accepted history and invites other descendants of settlers to look hard into the limited versions of their ancestry.

Prof. Mark G. Brett’s paper, “Reinventing Waste Land as a Colonial Legal Fiction,” explores the historical development of the concept of waste land from the 17th century to its role in 19th-century Australian legislation. It examines the impact of this legislation on Aboriginal people, who were forcibly dispossessed of their lands, and discusses ways in which this could be remedied.

Anonymous 1505 recounts the story of Eliza Nowen, taken by sealers in the 1830s, and her descendants’ struggles with intergenerational trauma and denial of their culture. They emphasize the importance of telling Eliza’s story and preserving her legacy through education and resilience.

This submission is from Mary Hassall, a descendant of James Hassall, after whom the Hassall creek on Gunditj Country is named. It discusses her research and exploration of the Hassalls’ history as settlers of Gunditjmara Land and the Hassalls’ relationships with First Nations Peoples.