Submissions
Through submissions to Yoorrook, people right across Victoria have shared their truths on the impacts of colonisation on First Peoples and the strength and resistance shown.
We invite all Victorians to engage with these powerful truths that document experiences of land dispossession, child protection and criminal justice systems, health and education and ongoing systemic challenges, as well as stories of cultural resistance and community connection.
These submissions are more than just documents - they are living testimonies to help learn the truth of our shared history, and walk together to transform our shared future.
Yoorrook reserves the right not to publish all or part of a submission if it considers it inappropriate to do so. By publishing a submission, Yoorrook expresses no opinion about the content or accuracy of the submission or material referred to in the submission. Submissions are not published where the person making the submission has asked that it be kept confidential.
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Anonymous 1415
This submission outlines the difficulty in obtaining support for a child with developmental delays. Despite notifying Child Protection and initiating a referral, it took 1210 days to receive help from a Speech Pathologist. It notes that the lack of timely support for developmental delays is causing lifelong implications for vulnerable children.
Anonymous 1331
This submission highlights that the Kinship Care System fails to address developmental delays in children under 6, relying on the NDIS to be in place prior to needs being met, which cannot happen in the first 5 years of a childs life. It calls for better use of the Special Negotiated Adjustment (SNA) process to meet these needs.
Anonymous 1291
This submission discusses VACCA excluding Kinship Carers from the process of obtaining help through what are known as ‘professional meetings’. It outlines how these meetings are culturally unsafe and lead to placement breakdowns.
Anonymous 1290
This submission states VACCA removed a child from their Kinship Care in 2023 without adequate reasoning.
Jesse Milne
Jesse Milne is a Waka Waka man who was in and out of foster homes as a child and ended up in residential care. Feeling lonely and abandoned he coped with his pain through drugs and alcohol, which led to a life of crime, violence and prison, starting with juvenile detention from the age of 12 or 13. As an adult, the cultural rehabilitation program Wulgunggo Ngalu helped turn his life around by connecting him back with community and culture. He is now a proud dad himself. Jesse says the child protection system should look to place kids with their families instead of foster homes and residential care.
Anonymous 534
This submission details a family’s experience of failures and injustice within the child protection system.
Lily Woodward
Please be aware that this submission contains sensitive material.
Lily Woodward’s submisison describes the abuse and challenges she faced as a child in the child protection system and her subsequent experiences of having her own children removed.
Christina Secombe
Please be aware that this submission contains sensitive material.
Christina Secombe is a Wotjobaluk woman.
This submission outlines traumatic experiences Christina faced growing up and the impact it had on her later life.
Anita Mobourne
Anita Mobourne is a Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, and Gunditjmara and Wotjobaluk woman.
This submission is a transcript of Anita talking about her family’s experiences, her working life and the importance of connection, culture and identity.