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There might be no Treaty with out fact.
This straightforward however highly effective assertion is the rationale for the Yoo-rrook Justice Fee’s mandate to disclose, document and analyse the systemic injustices skilled by Victorian First Peoples since colonisation.
Named from a Wamba Wamba phrase which means fact, the Yoo-rrook mandate will take three years from 2021-24. It is a important step for truth-telling in Victoria.
Fact-telling commissions are formal our bodies tasked with discovering and revealing previous wrongdoings within the hope of resolving battle and repairing relationships.
Learn extra:
Victoria’s truth-telling fee: to maneuver ahead, we have to reply for the legacies of colonisation
Yoo-rrook’s strategic imaginative and prescient is for a remodeled Victoria. A Victoria primarily based on fact and justice, grounded in First Peoples’ enduring spirit, cultures and self-determination.
As some other royal fee, Yoo-rrook can have broad powers to carry public hearings, compel proof and make suggestions to the Victorian authorities as to what ought to change.
The fee’s letters patent is the authorized doc from the governor-general organising the Yoo-rrok’s royal fee. This doc basically provides directions to Yoo-rrook about the best way to inquire into the expertise of previous and current systemic injustices for Victorian First Peoples.
The Yoo-rrook Justice Fee emblem.
The letters patent particulars a wide-ranging set of obligations that may be summarised as:
establishing an official document of the affect of systemic injustice on the First Peoples of Victoria from colonisation to the current
growing a shared perceive amongst all Victorians on the affect of those systemic injustices, in addition to the variety, energy and resilience of First Peoples
figuring out the causes and penalties of systemic injustice and make suggestions for system reform and adjustments to legal guidelines, coverage and schooling.
The fee’s findings additionally intention to help the founding of a brand new relationship between First Peoples, the state, and the folks of Victoria, inclusive of informing Treaty negotiations.
Institution of the Yoo-rrook Justice Fee
An historic first for Australia, a truth-telling fee was an agreed motion of the Victorian authorities and the First Peoples’ Meeting of Victoria.
The First Peoples’ Meeting was established in 2019 and is the elected consultant physique of Conventional House owners and different Victorian Aboriginal folks.
It is a essential step within the realisation of the Advancing the Treaty Course of with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018.
Yoo-rrook started in Might with the appointment of 5 commissioners. Independently chosen from 64 candidates, we’re:
Chairperson: Professor Eleanor Bourke (Wergaia/Wamba Wamba)
Dr Wayne Atkinson (Yorta Yorta/Dja Dja Wurrung)
Sue-Anne Hunter (Wurundjeri/Ngurai illum wurrung)
Distinguished Professor Maggie Walter (Palawa)
Professor the Honourable Kevin Bell AM QC (non-Indigenous)
Yoo-rrook employs a human rights framework aligned to the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. To make sure the precedence of First Peoples’ voices and data, this framework is enacted by a technique that weaves collectively First Peoples data programs, worldviews and Western strategies of scientific evaluation. This technique ensures an method that respects Victorian First Peoples values and tradition.
The fee’s phrases of reference are in depth.
The directions to inquire into historic systemic injustices perpetrated in opposition to First Peoples embrace (amongst different areas):
cultural violations, reminiscent of denial of First Peoples’ regulation and lore by colonial state authorities and programs
theft and misappropriation of land and tradition
dispossession and displacement of Aboriginal peoples, households and youngsters
massacres, wars and killings
unfair insurance policies and practices in areas reminiscent of labour, the justice system, baby safety and welfare, and well being care
The findings of the royal fee’s inquiry into these areas would be the foundation for the official document, and extra particulars will come.
Precedence #1: Sovereignty over data
Yoo-rrook is the primary Aboriginal-led royal fee. It’s also the primary through which the foundational proof is First Peoples voices, tales and knowledges. The fee has now decided 4 strategic priorities for its first 12 months.
To maximise participation, Yoo-rrook’s first strategic precedence has been to construct sturdy foundations to result in belief that First Peoples’ voices shall be heard, and the fee’s processes are performed in a culturally acceptable approach.
Regardless of the COVID-19 lockdowns of the final six months, the commissioners and fee workers have consulted (largely on-line) with Conventional Proprietor teams and lots of Aboriginal community-controlled organisations throughout Victoria.
Yoo-rrook is instructed to uphold the sovereignty of First Peoples over their data and tales. This shall be completed by the Indigenous information sovereignty ideas, which is the precise of First Peoples to personal, management, entry and possess their respective information.
This implies the First Peoples who present proof to Yoo-rrook will preserve possession of their respective information, figuring out how their info is handled almost about confidentiality and accessibility.
That is important as a result of with previous royal commissions, proof has been out there to the general public. This isn’t all the time in First Peoples’ finest curiosity.
Precedence #2: Culturally acceptable methods of accumulating proof
Yoo-rrook’s second strategic precedence is to concentrate on formal proof assortment from Elders and those that are unwell.
The fee is conscious about First Peoples unease towards formal processes reminiscent of these. So, culturally protected programs have been developed.
For instance, the fee is accepting proof in relation to the expertise of historic and ongoing systemic injustice in a myriad of how. These embrace particular person witness statements, group testimony and testimony by cultural means, reminiscent of ceremony, dance and artwork. Proof may also be given confidentially and on Nation, with ongoing help for social and emotional wellbeing in place.
Precedence #3: Making a public document of systemic injustice
The third strategic precedence is to develop a complete image of systemic injustices in opposition to First Peoples as a part of the official document of what occurred in Victoria.
This shall be completed through the compilation and interrogation of current data sources. This work has begun with the gathering of official information, tutorial research and legislative supplies.
Precedence #4: Reviewing the felony justice system
The fourth precedence is to assessment present reform processes in felony justice and regulation enforcement.
This can start with First Peoples’ experiences with these programs and an examination of the implementation of Royal Fee into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody’s suggestions in Victoria.
Setting a world precedent
The duty of the Yoo-rrook Justice Fee is intimidating and the timeframe is brief. Yoo-rrook is required to ship an interim report in June 2022 and a remaining report in June 2024.
It’s the solely truth-telling fee anyplace authorised to scrutinise First Peoples’ experiences of systemic injustices, previous and current, arising from colonisation.
That Yoo-rrook has been initiated in Victoria needs to be a matter of delight for all Victorians. The fee is setting a nationwide and international precedent. As a result of Yoo-rrook is the primary, it assuredly is not going to be the final.
The world is watching.
If you’re curious about reaching out to the fee, you are able to do so right here.
Maggie Walter is a Commissioner with the Yoo-rrook Justice Fee and likewise Distinguished Professor of Sociology (adjunct) College of Tasmania and receives funding from the Australian Analysis Council, the Nationwide Well being and Medical Analysis Council and the Minderoo Basis
Professor the Hon Kevin Bell AM QC can also be the Government Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Regulation within the School of Regulation at Monash College.
Eleanor Bourke, Sue-Anne Hunter, and Wayne Atkinson don’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that may profit from this text, and have disclosed no related affiliations past their tutorial appointment.
