Yoorrook - A time for truth
Victoria’s Yoorrook Justice Commission is the first truth-telling body in Australia, set up to share and record stories about the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Victorians. We cannot move forward without knowing the truth. In this special series, we seek to understand what happened, and how Indigenous peoples survived to tell their own stories, and to forge their own future.
The Age’s truth: Indigenous stories told by white writers
An examination of our 167-year history by former editor Michael Gawenda found The Age’s coverage has changed over the years, but has too rarely allowed Indigenous people to tell their own stories.
- by Michael Gawenda
A rising force: how Blak media rewrote the script from its own ground
For decades Blak media have been truth-telling for anyone prepared to pick up a paper, turn the dial or log on, but now their reach is growing.
- by Jack Latimore
Call for national safety plan to end violence against Indigenous women
An open letter calls for a “truly self-determined” plan to stop attacks against Indigenous women, who are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence.
- by Jewel Topsfield
‘The embodiment of everything’: Preserving the language of Indigenous Victorians
The restoration and preservation of Indigenous languages has attracted considerable popular interest over the past two decades, but more funding is required if many are not to be lost forever.
- by Jack Latimore
Learn some Woiwurrung words for everyday use
Wurundjeri woman Mandy Nicholson explains the meaning of some of the most common Woiwurrung words.
How preserving First Nations languages is a key part of preserving culture
Indigenous affairs journalist Jack Latimore joins Nathanael Cooper to discuss the importance of language in this edition of Please Explain.
- by Nathanael Cooper
Kalloongoo’s story lays bare the horrors of slavery and subjugation
A rare direct account from an Aboriginal woman almost 200 years ago exposes the brutality of colonisation and is evidence that the truths uncovered by the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission will be neither easy nor pleasant.
- by Tony Wright
Learning the truth of Indigenous abuse key to fixing justice system
The Yoo-rrook truth telling process will help redefine relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Victorians.
- by Rob Hulls
Learning history from Indigenous viewpoint crucial to truth-telling
For every non-Aboriginal Victorian I have shared my knowledge with, there are countless others who continue to believe a false or only partial history of our people.
- by Wayne Atkinson
A people torn apart by bloody dispossession and disease
White invaders drawn to a bountiful landscape unleashed a murderous assault on Victoria’s First Peoples in a brutal, illegal land grab that remains a stain on the state’s history.
- by Tony Wright
Truth-telling: What it means for us to come home
Gunditjmara writer, musician and filmmaker Richard Frankland reflects on his ties to Country and his belief that facing the truth can set all Australians free.
- by Richard Frankland
Tomorrow Australia - A poem from Richard Frankland
Gunditjmara man Richard Frankland shares a hopeful vision for our country in his poem Tomorrow Australia. Video: Justin McManus
We must walk with Victoria’s First Peoples on the land they made beautiful
As Victoria pursues justice for its First Peoples, we begin the search for truth by exploring what life was like here before Europeans changed everything.
- by Tony Wright and Justin McManus
I was born into a web we must now untangle
Victorian First Peoples have embarked on a land justice journey whereby we wish to be recognised for who we are and maintain connection to Country.
- by Eleanor Bourke
Telling the truth in Victoria
We are beginning an ongoing effort to tell the truth of our history and to allow the space for Indigenous Victorians to tell their stories of the past, and their hopes and plans for the future.
- by Gay Alcorn
William Barak: Artist, activist and born leader
William Barak witnessed traditional Indigenous life upended when Europeans flooded across Bass Strait and occupied the country that had sustained his people and their lore for tens of thousands of years.
- by Tony Wright