This week marks 50 years of NAIDOC Week, a time for all Australians to recognise and celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
NAIDOC, which stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, has its roots in protest movements beginning in the 1920s, when Aboriginal peoples sought to increase awareness in the wider community of their human rights and the discrimination they faced. Today NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about and celebrate First Nations cultures and histories.
This year’s theme, The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy, celebrates achievements of the past while also looking ahead to the opportunities of a self-determined future.
Self-determination is essentially the right of a people to shape the decisions that affect their lives. For First Peoples in Australia, it includes recognition of 60,000 years of continuous living cultures, social and political order. It is also a key principle in effectively preventing violence against First Nations peoples.
In Victoria, we are celebrating this year’s NAIDOC in the midst of a truly historic milestone on the journey to self-determination. Read on to understand how this week is an opportunity for each of us to play a part in that journey.
Yoorrook: the power of truth-telling
Telling the truth about Victoria’s past and making agreements about how we move forward are key to ensuring a more just future for First Nations people.
The Yoorrook Justice Commission was Victoria's and Australia's first formal truth-telling inquiry into historic and ongoing injustices perpetrated against First Peoples through colonisation. Over four years, thousands of Victorians shared their truths as formal evidence, including failures of the child protection and justice systems, the gap in health and education outcomes, the exclusion of First Peoples from decision-making processes, and more.
Last week the Commission delivered their final report, laying bare the truth of Victoria’s colonial past, and how the impacts of colonisation and systemic racism continue to negatively impact the lives of Aboriginal people.
The report contains 46 urgent recommendations to the Victorian Government to change the systems that perpetuate inequality and harm. It includes recommendations to prevent and better respond to family violence experienced by First Peoples, including:
- long-term, sustainable funding to the Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations leading culturally safe, holistic family violence services
- investing in primary prevention for all Victorians, to address underlying drivers of this violence, including racism
- investing in early intervention initiatives to prevent and reduce the likelihood of violent behaviour occurring, escalating or re-occurring.
Recommendations related to family violence share a theme with areas identified throughout the report: the critical importance of self-determination, ensuring First Peoples are in control of decisions that impact their lives.
Bringing self-determination to life through Treaty
So what does self-determination look like in practical terms? This is where Treaty comes in.
A treaty is an agreement between between two groups of people, essentially outlining the ground-rules for their relationship. They often come after periods of conflict and generational harm, in an effort to establish lasting peace and prosperity.
In the case of treaties with Indigenous Peoples, they are formal, legal agreements with the government about a range of issues, including land rights, cultural preservation and the transfer of decision-making authority. These kinds of agreements can be found in countries across the globe, including Canada and New Zealand.
Victoria is currently working towards the first such agreement in Australia. The First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria is the independent and democratically elected body representing Traditional Owners of Country and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Victoria. The Assembly is currently negotiating a Treaty with the Victorian Government, and last week released a joint statement detailing plans to introduce legislation that would make the Assembly a permanent body.
You can find out more about the process on their website, including how to join Treaty negotiations if you’re mob, and actions non-Aboriginal people can take to support it.
What this means for preventing violence
Truth-telling and Treaty: these historic milestones are critical to our state’s collaborative work to prevent gendered violence. That’s because self-determination is key to preventing the epidemic of violence experienced by Aboriginal women and families. Evidence shows that the solutions to ending this violence lie with the leadership of Aboriginal women, communities and organisations.
In Victoria, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations like Djirra champion the culturally-informed solutions to family violence held by Aboriginal women. They highlight the need for decision-making bodies to listen to the experiences and expertise of their communities, in order to create prevention initiatives that work.
As a mainstream organisation, acknowledging this leadership is key to the priorities Respect Victoria has outlined for Australia’s first national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Safety Plan.
While prevention efforts must be Aboriginal-led, all of us have a role to play in ensuring Aboriginal people, families and communities are safe, equal and respected. Mainstream institutions and communities must also take action to address the gendered drivers of violence against women, the legacy of colonisation (on both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal parts of our community) and systemic racism.
What this means for each of us
Report recommendations, self-determination, Treaty – these can all feel very ‘big,’ and like we as individuals don’t actually play a part in them.
The act of celebrating culture is, in fact, one way all of us can be a part of creating an Australia where First Nations people are equal, valued and safe.
NAIDOC Week is filled with events, artworks, community gatherings and other opportunities to learn more about the history of our nation. Visit the NAIDOC website to see what’s happening this week in Victoria. Get a group together and bring your friends, workmates and families.
We have an immense privilege in this country of getting to celebrate the world’s oldest, continuous living cultures. When we listen to people’s stories and learn from them, we connect to them and grow our empathy and respect.
And when we connect to and respect each other, we build relationships and communities that are safe.