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Yoorrook Justice Commission
Issue No.20, October 2024
Calling all Victorians to make a submission, Truth-telling Days on Country, voices from community and more.
Read all about Yoorrook's work for truth, understanding and transformation.
Calling all Victorians - make a submission
Calling all Victorians. It’s time for everyone to play their part.
As Victoria's first truth-telling process Yoorrook Justice Commission has heard from First Peoples across the state, sharing stories of injustice and resistance.
Now we’re calling all Victorians to make a submission.
All Victorians can use our Shared Understanding Submission form and answer any of the five questions to be part of the truth-telling process.
Submissions close 22 November.
Let’s tell the full story of our past and transform our shared future together.
Make a short submission
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Short submissions are another quick and easy way to help put the true history of Victoria on the public record. Together, we can make history and help shape our state's future.
You can make short submissions on a range of topics:
Share your story and help make history.
Truth-telling Days on Country
“It's great to have this opportunity to share and reflect. We always feel like outsiders - even on our own Country - so it's so important to be given this opportunity.”
- Uncle Paul Kirby at BADAC Truth-telling Men's Group
Over the past month, Commissioner Travis Lovett and the Yoorrook team have travelled around Victoria for Truth-telling Days, listening to community on a wide range of issues including social justice, the importance of being on Country, child protection, raising the age of criminality, education for young people and housing.
We visited Mungabareena in Wodonga, Rumbalara Elders Facility in Shepparton, Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative (BADAC) and Oonah Aboriginal Health and Community Services in Healesville.
Your voice matters and there is still time for you to share your truth.
22 years since the first Koori Court
It’s been 22 years since Victoria's first Koori Court opened in Shepparton, paving the way for First Peoples to have cultural representation in the justice system.
Koori Courts aim to bring cultural issues, community participation and culturally-informed decision-making into the system.
There are now Koori Courts operating at 17 Magistrates' Courts across the state, allowing people facing court to have Elders present to take part in the sentencing conversation.
Follow Yoorrook on social media to keep up-to-date
Recent news and stories
Yoorrook “beyond disappointed” by lack of action on justice and child protection recommendations
Yoorrook Justice Commission is beyond disappointed at the lack of action shown in the Victorian Government Implementation Progress Report: Yoorrook For Justice released this month.
The Progress Report provides an update on the Government’s response to the 46 recommendations made in the Yoorrook for Justice report in September 2023. This followed a year-long inquiry into Victoria’s child protection and criminal justice systems.
More than a year after Yoorrook for Justice was delivered, the Government has not decided its position on more than a quarter of recommendations.
A year on from referendum truth-telling never been more important
"Truth-telling has never been more important than it is right now because when we understand the full story, and have all the information, change isn’t so scary. Fear dissipates and we understand why change is needed."
One year on from the failed Voice referendum Yoorrook Deputy Chair Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter shares her thoughts on the power of truth-telling as the way forward.
"I want to tell the truth"
Dr Katrina Kell is a strong advocate for all non-First Nations Australians to face the full story of our nation's history.
A descendant of sea captain James Donaldson Liddell, Dr Kell learnt that her ancestor's actions led to violence against Gunditjmara people.
After giving evidence at Yoorrook's Descendants Day hearing, Dr Kell featured recently on an SBS Insight episode about truth-telling.
"As a non-Indigenous Australian, I believe it is time to face our nation’s colonial past with honest and critical eyes," Dr Kell said.
"We will become a more mature and inclusive nation by accepting and acknowledging these difficult truths - an Australia we can all be proud of."
You can read more of Dr Kell's story and the importance of learning the full truth of our shared history in this SBS Insight feature piece.
Voices from community
Aunty Fay shares her story
"When I was growing up as a little girl, some people used to say to me, 'You're not Australian. What are you?'"
- Aunty Fay speaks to Yoorrook in this short submission about what it was like for her growing up as an Aboriginal person in Victoria.
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We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and pay our respect to them, their culture and their Elders past and present.
