I did not know of the massacres, I am ashamed to say. I have learnt about the size and scale of the murders and the massacres through my preparation for my appearance today … I felt so distressed that these were massacres that occurred not far from where I was sitting, on Dja Dja Wurrung country.
Jacinta Allan to the Yoorrook Justice Commission hearing, April 29, 2024
This week Victorian Premier Allan became the first state leader to sit in front of an Indigenous-led truth-telling commission and give evidence. At the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Premier Allan spoke her own truth of ignorance, of learning, and of the resultant horror, yet opportunities for healing, this experience had provided. This session of truth-telling was orchestrated as part of Victoria’s planned Treaty-making processes – expected to formally begin later this year.
The Indigenous reaction I witnessed to Allan’s words were mixed. Some proudly shared her words, acknowledging them as a key moment in the history of this country. Others questioned how it is that any Australian leader who seeks to reach the upper echelons of governance can represent the state, or country, if they’ve never previously made an effort to learn the true history and know how the very power structures they seek to lead came to be.
Criticisms of Allan, as a middle-aged political leader, needing to gather and read this information at this stage of her career are fair. But this ignorance doesn’t just sit with Allan, and her candour points to a much broader Australian social problem.
I think of myself going through the school system in the ’80s and ’90s. Despite being an Aboriginal kid, the only Aboriginal history I learnt during this time consisted of either dreamtime stories or the Freedom Rides.
When I was a teenager, my family moved from Canberra to Melbourne, where I have lived ever since. Going through the educational system in Canberra and then changing to the Victorian system, I found my experiences in the ACT, when it came to Indigenous history and inclusion, to have been more robust. That said, I couldn’t tell you whether it was the ACT education system itself, or the fact that a good portion of my dad’s family lived in Canberra at the time, and that the land rights movement was in full swing in my childhood, particularly leading up to the “Bicentenary”.
Still, on moving to Victoria, I can’t say any Victorian history was accurately taught. We learnt about Gallipoli (though not that it was a disaster), a bit about the gold rush, and not much else. It wasn’t until later — at uni, or via Aboriginal Victorians I met — that I learnt Victoria was the site of some of the most brutal massacres in the country. Or how it was that so many Gunditjmara people also ended up with Gunai heritage as they were forced across the state by colonisers and land-clearings.
It’s only been incredibly recently that figures such as John Batman and Angus McMillan have been recognised as the leaders of massacres that they were, with federal electorates having their names changed to avoid the celebration of such bloodthirsty destruction.
The Victorian Labor Party, in the wake of the failure of the Voice referendum, seems to have recommitted itself to the already promised truth-telling and Treaty processes in this state. Rightfully so.
It’s rare to hear any political leader speak truthfully and publicly about the history of this country. A couple of past examples are the Redfern Address by Paul Keating, and the Apology by Kevin Rudd. More common have been the attempts to wallpaper over this history, such as those of former prime minister John Howard, in a bid to reinforce a nationalism which, to this day, tends to permeate the majority of society’s consciousness.
Yet all this begs a question I raised so many times during the referendum process: should the process of truth-telling have always been the first order of business of the Uluru Statement? When I looked around at my fellow so-called Australians, I couldn’t rightly say that the majority of them had enough knowledge of the Australian constitution — what it is, what it does, and what it contains — to be asked whether it should be changed.
Similarly, almost none had enough knowledge on Indigenous dispossession and the Frontier Wars, much less the current day disparities, to vote on a question regarding Indigenous rights. What we instead saw were months of lies, disinformation and racism, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples left to pick up the pieces once it was all over. Our depression and suicide rates escalated, our hope fell.
As I look around the country and see our people still being demonised in Alice Springs, still being incarcerated, still dying far too early, and still being removed from families, all I can see are decades of failed policies which have been enacted upon us. Policies which only stand a chance of improving when our elected political leaders get better educated via truth-telling processes, and are tied to work in tandem with communities via Treaty agreements. Imposition and misinformation will only ever reinforce the current destructive status quo.
I hope that Premier Allan is only the first of many premiers and prime ministers to front Indigenous-led truth-telling processes to give evidence, and that through similar processes to the Yoorrook Justice Commission across the country, we drive towards a fairer and more knowledgeable future. All people, not just Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, stand to benefit.
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