Yoorrook: truth telling in the Victorian Treaty process

• Date: 11 June 2024
• Pages: 1007-1023
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-05-2022-0104
• Published date: 11 June 2024
• Author: Kevin James Moore,Pauline Stanton,Shea X. Fan,Mark Rose,Mark Jones

Yoorrook: truth telling

in the Victorian Treaty process

Kevin James Moore

Department of Management, School of Management,

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia

Pauline Stanton

School of Management, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,

Melbourne, Australia

Shea X. Fan

Faculty of Business and Law, Deakin Business School, Melbourne Burwood Campus,

Melbourne, Australia

Mark Rose

Department of Indigenous Strategy and Innovation, Deakin University,

Melbourne, Australia, and

Mark Jones

Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Melbourne,

Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore this process through reviewing key reports and literature

through an Indigenous standpoint lens. We identify three key challenges facing the Yoorrook Commission in

its journey. First, the continued resistance of influential sections of the Australian community to look

backwards and accept responsibility for the violence of the colonial project. Second, the trauma facing those

who speak out and remember and the real danger of expectations dashed. Third, the continuance of the colonial

pandemic and underlying and invisible racism that infects and poisons all Australians.

Design/methodology/approach –This paper has drawn on key literature and secondary data through an

Indigenous Lens.

Findings –We identify three challenges facing Yoorrook. First, the resistance of influential sections of the

Australiancommunity to accept responsibility for the violence of the colonial project. Second, the trauma facing

those who speak out and remember and the danger of expectations dashed. Third, the continuance of

underlying and invisible racism that infects and poisons the hearts and minds of non-Indigenous Australia.

Despite these challenges we argue that the ability of Yoorrook to capture the lived experience of First Peoples in

Victoria and the ability to hold key government officials to account presents a unique opportunity to advance

the self determination of all First Peoples in Australia.

Originality/value –This is the first Treaty in Victoria and there has been no study of it before.

Keywords Truth-telling, Yoorrook, Treaty, Reconciliation, Self-determination

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Australia’s First Peoples comprise over 650 sovereign nations and occupied this land for over

65,000 years, representing the world’s longest continuous living cultures (Broome, 2010).

Prior to the British invasion in 1788, First Peoples had mature, sophisticated and intricate

social, cultural, educational and commerce systems (Pasco e, 2018). Governance and

leadership were carried out by Elders of the Clans (also known as Tribe or Mob) (Kingsley

et al., 2013;Odegaard, 2011;Rigney, 2006). Our sovereign nations and borders were clearly

defined and our lands thrived in harmony with the environment (Broome, 2010;Deadly Story,

2016;Pascoe, 2018). British invasion of the land they described as “empty”and the process of

Equality,

Diversity and

Inclusion: An

International

Journal

1007

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 1 May 2022

Revised 4 July 2023

29 March 2024

Accepted 22 April 2024

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 43 No. 6, 2024

pp. 1007-1023

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-05-2022-0104

colonisation and settlement led to the decimation of First Peoples through disease,

marginalisation, exclusion and assimilation policies with genocidal intent (Grewcock, 2018;

Tatz, 2017;Wolfe, 2006). Assimilation policies led to multiple generations of our children

being removed from their families so as to destroy First Peoples’culture, language and

kinship (Australian Human Rights Commission, 1997;Clark, 2002). These children are known

as the Stolen Generations (Australian Human Rights Commission, 1997).

Australia is made up of states and territories federated under a national or federal

government known as the Commonwealth government. Underpinning these policies was the

openly racist White Australia Policy which was formalised in 1901 through the introduction

of the Immigration Act which limited non White immigration (Atkinson, 2015;Sharples and

Blair, 2021). This act was one of the first pieces of legislation introduced by the newly

federated Commonwealth government. First Peoples where not allowed to vote in the federal

parliament until 1967 (Attwood, 2007) after an extensive campaign led by First Peoples

leaders. However, up until 1992 the doctrine of Terra Nullius (Fitzmaurice, 2007), meaning

“land belonging to no-one”or “empty land”(Commonwealth Government, 2017;Lavery, 2019)

still prevailed and justified the lack of recognition of First Peoples (Rigney, 1998), denying our

sovereignty, and silencing our voices and self-determination aspirations (Langton and

Palmer, 2003;Mansell, 2016). In 1992, following decades of political and social activism from

First Peoples Elders, lobbyists and Allies, the High Court of Australia overturned the claim of

Terra Nullius in the “Mabo”decision (Brennan et al., 2005). First Peoples were subsequently

acknowledged as the original custodians of the land in the Native Title Act, which recognised

First Peoples’ongoing rights and interests on Country (Brennan et al., 2005;Davis and

Williams, 2021).

Although some gains on land rights have been achieved, the socio-economic gap between

First Peoples and non-Indigenous Australians has widened in living conditions, education,

health, life expectancy and employment (Australian Government, 2020;Davis, 2015). In 2005,

the Social Justice Report called on Australian Governments to commit to achieving equality

for First Peoples across a range of socio-economic indicators (Australian Government, 2020;

Social Justice Report, 2005). The Closing The Gap (CTG) policy was subsequently introduced

in 2008 aiming to redress these substantive disparities through a series of policy

recommendations (Australian Government, 2020;Davis, 2015). However, by 2022,

disparities remained for three key reasons. First, the failure of successive federal, state and

territory governments over the years to implement these recommendations including policies

of reconciliation (Brennan et al., 2003;Little and McMillan, 2017). Second, voices of First

Peoples’Elders, organisations and communities are mostly excluded from government policy

making (Davis, 2015,2018). Third, the whitewashing of the history of colonisation where

massacres, slavery, and assimilation have been hidden or ignored. In 1969, Stanner had

criticized the omission of truths and the terrible impact of colonisation on First Peoples

among historians, academics and politicians and labelling this as “the Great Australian

Silence”(Stanner, 1969, pp. 24–25). He argued that a “cult of forgetfulness”was created by the

promotion of “a [particular] view from a [particular] window which has been carefully placed

to exclude a whole quadrant of the landscape”(Stanner, 1969). However, First Peoples have

not forgotten this history. First Peoples’activists and our Allies have continued to fight for

recognition of the long-term impact of the violence of the colonial project (Grewcock, 2018;

Wolfe, 2006). This recognition has largely been framed in a struggle for sovereignty, land

rights and self-determination and the establishment of a Treaty or Treaties (Cronin, 2017;

Grewcock, 2018;Allam and Evershed, 2019;Tatz, 2017). For example, in 1966, Gurindji people

from Kulkagurindji Country in the Northern Territory, walked off their land and went on

strike for over nine years in a struggle over land rights and wages bringing the nation’s

attention to the ongoing issues of dispossession and land rights for First Peoples (Hokari,

2000;Larissa, 2013). Continuing this focus, in 1972 First Peoples activists established a “Tent

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