Yoo-rrook truth and justice commission frustrated at COVID go-slow

Australia’s first inquiry into the impacts of colonisation on First Nations people continues to be delayed by COVID-related setbacks.

Victoria’s Yoo-rrook Justice Commission was due to begin community consultations across the state in August but has repeatedly been impeded by extensions of the latest lockdown.

Professor Eleanor Bourke, chair of the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission.Credit:Martin Burnett/Little Rocket

Commission chair Eleanor Bourke recently told The Age the body was “actually feeling quite frustrated by the conditions we find ourselves in”.

However, it was pressing on with weekly online meetings via video calls and doing what it could until the lockdown ended.

“You know what it’s like if ... you’ve got a job to do: you want to be sitting down talking through how you’re going to get on with it and who’s going to do what and when certain things are going to happen, and we just haven’t got through that. We got about halfway through [before the latest lockdown].”

The group was continuing to meet with traditional owner groups and others.

“We’re continuing with ... introductory consultations with groups, wanting to introduce ourselves,” Ms Bourke said.

In an online event on Tuesday, the commission officially accepted the First Peoples’ Assembly’s Tyerri Yoo-rrook report, which was the culmination of consultations with the Aboriginal community around the state and provided the commission with a mandate to proceed with its inquiry.

Gunai-Gunditjmara man Troy McDonald, co-chair of the assembly’s truth-telling committee, said the report would set the outline for work to be done over the next three years, including “what sort of stories needed to be told, how broad the inquiry’s focus should be and how it should be led”.

First Peoples’ Assembly co-chair Geraldine Atkinson said it brought together the expectations of the truth-telling process after the assembly talked to Aboriginal communities around the state.

“For too long, the trauma of past events and policies and how they continue to affect Aboriginal people today have been covered up and denied. We heard that community must be able to tell their history and do it on their own terms,” she said.

“We heard that first peoples across Victoria wish for this process to examine the range of injustices our diverse communities have endured and survived and the resulting intergenerational trauma. Equally, we heard that people wish the process to examine and acknowledge the truth of our resilience, resistance, interconnection and courage that is our culture and our collective story.”

The process would ensure “a safe space for people to tell their own story in their own words”, Ms Atkinson said.

“We heard that the process matters as much as the results. It should lead us on a path of repair and reconciliation, not further hurt.”

Ms Bourke accepted the report and thanked traditional owners and Aboriginal communities who participated. She encouraged anybody who had not been heard to share their experiences.

“We want to hear from all of you. Your stories, your songs, your art, your poetry â€" however you want to tell the story or say what you want to say. We want to hear from you all.”

Yoo-rrook is the word for “truth” in the language of the Wemba Wemba/Wamba Wamba.

The commission will have statutory powers and examine historical and ongoing injustices experienced by Aboriginal communities around the state, and explore pathways to achieving redress.

It will be supported by the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and is backed by $58 million in funding.

Jack Latimore is the Indigenous affairs journalist at The Age. He is a Birpai man with family ties to Thungutti and Gumbaynggirr nations. He is an experienced journalist who was previously managing editor of NITV Digital.Connect via email.

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