MELBOURNE: The government of the Australian state of Victoria has signed into law Australia’s first treaty with Aboriginal people, following approximately nine years of negotiations between Victoria government officials and Indigenous aboriginal leaders represented in the First Peoples Assembly, which will take effect on December 12.
The treaty purports to be a formal apology to Australia’s ‘First Nations’ people and allows for a permanent representative group’s input to offer advice to the Victorian government, encouraging reconciliation and yielding more supervision by Indigenous people in government decisions, especially those that impact them.
Australia’s roughly one million Indigenous citizens were hitherto lagging below national averages on most socio-economic measures.
“Today marks a new chapter in the story of our state,” Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said at a signing ceremony in Melbourne.
“When people have a real say over the things that impact their lives, their healthcare, housing, education, and the practice of their culture, their outcomes are improved and our state is made fairer,” she added.
A referendum in 2023 to amend the Constitution to include such a body was rejected by 60 percent of the voters.
While treaties with Indigenous groups are commonplace in countries colonized by the British, such as New Zealand and Canada, Australia has long lagged behind.
Former commissioner of the Victorian Treaty Advancement Commission Jill Gallagher, who is also a member of the Gunditjmara people (an Aboriginal nation from southwestern Victoria) told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the aboriginal people had persevered with their rights movement. Jill has had a major role in treaty negotiations.
The continent Australia is thought to have first been inhabited about 60,000 years ago but colonized by the British in 1788. However, the population of indigenous people was drastically reduced by subsequent massacres, forced displacement and disease that the colonizers brought with them, hitherto unknown to the continent. ‑Agencies
