The transcript. The program 'Truth/Yoorrook' was broadcast on 24 March 2025.
BRIDGET BRENNAN, REPORTER: On the banks of the mighty Murray River, this is Yorta Yorta country, the land of my ancestors. When the British arrived, my people were murdered here by settlers and even by police. These atrocities spread all over Australia. The violence and the seizure of land was how our country was formed ... [T]housands of Aboriginal men, women and children were killed — they were shot, raped and poisoned across the frontier. Many more died of disease. ...
ELEANOR BOURKE, YOORROOK CHAIR: Yoorrook means telling the truth, truth telling ...
PAUL BRIGGS, YORTA YORTA: I think the truth telling lies with non-Aboriginal people. It's quite well documented what happened and what's happening, to First Nations peoples right around the country. But it's not clear what non-Aboriginal people feel and do about it, about their part of it, their ownership of it.
Travis Lovett, Yoorrook Commissioner, sees the link between historic events and the position of First Nations people in today's Victoria: '10 times more likely to engage in homelessness services', '15 times more likely to be incarcerated in a Victorian jail system, 22 times more likely to come in contact with child protection'.
Reporter Bridget Brennan, with Gunditjmara woman, Kiecha Day, visited the site of the Convincing Ground massacre, Victoria's first, where there were only two survivors and between 60 and 200 killed in 1833-34. They go on to recall the depredations of the Henty brothers, first White settlers in the area in 1834.
The prejudices against the natives at Portland Bay by Messrs Henty and Blair and Tyers is very considerable … they went so far as to say they thought they were hardly human ... These poor creatures are worse treated than slaves. They are made use of and are destroyed with impunity ... The settlers at the bay spoke of the settlers up the country dropping the natives as coolly as if they were speaking of dropping crows … (Diary of GA Robinson, Protector of Aborigines)
KEICHA DAY, GUNDITJMARA: Truth telling is something that this colony known as Australia needs. We need the truth, we need to speak on what the colony costs for First Nations people ...
TRAVIS LOVETT: Every day I hear people say, 'I didn't know about this. Why didn't I learn?' ... We're not asking people to say sorry, but we're asking people to open their minds, to open their hearts to the full story.
The program explored the story of Elizabeth Balderstone, whose family in Gippsland took part in massacres. She has become friends with local Elder, Russell Mullett.
RUSSELL MULLETT, GUNAI KURNAI: It may not be something you want to delve into, but it's about the truth. It's about digging into a history that has in the past been covered, and trying to find a common ground we can communicate on and talk respectfully to each other ...
TRAVIS LOVETT: There's nothing to be scared of, nothing to be worried about. It also helps our people heal as well because this has been swept under the rug for so long about the injustices that our people have faced, because it is scary, it's frightening, it's confronting.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: The Commission is also investigating what happened after the massacres. From the mid-1800s, the government made another attempt to eliminate Aboriginal people, by absorbing them into white society. They were forced onto reserves known as missions, where their lives were controlled and cultural practices and languages were forbidden ...
TRAVIS LOVETT: This is government policy of the day, to remove us from our land and enable some of our people who had lighter skin to be able to move off, to basically wipe out our race ... to be moved off the missions and integrated into society.
Peter Sharp, a descendant of Alfred Deakin, discussed Deakin's role in the development of the Victorian legislation, 'the Half-caste Act', which enabled these actions.
TRAVIS LOVETT: ... My grandfather went to World War II, came back and had his children taken. I can't even fathom. I remember some of the yarns we had, and he hardly ever spoke ...
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Retired judge Anthony North is the only non-Indigenous commissioner, and this evidence has also shaken him.
COMMISSIONER ANTHONY NORTH: These laws were designed to assist the elimination of First Nations people. These are the facts we heard. These are the truths we heard. But for non-Indigenous people like me, there has been silence. We did not know of the horror of our history. We did not know the harm inflicted on First Nations people. And we did not know the ongoing damage that continues to this day. This truth commission was created with a vision of a better Victoria, a Victoria which has come to terms with its dark history. No longer can we in the non-Indigenous community say that we did not know.
PREMIER JACINTA ALLAN: I have learned much that I did not know. I did not know of the massacres, I am ashamed to say ... [I] just felt so distressed that these were massacres that occurred not far from where I was sitting, and I didn't know about them ... [T]his was done ... all in the pursuit of taking land off First Peoples.
The Commission heard evidence of the value of gold and water produced in Victoria since first White settlement. It heard an apology from Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Shane Patton.
TRAVIS LOVETT: ... [G]overnment have known about all these injustices the whole time ... [W]e have got at a minimum 10,000 documents from government. It was plain in black and white. The government knew already. The challenging thing that people don't understand is that there's never been accountability.
BRIDGET BRENNAN, REPORTER:
Yoorrook has amassed a vast body of evidence about the enduring effects of colonisation on First Nations people. It's already called for a major overhaul of the criminal justice and child protection systems. In June, it'll issue a final blueprint on redressing injustices in land and water, education, health and housing ...
The next crucial step is agreeing on a deal, the country's first formal Treaty ...
But there is anxiety here too. After the failure of the Voice referendum, neither Anthony Albanese or Peter Dutton support a federal truth-telling inquiry. The Northern Territory and Queensland have also shelved their commitments to truth-telling and Treaty. And as political will on Indigenous affairs wanes, these Aboriginal leaders know this is a race against time. In many ways, uncovering the truth has been a simpler task than resolving the question of how we reconcile with Australia's history ...
ABC News post promoting the Four Corners program.
Earlier post, linking to other Defending Country posts on Yoorrook.
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