(09/03/2021).- The Australian state of Victoria announced on Tuesday a Truth and Justice Commission to address the intergenerational trauma suffered by Aboriginal Victorians since colonisation.
Held independently from Government, and afforded the full power of a Royal Commission, it will mark the beginning of a conversation long overdue, and a commitment to change.
Aboriginal Australians were deprived of their land after British settlement in 1788.
According to Historian Geoffrey Blainey’s book The Story of Australia’s People, “The highest estimate, so far offered, of Aboriginal deaths cause by warfare with white races during the nineteenth century is a grand total of 20,000.”
“Today has been owed for 233 years.” It said in a joint statement with indigenous leaders the state government.
“For those who were told they were not allowed to speak their own language, practice their own culture, know their own identity.”
The five-person, mostly indigenous commission will run independently of the government reported local media.
The Yoo-rrook Justice Commission will formally begin its work in July.
It would take around three years for any recommendations to be handed down, with an interim report due in 2022. Reported the newspaper Herald Sun.
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