Victoria's Indigenous truth-telling commission will finally make its way to Jardwadjali, Wergaia, Djabwurrung and Djadjawurrung country next week.
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Following COVID-19 disruptions, the Yoorrook Justice Commission will visit Horsham on Wednesday, March 30, and Halls Gap on Thursday, March 31, to meet and yarn with First Nationals elders as part of Australia's first and only formal truth and justice process.
Chair Eleanor Bourke said the elders' yarning circles would offer them and traditional owners the chance to provide insights into the inquiry.
"This is what we want to underpin the terms of reference because it will inform back as far as we can with oral history in families," she said.
"Some of that is complemented by the public record; not everything but there is so much on the record that helps with telling the story of colonisation's impacts and filling in the gaps."
Chair Eleanor Bourke said while many elders would participate in the yarning circles, one-on-one sessions are available if they don't want to participate in a group conversation.
Any local Elders who would like to meet with Commissioners can email joseph.saunders@yoorrook.org.au or call 0459 871 952.
Yoorook is Australia's first truth-telling inquiry to investigate injustices against Aboriginal people and follows similar processes set up in more than 30 other countries, including Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
Professor Bourke acknowledged it had been a long road to the unveiling of the five-phase roadmap and said elders were keen to share their stories following the delays.
"It's been particularly frustrating because we thought we'd have one round of on-country visits completed and probably onto the second one in normal times," she said.
She is confident the release of the commission's interim report, due on June 30, won't be pushed back by its compressed timeline.
The Wergaia and Wemba Wemba/Wamba Wamba elder said it was the commission's goal to dig as deep as possible with the time and funds they'd been afforded.
Yoorook, the word for truth in the Wemba Wemba/Wamba Wamba language, was given $44 million as part of the Victorian government's 2021/22 budget.
Yoorook has a three-year timeframe to establish an official public record of Indigenous experiences since the start of colonisation and recommend reform and redress, with its findings to guide Victoria's treaty negotiations.
The 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart called on governments across Australia and Indigenous people to work together to establish processes for truth-telling.
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