I am a proud Yorta Yorta man of the Dhulanyagan clan. Born, raised and living in Shepparton. I don’t need to look far for inspiration when it comes to Aboriginal activism from our amazing leaders who have paved the way for us to this pivotal time in our history.
I’ve worked in the Treaty space for the past 3 years, engaging with community across the state on a daily basis. This has prepared me for the role. When I hear “nothing is off the table” when it comes to Treaty negotiations, it inspires me to think big. It’s up to us to shape what that looks like and what the next generation will be born into post Treaty.
I want to see a Victoria where the oldest living culture in the world is embraced and celebrated, and the right history is being taught in schools. A Victoria that values Aboriginal community’s skills and knowledge.
My priority is to make sure our communities voices are being heard. I commit to accessibility and approachability anytime; on the street, at the footy, or over a coffee.
It is a privilege to represent the North East. Let’s bring these yarns to the Treaty table.
Member Updates
March 2024 — Meeting of Assembly at Lakes Entrance
In the early stages of our term as members, the NE region have prioritised working closely with our operations team at the Assembly in discussing strategies towards our community engagement and how we continue to bring our community along on the Treaty journey. With the strategy now in place, we are excited to reach to as many community members and organisations throughout the region in 2024 – in what is shaping to be a massive year in preparation for negotiations.
As we were settling into our new roles as members, the nation faced one of the biggest conversations/debates ABOUT our people that we have ever seen. Regardless of the result of the referendum, what I found during this period when talking to community was that many community members became increasingly interested in the work of the First Peoples’ Assembly and how far we have progressed the work of Treaty here in the state. It was a very difficult time for our people, the result wasn’t one that many of us wanted and our community were left to pick up the pieces, but the key message post-referendum was one of optimism for our community. We here in Victoria are in a fortunate position in comparison to the rest of the country and Treaty is our best way forward. Treaty is an opportunity for real systemic change. Post referendum we heard from community that it was a time to heal.
As an Assembly we had to keep focused on the work ahead of us. In late November our North East engagement team ran a regional gathering at Winton Wetlands where we had an amazing turnout with community from across the region attending from Wodonga, Seymour, Wangaratta, Nagambie, Mansfield and many towns between.
There were many topics we spoke about but some of the key messages that I took away from the event were things like…
Aboriginal people should have more of a say when it comes to decision making on things that affect our community, particularly around funding programs that we know work and on the flip side where we see funding that gets wasted for a wide range of reasons.
Some of the aspirations that attendees spoke about were things like having cultural healing centres on Country – particularly for our youth, and improving accessibility of Aboriginal services in smaller regional towns.
All in all, it was a great event, and we look forward to more of these in the near future.
Thank you to everyone who has shown up and been actively participating in the Treaty journey to this point. We can’t do this work without the guidance of our community. I look forward to many more yarns about your Treaty aspirations and I encourage anyone to reach out if you would like to know more about the path to Treaty and how you can get involved, no matter how big or small it may seem.
Other key engagements:
- Shepparton reconciliation group BBQ discussion, EarthChat radio interview, Latrobe University Treaty/leadership video project, The black shirt podcast, ABC regional radio interview
Assembly working group committees:
- Minimum standards working group
- Yoorrook committee working group
- Statewide Gathering working group
