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Thousands gathered at John Cain Arena last December to witness the commencement of Victoria’s Treaty, the first negotiated treaty between an Australian government and First People. Photo: Victoria Government
TRIGGER WARNING: THIS IS ABOUT RACISM AGAINST ABORIGINAL PEOPLE.
By Christine Grayden
I MAY have had two hours sleep last night, but probably not. What kept me awake?
Nothing much shocks me about human behaviour any more. But when catching up with the news last night I was really shocked to read two things.
First, that at the recent Meet the Candidates forum in Cowes, when the Liberal and One Nation candidates said they would demolish Treaty, that announcement received the biggest clap of the night.
Anyone who could clap that clearly did not follow the public evidence at the Makarrata truth telling commission, when incredibly brave Aboriginal people sat there and told of the most horrendous experiences they had endured, and generations of their families before them had endured at the hands of government and religious agencies, and in education, in work, in sport, from police, courts, in fact in virtually ever aspect of our society.
Those people who clapped obviously did not follow the long and detailed process among Aboriginal people and with government towards Treaty; all of the discussion and debate in Parliament. And have almost certainly not even bothered to read the Statewide Treaty Act 2025. All they know is what the media and unbelievably cynical politicians say about it.
Make no mistake, the current attack on immigration and Aboriginal people is cynical in the extreme. It's called Scapegoating, and it's there purely to distract us from the real issues, to which none of these scapegoating parties have any solutions whatsoever.
In an era where evidence of ecosystem collapse is all around us, even here on Milawul Phillip Island, One Nation doesn't even have an environment policy. In fact, most of their major policies include everything anti-environment you can think of. Have a look if you don't believe me.
Victoria’s Statewide Treaty is the first negotiated treaty between an Australian government and First Peoples. It was formally signed on 13 November 2025 and commenced on 12 December 2025.
The Coalition and One Nation have committed to abolishing it if they win government in the Victorian election.
The second item of news that shocked me was when catching up with the national news. I read that in the 1970s in Mackay a man admitted to finding part of a skull on a rural property and, claiming to assume it was an Aboriginal skull, took it to the pub where it was used as an ashtray, and then took it home to his shed for similar use. The police took it, and modern DNA testing in the 2000s revealed it to be from a murdered (white) Mackay teenager, to which he said "Made me feel a bit shitty when we found out it was hers and we were mucking around with it." But apparently it didn't make him feel shitty when he thought it was part of an Aboriginal skull.
This is the embedded racism Aboriginal people live with every minute of their lives in this country. It's heartbreaking. Gut wrenching. The only reservoirs of deep biocultural knowledge of this "Continent in Danger", as naturalist Vincent Serventy wrote way back in 1966, are treated with contempt while they are expected to stand back lamely and watch their own country and all the spirits of it plundered by the worst of ongoing colonialism.
It led me to Alan Paton's novel Cry, the Beloved Country, about South Africa just before apartheid became law. The book's title comes from a paragraph which articulates how the human spirit that loves country can be trammelled not just by ongoing institutionalised colonialism, but by the FEAR that constant racism can impose intergenerationally:
"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much."
That Aboriginal people persist in seeking reconciliation with non-Aboriginal people in power at all levels of society is testimony to their incredible resilience and generosity. What a tragedy that generosity is rarely reciprocated. Our nation is impoverished because of lack of Treaty at a national level. Why would Victoria throw out the best chance we have of healing?