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The Dja Dja Wurrung lead the way as Victoria edges closer to Australia's first state treaty
The Dja Dja Wurrung lead the way as Victoria edges closer to Australia's first state treaty

SBS Australia

time16-07-2025

  • Politics
  • SBS Australia

The Dja Dja Wurrung lead the way as Victoria edges closer to Australia's first state treaty

In the sacred country of the Dja Dja Wurrung people in Central Victoria, a historic transformation is underway. In Bendigo, at a traditional meeting place lit by fire and ceremony, cultural dancers move to the rhythm of resilience, welcoming a new chapter in the long struggle for recognition and justice. Here, where ancestral stories echo through the bush, the Dja Dja Wurrung have become the first Traditional Owner group to formally begin negotiating a local treaty under Victoria's state-led Treaty process. Their aspirations are bold, grounded in cultural authority and future-focused – not only for the well-being of today's generations, but for their children and the many to come. 'We caught up as a whole group to talk about the treaty late last year,' says Djaran Murray-Jackson, a Dja Dja Wurrung man and board member of DJARRA, the Traditional Owner corporation. 'Our mob really wanted to be one of the first to negotiate a local treaty. We authorised it at our AGM — and now we're here. It's very exciting.' The Dja Dja Wurrung's vision is to elevate their local voice to the same level as state and federal decision-makers. It's about tangible change — home ownership, university education, and cultural pride for young Dja Dja Wurrung people. For Murray-Jackson, this work is also deeply personal. 'I've got a four-month-old daughter,' he says. 'If every Dja Dja Wurrung person feels something from the treaty process, I'll be satisfied we've done the right thing.' Victoria: The national leader for a treaty While national treaty talks have stalled, Victoria has moved forward. In 2016, it became the first jurisdiction to commit to official treaty negotiations. Since then, the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria (the Assembly) has led a pioneering process to redefine the relationship between First Peoples and the state. Reuben Berg, co-chair of the Assembly, describes the statewide treaty as a way to ensure decisions affecting First Peoples are made by First Peoples. 'The Assembly is a democratically elected group of Traditional Owners. Through this first statewide treaty, we want to see that body play an enhanced leadership role — appointing people to key positions, holding government accountable, and ensuring ongoing truth-telling.' Victoria's Treaty Authority — an independent governing body overseeing the negotiations — is currently engaging with around 40 Traditional Owner groups across the state. Board member Thelma Austin says the appetite for local treaties is growing. 'The interest is definitely out there. Our role is to educate and help communities navigate the process.' Premier Jacinta Allan has thrown her support behind the Treaty process, backing both the collective state treaty and local agreements. 'Our community have been clear — they want action, and they want meaningful treaty negotiations,' she told attendees at the Dja Dja Wurrung cultural gathering. Local aspirations, global context The push for the Treaty in Victoria is part of a global movement for Indigenous self-determination. Indigenous leaders and legal scholars in the program The Case for a Treaty, airing on SBS's Living Black, highlight how Australia remains an outlier. It is the only British settler colony to have denied the presence of its First peoples to avoid treaty making. In comparison, New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi — though imperfect and contested and largely ignored between 1841 and the 1970s — it has offered a platform for the Māori political voice, land settlements, and cultural revitalisation. Australia, by contrast, refused to acknowledge Aboriginal sovereignty or negotiate terms of co-existence. As legal expert Professor Megan Davis puts it, 'The British weren't competing with anyone in Australia, so there was no motivation for treaties. And we're paying the price for that today.' Victoria's Treaty process is attempting to correct that legacy. It's complex work, unfolding more than 230 years after colonisation, but it's beginning to come to fruition. For communities like the Dja Dja Wurrung, this is about reclaiming autonomy and creating lasting impact. Economic justice and cultural renewal Beyond symbolism, a Treaty is increasingly seen as a powerful mechanism for economic development and cultural strength. Darren Godwell, Chair of Indigenous Business Australia, says treaties offer a way to 'bridge historic disadvantage into inclusion.' 'Each of our sovereign nations is going to need a treasurer and a treasury,' says Godwell. 'Treaty allows Traditional Owners to pursue development on their own terms — whether it's fisheries, agriculture, sustainability or cultural enterprise.' For the Dja Dja Wurrung, that means having a say in local economic planning, land use and service delivery, with an emphasis on housing, education and language revival. A national path forward? While Victoria leads, other states lag behind. Queensland and the Northern Territory paused or abandoned their Treaty efforts after changes in government. Tasmania has opted for truth-telling without a formal Treaty process. South Australia has created a First Nations Voice to Parliament, with Treaty talks still emerging. In New South Wales, the Treaty Commission has just begun consultations under the Minns Labor Government. Despite this patchwork approach, leaders like Berg are optimistic. 'We don't need to wait for a national treaty to move forward locally. Victoria is proof that meaningful change can start in the states.' Senator Lidia Thorpe, a vocal advocate for Treaty and a Djab Wurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman, believes the real power lies with the grassroots. 'We need clans and nations represented at the local government level. Real change starts in community, not Canberra.' A promise to the future As the fire crackles on Dja Dja Wurrung country, elders, dancers and young families gather to welcome history in the making. The Treaty journey is still unfolding — fragile, hopeful, contested. But the message is clear: First Nations people are not asking for permission. They are reclaiming their future. And in Victoria, the road to Treaty has already begun.

A popular regional art gallery is undergoing a major transformation to become bigger and bolder
A popular regional art gallery is undergoing a major transformation to become bigger and bolder

Time Out

time11-06-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Time Out

A popular regional art gallery is undergoing a major transformation to become bigger and bolder

Already known to be one of Australia's oldest and largest regional art galleries, Bendigo Art Gallery's reputation is set to soar to even greater heights with a multi-million dollar upgrade now in the works. Over the next few years, the gallery will undergo redevelopment in two stages, with a big reopening in early 2028. The first stage will deliver what's being dubbed the People's Gallery – a reimagined, fully accessible space focused on education, community, and deepening recognition of Traditional Owners. You can expect a dedicated second-floor gallery for blockbuster international exhibitions, a state-of-the-art children's gallery and learning studio, and a Place of Keeping designed in collaboration with the Dja Dja Wurrung community to house cultural materials. There will also be expanded public areas, better accessibility, and a new theatre space to host performances and talks. If all goes ahead, a second stage, pending a $15 million federal funding boost, will follow. This would add another 400 square metres of gallery space, focusing on spotlighting Australian artists, and a significant hospitality makeover, including a new restaurant, a revamped sculpture annexe, and a second-storey function terrace overlooking Rosalind Park. The design is a collaboration between Jackson Clements Burrows and Clare Design, drawing inspiration from the region's white clay and featuring a façade pattern by a Dja Dja Wurrung artist. While the beloved 19th-century galleries (Bolton, Drury and Abbott Courts) aren't being redeveloped, they are set to be sensitively restored. The gallery will close in November 2025, with construction scheduled to begin in early 2026. But art lovers won't be left in the lurch – an eclectic off-site exhibition program is being planned throughout Bendigo until the grand opening. This is the largest civic infrastructure project ever untaken by the City of Greater Bendigo – and promises to reshape the region's cultural landscape for generations to come. To learn more and follow the progress, visit the website here.

Traditional owner group seeks to negotiate local treaty with Victorian government in state first
Traditional owner group seeks to negotiate local treaty with Victorian government in state first

The Guardian

time27-05-2025

  • Business
  • The Guardian

Traditional owner group seeks to negotiate local treaty with Victorian government in state first

The Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation (DJAARA) has become the first traditional owner group to seek to negotiate a local treaty with the Victorian government. The corporation, which represents the Dja Dja Wurrung people, has become the first traditional owner group to be formally entered into a register run by the Treaty Authority – the independent umpire that will oversee negotiations. It is the first step to prepare for a traditional owner treaty negotiation. The authority will work with the traditional owner group before the state is invited to negotiate, and the corporation will form a delegation to represent the group during treaty talks. DJAARA's move comes as Victoria continues to work towards establishing what would be Australia's first statewide treaty with First Nations people. DJAARA chief executive, Rodney Carter, said the group wanted more independence and authority to manage land on its country in central Victoria, which takes in Bendigo. 'It's really exciting,' he said of the group's progress towards a local treaty with the state. Carter, a Dja Dja Wurrung and Yorta Yorta man, said traditional owner groups often faced planning regime barriers regarding land management. 'If we're self-regulated and we've got these exceptional standards and we adhere to those, that would be really empowering and about self-determination that we make decisions for ourselves. 'We can be held to account in what we do.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Carter said the traditional owner group could also bring 'constructive solutions' to other areas. He said other priorities for treaty negotiations included discussing how 'ongoing integration of western science and traditional knowledge' could be used in an education setting. Jidah Clark, a Djab Wurrung man and Treaty Authority chair, said a 'diversity of views, lessons and experiences' from communities across the state had laid strong foundations for treaty-making. 'Treaties will recast the relationship between First Peoples and the state, bringing us closer together. This is an important marker on the path towards unity,' he said. Victoria's minister for treaty and First Peoples, Natalie Hutchins, said traditional owner groups were 'experts in their communities, languages, cultures and caring for Country.' 'Treaty is about making a better and fairer state for every Victorian,' she said. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The First Peoples' Assembly – Victoria's democratically elected Indigenous body – last November began nation-first treaty talks with the Allan government. A statewide treaty – the first of its kind in Australia – will tackle problems affecting First Nations Victorians. In January the assembly and government announced the assembly's role evolving to become an ongoing First Peoples' representative body, was being considered as part of statewide treaty negotiations. When the statewide treaty negotiations began last year, the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, said outcomes would need to be passed in the state parliament. Traditional owner treaties allow Indigenous groups to enter into separate agreements about issues and priorities for their communities and region. Rueben Berg, a Gunditjmara man and assembly co-chair, said local treaties would enable traditional owner groups to use their local expertise to deliver solutions for their community. Victoria's opposition withdrew support for the treaty process in January 2024, citing concerns about culture heritage laws, after the defeat of the federal voice to parliament.

Picnic at Hanging Rock review – a haunting, heady horror story
Picnic at Hanging Rock review – a haunting, heady horror story

The Guardian

time22-02-2025

  • Entertainment
  • The Guardian

Picnic at Hanging Rock review – a haunting, heady horror story

If you close your eyes, just for a second, and think of Hanging Rock, what comes to mind? Schoolgirls in long white dresses? Pan pipes? The 'geological marvel' of the rock itself, where four girls went missing on Valentine's Day in 1900 and only one came back? This year marks the 50th anniversary of Picnic at Hanging Rock, the Peter Weir film based on Joan Lindsay's 1967 novel, and its images, motifs and mood, all fundamental to the Australian new wave, have burrowed into our cultural consciousness over the decades and become defining. But that story is a fiction, and the rock – Ngannelong – has memories, history, and legacy of its own that pre-exists the story of this nation. Ignore it at your own peril. Sydney Theatre Company's Picnic at Hanging Rock, written by Tom Wright and presented here in a remarkable production directed by Ian Michael, takes the mystery of the missing girls from Appleyard College and transforms it by focusing on the truth has been lurking inside of it all along: a trespass, a tragedy and a haunting. Ngannelong, for longer than we can imagine, was a site for men's ceremony and initiation for the Dja Dja Wurrung, the Woi Wurrung and the Taungurung, as well as a place for meeting and trade. If Picnic at Hanging Rock is a ghost story – and it is in this play, characters suddenly struck by something interior and unseen, lunging at one another as if possessed – it's no surprise. And there are more ghosts than just the girls of Appleyard College. The ensemble – Olivia De Jonge, Kirsty Marillier, Lorinda May Merrypor, Masego Pitso and Contessa Treffone – are all dressed in school uniforms and playing characters who share their names, at least at first. Their recitative storytelling, which pairs Wright's poetic, imagery-laden language with verbatim lines from Lindsay's book, is like a spell: words become story, stories become scenes and the ensemble, like a possession, become characters from the Picnic at Hanging Rock tale. Each is giving an excellent performance, full of detail and disappearing acts. They duck and weave through lines, events and characters: De Jonge becomes school headmistress Mrs Appleyard; Marillier is Irma, the sole missing girl returned; Treffone is young Englishman Fitzhubert, a witness so plagued by thoughts of the lost girls he sets out to look for them; Merrypor is the local constable; Pitso is Sara, a young student haunted by loss. These are characters suppressed, repressed and simmering. Sara cannot be seen to mourn Miranda, the lost student she deeply loved. Mrs Appleyard hides her rage and disgust under perfect posture and brandy. Fitzhubert and Albert, his coachman, are drawn to each other in the private moments that dissolve the restrictions of polite society – constraints that seem devastatingly pointless in the shadow of the rock. And we really are always at Ngannelong in this production. Elizabeth Gadsby's set keeps us there with a looming architectural white structure hovering overhead, marking out a smaller playing space on the Drama Theatre's letterbox stage with a carpet of leaves where each scene unfolds. We're trapped, like in any great Australian gothic, within the world of European civility imposed on stolen land. Michael's direction presents Wright's play so deftly and confidently that its narrative is skillfully playing on the surface while, beneath it, a second and more extraordinary thing is occurring. In his hands, this mystery becomes a horror story so slowly we're barely conscious of the evolution. This is an achievement of craft, tone and interpretation, and the production design marks each step of the way for the audience – we can feel the shifts before we see them. At first, lighting designer Trent Suidgeest paints with palettes you'd expect: a clarifying daylight, somber twilights. But after the girls' trespass, it changes, playing so effectively with shadow and blackouts that, when the sky is sliced open with a flash of stark horror-red, it's genuinely scary. Amplifying and supporting Michael's finely-wrought direction, too, is James Peter Brown's sound design and score. It wraps around your throat and squeezes, lacing the rising tension with distant drums and beautiful melodies that still somehow sound like warnings, mixed with ever-present reminders that someone, or something, is always there: the calling of birds, the rustling of leaves. This Picnic at Hanging Rock is beautifully handled, tender and then ferocious, funny and uncomfortable, a heady descent into terror and beauty. When you leave, you'll leave with ghosts – but if you listen closer, if you close your eyes, you'll realise the ghosts have been there all along. Picnic at Hanging Rock runs until 5 April at Sydney Opera House

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