‘Long time coming’: Local First Peoples’ Assembly member reflects on beginning of Victorian treaty talks

It’s the first time since the sovereign land of Indigenous communities was forcibly colonised that an Australian government has sat down to negotiate a treaty with the country’s First Peoples.

It’s bound to be a long process, but it presents an opportunity to create real change for Aboriginal communities, who have endured a long history of racist and damaging policies from government.

Yorta Yorta, Wamba Wamba, Wurundjeri and Ngiyampaa woman Belinda Briggs is a member of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, the democratic voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people tasked with negotiating with the government through nominated members.

Belinda lives and works in Shepparton.

While she will not personally be in negotiation sessions, she and other assembly members are part of the process.

Belinda said it was emotional to finally see negotiations beginning.

“It was long time coming, a lot of work to get to this point, but so great to mark the significance of this occasion in what was such a successful day for all who were part of it,” she said of the opening of talks.

Negotiations began with ceremonies, songs, dances and speeches on Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Country in Melbourne’s inner north.

Hundreds of members of Victoria’s Aboriginal nations attended.

Belinda said it meant so much to her to be part of this process.

“Our people have been so strong to survive and continue our cultures and keep our languages alive, so to have this opportunity to help see our communities thrive again is amazing,” she said.

“It's a big responsibility that I think a lot of assembly members are feeling.”

A history of exclusion from social and economic opportunities has created a gap between First Peoples and other Victorians, which persists today.

The goal of treaty negotiations is to ensure First Peoples are involved in decisions that affect their communities.

Belinda said she understood that initial work during negotiations would define protocols of how the talks would progress.

“We want to keep our culture front and centre and share with the government some of our ways of doing things,” she said.

“For example, even at our standard assembly meetings, we always try to use the message sticks and embrace our traditions, so I think that will continue into negotiations.”

The next steps were likely to be talk, talk and more talk, Belinda said.

She said there was a lot to get through.

“We’ve got a lot of ideas that our communities want us to raise and push for,” she said.

“We want our mobs to have the ability to use their local knowledge to come up with practical solutions for things at a community level. So, a lot of the ideas are about how decision-making power can rest at that local level.

“We want Treaty to really give Aboriginal communities the freedom and power to make the decisions for themselves.”

She said improving the way services — such as health, education and housing — were delivered to Indigenous communities was key.

Assembly members have been listening to people from across the state since 2019 to identify and distil priorities for the talks, and Belinda said the journey ahead was likely to be a long one.

“But at least now, for the first time since colonisation, we have a government willing to walk with us,” she said.

“I’m not sure if we’ll always agree, but at least now there’s a process to have those conversations in a respectful way.”

Belinda said respect and recognition were two things she hoped to see more of through these talks.

“Despite all that’s been done to us — we’ve been forced off our lands, had our families torn apart, our languages outlawed and so on — some people still refuse to accept the truth of our history,” she said.

“If you can’t reckon with the past, it’s hard to move forward together.”

Belinda said the negotiations provided equal footing from which to find common ground.

She said families, across generations, still saw the ongoing effects of the past in real and varying ways.

This process, she said, provided an opportunity to empower communities to set their own priorities, find local solutions to make change and improve outcomes, and provide healing that was important in finding a way forward.

“Politics hasn't worked,” she said.

“Business-as-usual has failed to close the gap.

“So, we need more practical ways, like Treaty, to empower our communities at a local level.”

The historic treaty negotiations were initially supported across the political spectrum.

However, the Victorian opposition withdrew support earlier this year.

Now that negotiations are under way, regular meetings are occurring.

There will be a break over the holiday period, with talks resuming next year.

Community members who want to learn more about treaty talks and what’s happening can visit the First Peoples’ Assembly website, and attend public events held by the group.