Jill Gallagher attended 19 different primary schools in Gippsland while growing up and knows the area well.
Her connection to the area is strong and as Victoria’s newly appointed Treaty Advancement Commissioner, Ms Gallagher, returned to Gippsland last week to hear what Aboriginal people want.
She says one of her earliest memories is attending the Cabbage Tree Primary School.
“I think I was the only Aboriginal kid in that town,” Ms Gallagher reflected.
Her mother Frances, an Aboriginal elder, who is now 92, and originally from Gunditjmara country, in Western Victoria, brought her young family to Gippsland in order to find work as a seasonal picker.
“She would pick beans, onions and potatoes, like a lot of other Aboriginal families did,” Ms Gallagher explained.
The family left Gippsland for Melbourne when Ms Gallagher was about 10 or 11.
“Many Aboriginal families went to Melbourne looking for work after seasonal picking and we’ve been there ever since,” Ms Gallagher said.
However, her connection to Gippsland remains and her sister, coincidentally, married into a Bairnsdale family.
Since being appointed Treaty Advancement Commissioner in February, Ms Gallagher has been travelling around Victoria speaking to Aboriginal people about what they would like to see in a Treaty framework.
“We want to hear what is important to Aboriginal communities,” Ms Gallagher said.
Australia is the only developed Commonwealth country that doesn’t have a Treaty in place with its Indigenous people.
Ms Gallagher has visited British Columbia in Canada, Arizona in the United States and New Zealand, where Treaties with Indigenous peoples are firmly in place and have been for many decades.
She is at a loss to explain why it is taking Australia so long.
“What are people scared of?” Ms Gallagher asked.
“When you look at other countries, such as New Zealand, they’re countries that didn’t shut shop because their First Nations people got Treaty.
“What is the fear? Is it sheer meanness? Perhaps they don’t want the truth being told,” Ms Gallagher said.
“There was a sovereign ancient people that lived in this country for many thousands of generations.
“It’s about acknowledging what happened and being able to tell that story.
“The South Africans did.
“It’s part of the healing. We need to be able to air our dirty laundry and Treaty will help that process.
“It’s about empowerment and acknowledgement and human rights,” Ms Gallagher states.
It was that lack of acknowledgement that Ms Gallagher asserts has held Aboriginals back from reaching their full potential.
She describes it as “transgenerational trauma” for the hurt inflicted on Aboriginal people.
“My mother still remembers how they weren’t allowed to speak their languages or teach traditional basket weaving.
“If you were caught by the authorities, you were punished.
“Our traditional structures and lores were shattered by colonisation,” Ms Gallagher said.
She says Victorians should have the opportunity to value “our ancient cultures that we have here in our backyard”.
Aboriginal Australians are the oldest living culture on earth, dating back at least 60,000 years.
Ms Gallagher says “there has to be reparation”.
She says true recognition, acknowledgement and economic sustainability for Aboriginal communities would be a good start.
Ms Gallagher also believes Aboriginal culture should be taught in schools.
While recognising the wheels of justice turn slowly for Aboriginal people in Australia, she is grateful to the Victorian Labor Government and the Greens for passing legislation in the parliament “ Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians “ which came into law last month.
It gives her confidence that a Treaty will eventually be negotiated.
She quietly added: “Matthew Guy (Opposition Leader) has made it clear treaties won’t be on the table (if Liberals are elected). It’s a bit sad actually.”
Ms Gallagher’s role is not to negotiate Treaty, but set the wheels in motion for the process to take place.
By speaking with First Nations people across Victoria, she is able to advise on the sort of framework required to continue the journey toward Treaty.
An Aboriginal representative body will be the democratic elected voice of the Aboriginal people in Victoria in the next phase of the Treaty process.
Up to 30 representatives will be chosen from the Aboriginal community with elections to be held in mid 2019.
It will be their role to sit down with the State Government and negotiate a Treaty framework.
PICTURED: Treaty Advancement Commissioner, Jill Gallagher, at the Funky Monkey Café in Lakes Entrance, says Treaty will acknowledge the hurt caused to First Nations people.
