Victoria's First Nations truth-telling inquiry has pressed the state government about the injustices faced by Aboriginal soldiers who served their country but were denied land on their return.
A Victorian minister has acknowledged the disgraceful denial of land to Aboriginal veterans following their service for Australia.
The First People's led truth-telling inquiry, which has all the powers of a royal commission and is investigating the impact of colonisation in Victoria, has been holding public hearings focusing on land and water injustice over the past month. "I'm deeply, deeply saddened to read and hear about the returned soldiers, how they were treated and the ongoing effects that that's had on their families," she said.Victoria's Yoorrook Justice Commission defines truth-telling as a process of openly sharing truths after periods of conflict to allow for resetting of relationships, based on justice and human rights.
In her submission to Yoorrook, Ms Hutchins noted that 12,000 Victorian soldiers who served in World War I were allocated allotments in the scheme. "Reallocating that to non-Aboriginal people was yet another part of the terrible injustice that happened with this scheme," Minister Hutchins said.Counsel assisting the commission Tony McAvoy SC noted that was effectively "another wave of dispossession" that offended and angered Aboriginal people."That would relieve some of that anger and what we have inherited through the lack of respect that our Aboriginal soldiers experienced when they returned," she said.
But she said that does not have the full backing of the state government yet and there would need to be further consultation about what it would involve, given the handing over of any actual land was unlikely.
Truth-Telling Inquiry Aboriginal Servicemen Soldier Settlement Scheme Redress Scheme First Nations Truth-Telling Victorian Government Land Ownership
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