We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands and waters on which we live, work and play.
We acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the state.
We pay respect to and recognise the contributions of their Elders past and present, and other First Peoples, who have fought tirelessly for the rights of their communities.
The sovereignty of First Peoples has never been ceded. Their strength and resilience as the world’s oldest living culture is enduring.
Commitment to self-determination
Our department is committed to achieving First Peoples self-determination because we know it works, it’s what community wants, and it is a human right. We endeavour to enable self-determination consistent with the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework and welcome accountability against our progression. We deliver our commitments through our contributions to Closing the Gap, Truth and Treaty and leading First Peoples strategies established across our portfolios to achieve real and tangible First Peoples outcomes.
The right for First Peoples to freely determine their political status, and to pursue social, cultural and economic development based on their values and ways of life, is enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Self-determination exists because First Peoples have lost those rights, and to achieve meaningful and lasting change we must listen to First Peoples across the state when they tell us what they need for themselves, their families and their communities to thrive. We acknowledge the strong and ongoing advocacy of First Peoples and the significant impact this has on our work, acknowledging that best outcomes for First peoples are achieved when informed by their knowledge and expertise.
We endeavour to embed cultural safety and self-determination principles in all we do, consistent with the Victorian Government’s Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework. This provides an architecture for government departments to report annually on progress towards transforming government systems and structures to enable self-determination.
We will hold ourselves accountable to First Peoples’ decisions on matters that affect their lives and communities. This includes through Victoria’s commitment to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. We acknowledge that Victoria’s Treaty process will have wide-ranging impacts for our work with First Peoples. Treaty will provide a framework for transferring decision-making power and resources to Traditional Owners. It will recognise the sovereignty of the First Peoples who have been practising their own law, lore and cultural authority since before the State of Victoria was formed. We commit to working proactively to support the aspirations of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.
In this document, the term ‘Aboriginal’ is used to refer to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.