Now more than ever, is the theme of Reconciliation Week for 2024. It is an acknowledgement of the loss suffered by First Nations People and their allies in the wake of the Voice Referendum. It is an invitation to Australians to take up the challenge to support the rights of First Nation’s people, fight racism, and keep striving for justice.
This year Yarra Plenty Regional Library offers a range of programs to highlight the ongoing work of reconciliation and support community participation and learning. YPRL is also hosting Treaty information sessions by the First People’s Assembly of Victoria and they welcome input from First Nations residents and allies into the Treaty itself.
If you would like to find out more about Reconciliation, there is some useful information on Reconciliation Australia’s and Reconciliation Victoria’s web pages:
We also have local Reconciliation Groups:
In Victoria we also have the Yoorrook Justice Commission, which is a formal truth telling process. First Nations people testify to historical and ongoing injustices which have occurred since colonization. One of its aims is to establish a record of the impact of colonization on First Nations People in Victoria and to develop a shared understanding amongst all Victorians of this impact. If you would like to find out about the Yoorrook Justice Commission in Victoria follow this link!
You can read the interim report from the Yoorrook Justice Commission here.
You might also like to explore the stories of First Nations’ Elders from around Victoria and Australia at Victorian Aboriginal News, which has an array of podcasts about First Nations leaders and current political and social issues impacting First Nations people.
We invite you to explore the Deadly Collection, which is a collection of books written by First Nations writers which are available at all branches.
Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko
Also available as eBook (Borrow Box), eBook (Libby).
Two extraordinary Indigenous stories set five generations apart. When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Edenglassie, their saltwater people still outnumber the British. As colonial unrest peaks, Mulanyin dreams of taking his bride home to Yugambeh Country, but his plans for independence collide with white justice.
Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny. Together they care for obstinate centenarian Grannie Eddie, and sparks fly, but not always in the right direction. What nobody knows is how far the legacies of the past will reach into their modern lives.
In this brilliant epic, Melissa Lucashenko torches Queensland's colonial myths, while reimagining an Australian future.
First Knowledges: Law by Marcia Langton and Aaron Corn
Also available as an eBook (BorrowBox)
Law is culture, and culture is law. Given by the ancestors and cultivated over millennia, Indigenous law defines what it is to be human.
Complex and evolving, law holds the keys to resilient, caring communities and a life in balance with nature.
Marcia Langton and Aaron Corn show how Indigenous law has enabled people to survive and thrive in Australia for more than 2000 generations.
Australia Day by Stan Grant
Also available eAudio (BorrowBox), eBook (BorrowBox).
Stan Grant talks about Australia, our history, about who we are as a nation, about the Indigenous struggle for belonging and identity, and what it means to be Australian.
A sad, wise, beautiful, reflective, and troubled book, Australia Day asks the questions that must be asked, that no one else seems to be asking. Who are we? What is our country? How do we move forward from here?
Killing for Country by David Marr
Also available as eBook (BorrowBox)
David Marr was shocked to discover his forebears served with the Native Police, the most brutal force in Australian history. Killing for Country is the result, a personal history of the Frontier Wars.
Killing for Country is a unique history of the making of Australia, a richly detailed and gripping family saga of fortunes made and lost, of politics and power in the colonial world, and the violence let loose by squatters and their London bankers as they began their long war for the possession of this country, a contest still unresolved in today's Australia.