| ||
22 seats elected 10 seats appointed | ||
---|---|---|
Registered | 7000+ | |
Turnout | ~4200 (~60% of enrollment, ~10% of voting age population) | |
The 2023 Victorian First Peoples' Assembly election, advertised as the 2023 Treaty election, was held June 2023 to elect 22 members to the First Peoples' Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria. The election filled 22 of 32 seats to the body, which was charged with the responsibility of negotiating a treaty between the state's government and its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.
Only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in Victoria and at least 16 years of age were eligible to enroll to vote in the election - a population around 45,000. [1] Compared to the previous election in 2019, enrollments more than tripled from ~2000 to ~7000. [2] Between the 2019 and 2023 elections, there was 2 by-elections held to fill vacant seats after 2 resignations.
The election had 75 candidates across 22 regional seats. 10 from the metropolitan region (where most of Victoria's population lives), and 3 each from the Northwest, Southwest, Northeast and Southeast regions. A further 11 reserved seats were appointed by local Registered Aboriginal Parties within Victoria. [2] 90% of eligible voters did not participate in the election.
Aside from making a treaty with the Victorian Government on behalf of the First Peoples of Victoria, other priorities of the Assembly will be advocating for reform to Victoria's bail laws and raising the age of criminal responsibility in the state. [3]
If the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum was successful, the Assembly might be a point of contact between Victorian First Peoples and the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and might elect the Victorian representatives to the national body. The Assembly could shift its role in the future and act as a Voice in Victoria, giving advice to state Parliament on the basis that 10% of the eligible population voted for it to do so. [2] According to The Assembly website the Assembly will also take a lead role in administration of the Self Determination Fund provided by the Victorian (Labor) Government. Up to $200,000 is available to successful applicants to assist in negotiations, what role the Assembly plays in approving and monitoring the distributions is unclear, presumably strong conflict of interest rules will be applied in dispensing taxpayer provided funds.
Of the 22 elected members, 11 were elected for the first time, the remainder were re-elected. [3]
The 2 outgoing co-chairs (Aunty Geraldine Atkinson (Elected North East Area 2019) and Marcus Stewart - (Appointed not Elected in 2019) ) did not re-contest their roles, so new co-chairs were elected. [2] Rueben Berg (Appointed) and Ngarra Murray (Elected - Metro Area, Elected to the Metro-Area in 2019) were chosen as new co-chairs. This would be their 2nd term in the Assembly (having been re-elected or appointed in 2023), and first as co-chairs. [4]
Winners of the 2023 election were reported on the Assembly's website. [5] Numerical results were not declared to the public or electors.
The Government of Victoria, also referred to as the Victorian Government, is the executive branch of the Australian state of Victoria. The executive is one of three independent branches, alongside the judicial, and the legislative.
The Taungurung people, also spelt Daung Wurrung, are an Aboriginal people who are one of the Kulin nations in present-day Victoria, Australia. They consist of nine clans whose traditional language is the Taungurung language.
Woiwurrung and Taungurung are Aboriginal languages of the Kulin nation of Central Victoria. Woiwurrung was spoken by the Woiwurrung and related peoples in the Yarra River basin, and Taungurung by the Taungurung people north of the Great Dividing Range in the Goulburn River Valley around Mansfield, Benalla and Heathcote. They are often portrayed as distinct languages, but they were mutually intelligible. Ngurai-illamwurrung (Ngurraiillam) may have been a clan name, a dialect, or a closely related language.
The murnong or yam daisy is any of the plants Microseris walteri, Microseris lanceolata and Microseris scapigera, which are an important food source for many Aboriginal peoples in southern parts of Australia. Murnong is a Woiwurrung word for the plant, used by the Wurundjeri people and possibly other clans of the Kulin nation. They are called by a variety of names in the many different Aboriginal Australian languages, and occur in many oral traditions as part of Dreamtime stories.
The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales.
Yorta Yorta (Yotayota) is a dialect cluster, or perhaps a group of closely related languages, spoken by the Yorta Yorta people, Indigenous Australians from the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day northeast Victoria. Dixon considers it an isolate.
Possum-skin cloaks were a form of clothing worn by Aboriginal people in the south-east of Australia – present-day Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. In Western Australia, Buka cloak was worn. They are made from pelts of various possum species.
Land councils, also known as Aboriginal land councils, or land and sea councils, are Australian community organisations, generally organised by region, that are commonly formed to represent the Indigenous Australians who occupied their particular region before the arrival of European settlers. They have historically advocated for recognition of traditional land rights, and also for the rights of Indigenous people in other areas such as equal wages and adequate housing. Land councils are self-supporting, and not funded by state or federal taxes.
The Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, previously the Wurundjeri Tribe Land and Compensation Cultural Heritage Council, is a Registered Aboriginal Party representing the Wurundjeri people, an Aboriginal Australian people of Victoria.
The Campaspe Plains massacre in 1839 in Central Victoria, Australia was as a reprisal raid against Aboriginal resistance to the invasion and occupation of the Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung lands. Charles Hutton took over the Campaspe run, located near the border of Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung, in 1838 following sporadic confrontations.
The Kulin languages are a group of closely related languages of the Kulin people, part of the Kulinic branch of Pama–Nyungan.
Dhauwurd Wurrung is a term used for a group of languages spoken by various groups of the Gunditjmara people of the Western District of Victoria, Australia. Keerray Woorroong is regarded by some as a separate language, by others as a dialect. The dialect continuum consisted of various lects such as Kuurn Kopan Noot, Big Wurrung, Gai Wurrung, and others. There was no traditional name for the entire dialect continuum and it has been classified and labelled differently by different linguists and researchers. The group of languages is also referred to as Gunditjmara language and the Warrnambool language.
Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, and farming eels in Victoria for at least 40,000 years.
The Barababaraba people are an indigenous Australian people whose territory covered parts of southern New South Wales and northern Victoria. They had close connections with the Wemba Wemba.
The Woiwurrung, also spelt Woi-wurrung, Woi Wurrung, Woiwurrong, Woiworung, Wuywurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance.
A Registered Aboriginal Party (RAP) is a recognised representative body of an Aboriginal Australian people per the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 (Vic.), whose function is to protect and manage the Aboriginal cultural heritage in the state of Victoria in Australia.
Muriel Pauline Bamblett is a Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung advocate for Aboriginal child welfare in Victoria and Australia.
The 2019 Victorian First Peoples' Assembly election was held between 16 September to 20 October 2019 to elect 21 members to the First Peoples' Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria. The election filled seats to the body, which was charged with the responsibility of preparing for negotiations with the Victorian Government about a treaty with the state's Aboriginal population.
Jillian Gallagher AO is a Gunditjmara from Australia who has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) since 2001. As a single mother in her twenties Gallagher was accepted into a training scheme for young Aboriginal people at the Museum of Victoria. She worked on the return of the Murray Black Collection and served as manager of the heritage branch of Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (Victoria) before taking up a position at VACCHO in 1998. In 2017 Gallagher was appointed Commissioner of the Victorian Treaty Advancement Commission until the voting period ended in October 2019. Gallagher was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2009 and the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll in 2015. She was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2013.
Maree Clarke is an Australian multidisciplinary artist and curator from Victoria, renowned for her work in reviving south-eastern Aboriginal Australian art practices.