Australian state to hold country’s first colonialism inquiry modelled on Mandela inquest

People march down Elizabeth Street as part of an 'Invasion Day' march 

Credit: Don Arnold/Getty Images AsiaPac 

Australia will establish the country’s first Truth and Justice Commission to investigate the ongoing effects of colonisation on the state’s Indigenous communities.

The inquiry for the country’s Victoria state is modelled on one set up by Nelson Mandela in post-apartheid South Africa, and will assist in the state’s treaty negotiations with Aboriginal communities, potentially including the payment of reparations.

The commission, announced on Tuesday, will host public hearings on the role colonisation played in creating and exacerbating disadvantages faced by Indigenous people.

Michael Bell, a Gunditjmara man and member of Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly, said Indigenous people in Victoria continued to experience the direct effects of colonisation, including the radical over-representation in prison and the high proportion of Indigenous children in foster care.

“[The commission] will mean people understand and reflect on our history… We had a society, it’s how we lived, we had structures. There was something here before 1770 and that story hasn’t been told,” he told The Age.

Assembly co-chair, Marcus Stewart, said, “for the first time in our history, Aboriginal people can finally tell the truth, and all of Australia will listen.”

The commission will host public hearings on the role colonisation played in creating and exacerbating disadvantages faced by Indigenous people

Credit: Anadolu Agency 

“Since colonisation, the injustices perpetrated against Aboriginal people have been erased from our nation’s official history. But on Tuesday, our state took a significant step forward in correcting this," he wrote in an opinion piece for The Age, a Victoria newspaper.

“This is the first time in Australia’s history that the full truth will be properly told. Many Victorians know some elements of what has occurred here. Almost no Victorians know all of it. And few have heard the stories from survivors themselves,” he wrote.

Victoria is the first and only state or territory in Australia to enact the two key elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, a 2017 manifesto that called for an Indigenous “voice” to parliament in the constitution and a truth-telling commission to facilitate agreements between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the federal government.

A report released in January found that more Australians than ever before know about the impact of British colonialism on Indigenous people.

The 2021 State of Reconciliation Report by non-profit group Reconciliation Australia said the country is at a “tipping point” after decades of work on reconciliation. 

It added the nation needs to move from “safe” to “brave” actions to make substantial steps in the process.