Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

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Hume City is located on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung. The Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung, which includes the Gunung-Willam-Balluk clan, are the traditional owners of this land. At the time of the 2016 Census, there were approximately 1,456 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people residing in Hume, the fifth largest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in metropolitan Melbourne (ABS 2016). The suburbs of Craigieburn and Sunbury have the largest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities within Hume City.

Council Services for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community

Information regarding access and support to culturally specific services for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community in Hume City Council.

Access and Support Team

Hume City Council employs an Access and Support Officer who is able to assist our community elders and families who have a member with a disability or illness to access aged care, home and community care or disability services. This can help people to remain living at home. The Access and Support Officer can provide information only or support you through the process to access services. For more information about this service visit Commonwealth Home Support Programme

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific Social Support Group

Elders On The Move Social Support Group offers Commonwealth Home Support Programme eligible Elders living in the Community the opportunity to come together and have a yarn. The group offers a range of activities including; social, cultural, arts and craft, music, cooking, light exercise and outings. Transport is available to and from the group. For more information visit the Commonwealth Home Support Programme

Hume City Council Family Services

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement Team assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children from birth to school age to connect with the following support services:

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Parent Engagement Worker
  • Maternal and Child Health Nurse
  • Aboriginal Parents as Teachers Worker

For more information see Children

 

Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group (RAPWG) 

Established in June 2019, the RAPWG advises Council on the priorities of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and guides the implementation of Hume’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) 2020-22(PDF, 6MB).

The group has met monthly since and has had substantially influenced the work of Council and enhanced outcomes for the community. Achievements during this time have included:

  • Improved engagement with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
  • Improved relationships with key Aboriginal stakeholders including the Traditional Owner Group, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation.
  • Increased staff knowledge about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and history through the delivery of cultural competency and cultural safety training.
  • More events and programs sharing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, history and knowledge.
  • Increased interest from the public about engaging with the Hume’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
  • The establishment of the Stolen Generations Marker Working Group (SGMWG) and the implementation of the Stolen Generations Marker Project.

How do I respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Hume City?

Guidelines on Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners and Welcome to Country

Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners

An Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners can be done by anyone and is a way of showing awareness of, and respect for, the Aboriginal Traditional Owners of the land on which a meeting or event is being held. For example, at Hume City Council the following words are used:

Hume City Council recognises the rich Aboriginal heritage within the municipality and acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung, which includes the existing family members of the Gunung-Willam-Balluk clan, as the Traditional Custodians of this land. Council embraces Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander living cultures as a vital part of Australia’s identity and recognises, celebrates and pays respect to Elders past, present and future.

Welcome to Country

Protocols for formally welcoming guests to Country (Tanderrum) have been a part of Aboriginal culture for thousands of years. A Welcome to Country is a way of recognising and paying respect to Aboriginal people and acknowledging their ongoing connection to Country. A Welcome to Country ceremony is performed by Aboriginal Traditional Owners for people visiting their Country. These ceremonies vary from speeches of welcome to traditional dance and smoking ceremonies and are typically conducted by a community elder or known representative of that Traditional Owner group. A Welcome to Country usually occurs at the opening of an event. A Welcome to Country can be arranged through the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation. Bookings should be made well in advance of the event date.

Book a Welcome to Country through the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation

 

 

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(Malcolm Creek Wetlands) 

Council's commitment

Council has collaborated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to develop and install a permanent Stolen Generations Marker in Hume.

The project honours an important commitment made in Hume City Council’s Reconciliation Action Plan 2020-2022.

Located at the Malcolm Creek Wetlands in Craigieburn, the Marker pays tribute to the Stolen Generations – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were forcibly removed from their families and communities - denied their identity, family, traditional culture and country through the race-based policies of State and Federal Governments between 1910 and the 1970s.

The site acknowledges the harm caused to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities across the nation, and serves as a reminder of terrible injustices caused by successive governments and their ongoing impacts.

Hume City Council is committed to recognising the lived experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and has created a permanent Marker to provide a place for Stolen Generations survivors, and their families, to gather and reflect.

The site provides an opportunity for all Australians to better understand and acknowledge the historical wrongs and help our communities to find a sense of peace, identity and belonging.

Making the Marker

In early 2020 Hume City Council established a Working Group to guide the Stolen Generation Marker project. The group included Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members, community members with direct experience of impacts on the Stolen Generations and representatives from peak bodies including Connecting Home and Link-Up Victoria.  

Following a careful concept development phase, overseen by the Stolen Generations Marker Working Group, Council engaged Gunnai/Waradjurie/Yorta Yorta/Gunditjmarra artist, Robert Young, to create the Marker for Hume. 

Robert's installation, Covered in our Creator, features a large metal possum skin cloak (representing family), located on a canoe shaped ground artwork (representing journey) in front of a traditional coolamon rendered in stone (representing childhood).  

The artist invited several Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members with personal experiences related to the Stolen Generations to create original designs that feature on the surface of the large metal cloak. These community design contributions are unique in themselves and were made by the following people:

Barbara Burns (Wiradjuri) and Selwyn Burns (Wiradjuri)

This artwork tells the story of the Stolen Generation, how Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their parents. Taken to Domestic Training Schools to be trained as servants. Their mothers wouls sit around campfires greiving for their children.while the men gathered together in their meeting place to discuss their children who had been taken.  

Some children were taken away by Police in vehicles, while others walked long distances accassionally stopping at waterholes to rest and would eat bush plums and other native foods known to them. The black footprints of the children, the large white footprints of the whiteman leading them away. The larger black footprints coming the opposite direction are those of the children now grown, coming home. Sadly a lot of children were brought home in small coffins, still affects a lot of Aboriginal families across Australia to this day.

My Grandmother Margaret Tucker M,B,E ( tribal name Lilardia) was one of the stolen generation forcibly removed from her mother at the age of 13 yo School to be trained as a Domestic Servant, nan was freed from this servitude at the age of 18yo and reconnected with her people. Nan (Margaret Tucker M.B.E) was awarded with the Member of the British Empire medal 1968 for the outstanding work she had donefor her beliefs to reconnect human kind. In nan's biography titled " If Everyone Cared" she tells the life stories which detailed the difficulties of Aboriginal people of the 20th century.My Grandmother had one Child, Mollie Dyer A.M

Mollie Dyer ( our mother) was an Aboriginal Child Welfare Worker and Aboriginal Community Worker. Mollie co-founded the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency in 1977. Mollie Aboriginal leader, mother of 6 and foster mother to 19 ,devoted her career to caring fo Aboriginal Children. Mollie was recognised with a member of the Order Of Australia medal in 1979. Mollie successfully fought for the rights of all Aboriginal children to engage with their heritage and culture. Mollie also has a biography called " Room for one more".

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Nicole Bloomfield (Wiradjuri)

Understand us and stand by us – by hands of connection, culture, country and dreaming, a journey of children and families, culture of proud Aboriginal people. Hands of time we embrace connect here and join in generations our connections, spiritual journey to connect and walk together in the rebirth of connectedness on country an Aboriginal land. 

Strengths in positive parenting through pride, Identity, beliefs and learning of customs and cultural practices handed down by our elders and broader community is empowerment. 

Knowledge shared through Elders, children and families prevents barriers of past practices and policies of Colonisation to be removed from our future generations. This disengagement of families to hold hands over generations   

Reconnecting in our mother spirit and mother earth to nurture our next generation so they become strong in the hands of time. 

My family and many families were not given access to connections to nurturing cultural knowledge. My great Grandmother Minnie Sullivan who met Grandfather Bloomfield a non-Aboriginal man, married in Tibooburra NSW where marriage rules for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal were more relaxed.  

in 1901 permission by the Protector of Native Affairs Fredrick Cornthwaite who consented for Gran to marry. At this point in time the Bloomfield clan began on journey through NSW as Grandfather was working in different towns in and around NSW.  

1920, the family was moved to Griffith where Grandfather secured work in the Quarry to then finally secure work at Cooba where the family moved into a house in Darlington Point on the river on Wiradjuri country. This is where they remained until they passed away. Whilst my family never lived on Warangesda they suffered discrimination of being Aboriginal. The children could not attend school as it is known due to being Aboriginal. When a non-Aboriginal man with a disability fought to get the Aboriginal children access to attend school in 1926-1927. This is known as my grandfather remembered his brother Bill never attended school and spent all day under the building instead which says a lot about this era and the impacts on a proud child who still did not feel welcome inside the building. 

I chose through my proud Matriarch and four generations to my son to be displayed as four hands of four generations of connections, culture, and land. Empowering as an honour of our families Matriarch my Great Grandmother Minnie Sullivan- Bloomfield. 

We will honour our Matriarchs who remained strong and resilient to create a legacy of culture and family to which I belong. Embracing connection as we have and continue to do by holding our hands and hearts. The importance of stories and culture and spiritual connection to the country of our people and family. This honour is acknowledgment to the story of my Great Grandmother, her son, my son and my son’s daughter This has forged a legacy of strength she left with me in the generations and connections that are here to remain beyond the hands of time. 

We the descendants of the Bloomfield family continue to gather and have reunions in Darlington Point, NSW every two years on the Easter Weekend to maintain this strength and resilience of a proud family and people. This offers us as a family opportunity to keep brothers’ sisters and many cousins and our elders connected and reconnect with those that we have not met and newborn children.   

Furthermore I personally have been involved Program Manager in 2003 of Link Up Victoria the deputy chairperson Sorry Day committee of Victoria over many years and had been part of the National Executive of the Stolen Generations Alliance which was the change agents in the movement and lobbying the Federal Government for the National Apology and Reparations, I have been part of the records taskforce in Victoria was on the working group for the Darebin Council Stolen Generations marker project. These were the strengths I bring to this project within Hume as a resident for well over thirty years volunteering as part of the local Reconciliation action group at Hume Council. This project is another link in the journey of the pathway I followed in support to all Stolen Generations people In Victoria and wider Australia. 

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Myrtle Roach Evans (Gunditjmara/Bundjalung)

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Tracey Evans (Gunditjmara/Bundjalung)

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Karen Lovett (Gunditjmara)

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Project launch 

The Marker formally opened to the public on 10 December 2022 and is an important new cultural site for Hume and Victoria.

Council will continue to introduce the general community to the site and build knowledge about the Stolen Generations, as part of broader work towards truth telling and reconciliation. 

  

Want to be in touch?  

If you would like to share stories, suggestions or feedback please contact:  

Arts & Culture Co-ordinator, David Henry: 0467 663 725

Or Email: stolengenerationsmarker@hume.vic.gov.au  

National Reconciliation Week (NRW), held every year from 27 May to 3 June, is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. 
 
This year's theme, 'Be a voice for Generations' encourages all Australians to be a voice for reconciliation in tangible ways in our everyday lives – where we live, work and socialise. 
 
This week represents a chance for all of Hume City to support and develop relationships and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands people. We aim to enhance the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands people within our community. 

 

What’s the significance of 27 May and 3 June?

27 May marks the anniversary of the 1967 referendum when Australians voted to remove clauses in the Australian Constitution that discriminated against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
 
3 June marks the historic 1992 Mabo decision in which the High Court of Australia recognised native title—the recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights over their lands did survive British colonisation.
 
The day before National Reconciliation Week, 26 May, is National Sorry Day, which was first held in Sydney in 1998 and is now commemorated nationally to remember and honour the Stolen Generations.

 

What is reconciliation in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples? 

At its heart, reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, for the benefit of all Australians.
 
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Australia’s colonial history is characterised by devastating land dispossession, violence, and racism. Over the last half century, however, many significant steps towards reconciliation have been taken.
 
Reconciliation is an ongoing journey that reminds us that while generations of Australians have fought hard for meaningful change, future gains are likely to take just as much, if not more, effort.
 

What can I do for the rest of the year?

While National Reconciliation Week is an excellent time to think about these issues, you can still take action throughout the year to work towards reconciliation.

Visit the Reconciliation Australia website for more information.

   
 
 

National Reconciliation Week (27 May – 3 June) asks us this year to keep up the momentum for change – and we know momentum gathers thanks to the force that keeps it moving. 

At Hume City Council that force is the Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group (RAPWG). 

Reconciliation Week – which includes the anniversaries of the 1967 referendum and 1992 Mabo decision - is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories with Indigenous Australians to achieve reconciliation. The theme for 2023 is “Be a Voice for Generations” 

For RAPWG member Tracey Evans of the Gunditjmara/Bundjalung people this is the group’s year-round goal in their work with Hume City Council. 

“Through working with RAPWG Council has gone on another journey of reconciliation and active participation in reconciling with the aboriginal community.” 

Established in June 2019, the RAPWG advises Council on the priorities of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and gives guidance on how they can be supported. 

Tracey Evans has been with the group since its beginnings, and says she sticks with it because of how important knowledge and experience are in the momentum for change. 

“I sit at the table with a lot of networks behind me and a lot of stakeholder engagements, so I bring that expertise. 

“And I’ve lived in Hume for over 20 years, so it’s important for me to sit at the table and try and make a difference for my people in the city of Hume,” she says. 

It’s with this backing Tracey is able to ask the important questions when meeting with decision makers. 

“What’s in the best interest of the community? What are the issues? What can Council do better? How can we do better?” 

Through its Reconciliation Action Plan guided by RAPWG, Hume City Council has been able to create visible initiatives including dedicated health services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the Indigenous Community Garden in Westmeadows, and a range of others. 

Tracey welcomes this support for her people but points out true reconciliation is achieved in our everyday lives by listening to and being an ally for our neighbours, friends and workmates. 

She also points out that the racism shown towards Indigenous Australians would not be tolerated towards any other person or race. 

“It’s a sad, sad situation. We need to hold a mirror up (to that behaviour) and take a good look at what’s going on. We need to dedicate time and understanding and respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to understand the culture, be a good ally and listen to what’s actually happening to my community.” 

In Australia, we are home to the oldest living civilisation in the world; Tracey would like us to step up and be proud of that. 

“If I lived in a country (with that history) I’d want to know. I’d want to be informed. This can be done in Hume by going along to the events, being interested in what the RAP group is doing and why we’re there, and having your own curiosity in learning about Aboriginal culture and what the issues are for our community.  

“It’s being curious, it’s being open to learning, it’s being open to respect.” 

Learn more about how we’re acknowledging National Reconciliation Week 2023

 

Every year NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia in the first week of July. This week is dedicated to celebrating and commemorating the history, culture, and achievements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The official theme for 2023 was For Our Elders.

Learn more about Our Diverse Community