Voice to Parliament referendum has sparked debate over potential Treaty

The Voice referendum has sparked debate about the potential federal treaty with Indigenous Australians.

Transcript

00:00 We've seen Bujj Bim as a creation being, as this giant, this man who would walk across

00:07 the land. In a fit of rage he sat up and he spat out his blood and his teeth across the

00:19 land.

00:23 When the volcano Bujj Bim erupted it brought new life to this area in south-western Victoria.

00:30 For millennia winding channels created by lava were carved and used to trap, store and

00:37 harvest kuyung, short finned eel. This is one of the oldest aquaculture systems in the

00:44 world.

00:45 How do we create this channel in the first place?

00:47 The importance of the eel traps meant that we could trade with everyone. It meant that

00:51 we had food source year round. It means we could permanently live in this area.

00:58 Now the site supports another industry, tourism.

01:03 My name is Reuben, I'm a Kirei Wurrung man with Palawa ties.

01:08 Bujj Bim was the first site in Australia to be World Heritage listed solely for its Aboriginal

01:13 cultural significance. Now Victoria is working on another first, a treaty.

01:19 Every single day we're just getting more of a say and being thrust more into the spotlight

01:23 of our stories being heard.

01:25 We've done the hard work here in Victoria. We've made sure we've put all the steps in

01:28 place to have this process with that bipartisan support.

01:31 Gunjit Maraman Reuben Berg is co-chair of the First People's Assembly, an elected body

01:37 tasked with negotiating a state-wide treaty.

01:40 At the moment there are lots of decisions that the state makes that directly affects

01:44 us and we see sadly they're not leading to the best outcomes. We want to see some of

01:49 those decisions transferred over to First Peoples.

01:55 It's not clear yet what the treaty will look like. Elders and youth are being brought together

01:59 to talk ahead of negotiations starting likely early next year.

02:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]