We need to talk about...Healing

Co-chair of First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria Aunty Geraldine Atkinson discusses healing through truth-telling

We need to talk about healing because there’s so much healing needed in this country. I am a proud Bangerang and Wiradjuri woman; I’m from the north-east of what is now known as Victoria. I grew up listening to my mother’s stories about life at Cummeragunja Mission. She told me how they were banned from speaking our language, about the lack of food and the malice of the white missionaries. She also told me about the strength and courage of our people who, in their hundreds, walked off the mission in 1939.

Stories of deprivation and cruelty are not uncommon among First Peoples. Since invasion, we have been driven from our land, murdered, separated from their families and forced into institutions. We’ve been denied our right to be who we are, and deprived of our history and culture.