3KND Treaty Correspondent Charles Pakana attends and reports on a special Treaty event at Melbourne Girls Grammar School
On the 14th of March this year, I attended and reported on an event held by the Victorian Local Governance Association.
Titled Treaty - Leading the Agenda Discussion, the event was an open forum for local government representatives to discuss how Treaty would impact on them, and hear from leading authorities. Among those panellists Treaty Commissioner Jill Gallagher, and Victorian Parliamentary Secretary for Treaty and past Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, the Honorable Natalie Hutchins, MP.
While some of the attending politicians and bureaucrats saw the event as an opportunity to push their own agendas, it was a question posed by a group of Year 8 students from Melbourne Girls Grammar School that caught many people’s attention.
The question posed to the panel was focused on how Treaty could impact on the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous younger people.
The insight of that question demonstrated that the students were undoubtedly experiencing an education vastly different - and significantly less whitewashed - than that gained by so many Australians in the past, and sadly, even presently.
Last week I was extended the opportunity to attend the school and record a presentation on Treaty given by those students to the broader Melbourne Girls Grammar Year 8 community.
This is a recording of the report that went to air on 3KND on Wednesday 22 May, 2019.