Walk for Truth sets off from Spring St

Former Yoorrook Justice Commissioner Travis Lovett took the first steps of a 500km Walk for Truth from the political heart of Melbourne on April 19. His 39-day journey is aimed at kickstarting a national version of the Yoorrook Justice Commission.

At 9am on a Sunday morning Travis Lovett stood barefoot before a crowd of a thousand people on the steps of the Victorian parliament.

The drone of a didge rang out against the surrounding stone and a few sulphur-crested cockatoos glittered in the sun as they wheeled overhead, getting a good look at what was going on.

“We gather on Kulin lands,” he said, “a place of ceremony, of law, of kinship of governance, older than any building standing behind me, a place that has witnessed everything – the first songs, the first disruptions, the first reckonings, a place that remembers what this nation has tried to forget.”

A Gunditjmara man from western Victoria who played a pivotal role in Victoria’s Indigenous-led truth-telling process, Travis led a walk from Portland to Melbourne in the leadup to the tabling of the key findings of the the Yoorrook Commission last year.

That walk was an attempt to bring the Victorian public along with him on the unearthing of history and its continuing resonance.

Success, he says, will be realised by bringing people together on the issue.

He wants to “invite everyday Australians on a path of healing,” the inclusive leader says.

Also giving a speech, Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Bill Nicholson noted that the parliament had been the destination of more than a dozen protest walks by his ancestor William Barak, whose journeyings from Corranderrk Mission at Healesville to Melbourne to protest the racist policies of the Aboriginal Protectors Board helped spark a royal commission in the late 1880s.

“The truth we’re talking about is not just history; it’s the perspectives of Aboriginal people through that history and where that leaves us today,” Uncle Bill told the crowd.

“Many of our Elders past … have fought and fought and fought, and it’s really just about equality and self-determination and futures for our community.”

That message was echoed by Wurundjeri woman Kathleen Terrick.

“All we really care about is our family,” the mother-of-six told the assembled supporters.

“So, when we get up and speak truth, we’re doing it for our people, for our family, because we don’t want our children and great grandchildren and the future generations to have to endure the heartache and the pain that’s been passed down to us.”

After putting on a pair of shoes and stopping to waft cleansing eucalyptus smoke on himself, Travis set off, with the crowd following behind.

Cutting through East Melbourne, Fitzroy and Collingwood to the Yarra – also now known as the Birrarung – the large group followed the river north to Dights Falls on the first leg of the long journey.

Travis, bearing ceremonial message stick and kangaroo skin cloak, is expected to reach Canberra on May 27, the start of National Reconciliation Week, with various people joining him along the way.

He has invited Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to meet him on the road before he reaches the federal parliament. •