Freeing of Aboriginal flag hits home for Indigenous leaders ahead of January 26

The freeing of the Aboriginal flag for public use has been celebrated by south-west Indigenous leaders who have been pushing for its use in the public domain for years.

The news held an even deeper meaning for many in the region on the eve of January 26, a nationally recognised day of mourning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

South-west Indigenous elder Uncle Lenny Clarke said the Indigenous people should be glad the flag had been freed.

"Over the years we have used that flag as a symbol of justice and freedom and we fought for those things under that flag," he said. "Flags are symbolic and they represent most nations on earth. It's a very strong and powerful thing to show that you exist as a group of people as a nation."

"If you look back at historical photographs, you'll see the Aboriginal flag prominently displayed in our fight for recognition of the Framlingham Forest in the 1970s," he said.

"We used the flag and its colours as a sense of identity, and a sense of cohesiveness and pronunciation that we do exist and we do have certain rights. The flag was used symbolically for that."

Mr Clarke said it was "great" to see the flag returned to the Australian people.

"We were always aware of Mr Thomas, the fella who designed it, and while we felt that we should respect his ownership of it, it's great to see the Australian community free to use it respectfully and that is what should happen," he said.

He said he hoped the flag's newfound freedom would soon see it fly in the Senate chamber.

"Australia has proven that they can move on and the Senate has to travel with them."

Mr Clarke said that in order to stand in solidarity with Indigenous Australians on Wednesday, people must share and acknowledge the truth.

"Australia is recognised overseas as a country that lives in a lie," he said.

"What we must do on Australia Day is acknowledge what happened in the past. Don't deny that it did happen - the terrible and cruel history that was more so cruel in the south-west part of Victoria."

Mr Clarke said colonisation first took place in the south-west, with the Indigenous community holding back the "rich western district" for 21 years straight.

"That was the longest serving war in world history and people have to understand that it did happen," he said.

"Here in the western district, the land ran red with murders and the massacres that took pace. Men, women and children were absolutely slaughtered and what I always say is, when you talk to an Aboriginal person today, you're actually talking to a survivor.

"We did survive. Our people survived and we're the descendants of those people who survived. Don't deny that."

January 26 was declared by Yorta Yorta man Uncle William Cooper as a national day of mourning 1938.

Gunditjmara man Chris Saunders said it's not a date to celebrate.

Last year the 25-year-old organised two Invasion Day ceremonies on historical Gunditjmara sites to mark January 26.

While they cannot take place this year due to COVID-19, Mr Saunders encouraged people attend the sites of the Convincing Ground Massacre on Beach Road, Allestree and the first lands ploughed on Gunditjmara country across the road from Portland District Health and leave native flowers in solidarity.

"It is the day that we mourn the loss of our country, of our culture, of our people and our way of living," Mr Saunders said.

"We feel like we've been left out of the conversation, and it's not by choice. As Indigenous peoples we don't get a choice whether to read into our past - that is our story, that is who we are.

"I grew up in the town of Heywood and my family were almost non-existent in this world due to colonial violence. And when I say colonial violence, I mean massacres.

"These are shared stories of our people all across Australia.

"We need to idolise those stories in the same way that we idolise the early settler stories like the Henty brothers in the Portland area. These are people who are memorialised, literally - there's statues that commemorate where they first broke ground.

"Gunditjmara people have been farming this land and waterways for eons, since the beginning, but there's no acknowledgement of that publicly.

"Give us that kind of respect and reflect on that really dark history because we as Indigenous peoples don't get a choice whether we get to acknowledge it or not.

"I might not have been here today simply because a settler might have killed my grandmother or my grandfather. I don't I don't get to ignore that fact. That is who I am. That is the story of my family, and that is the story of our nation. And that is the story of this area.

"In south-west Victoria we have over 30 massacre sites."

Scars in the Landscape: A register of massacre sites in Western Victoria, 1803-1859 by Ian Clark challenges the ideology that the colonisation of Western Victoria was peaceful, and reveals the widespread nature of colonial violence.

Saunders asks that people read the history for themselves.

"Hear it from the mouth of these people, or the writings of these people, who have lived experiences and have put their whole being into sharing this knowledge with you. Go learn this stuff."

Gunditjmara man Michael 'Mookeye' Bell is the south-west member of the First Peoples' Assembly.

He said things have progressed even in the last decade, but further leadership is needed to unite the country on the issue of January 26.

"I'm 58 and to see the acknowledgement of Aboriginal culture at many of the ceremonies that do take place across Australia, and to see the focus on the more multicultural aspects of Australia, is quite significant," Mr Bell said. "It wasn't there even 10 to 15 years ago.

"I don't know what date is an appropriate date but they'll change it, we'll get there one day.

"The messaging around Australia Day is [Captain Arthur] Phillip putting the flag in Australia from a British Empire perspective. Some people still think it's when Captain Cook landed, so there's a lot of mixed messaging.

"They need to come up with a strong message for the society we are today.

"No-one's put a line in the sand for it, it's very political and I think leadership is needed to have something that as Australians we can all celebrate."

He said the freeing of the Aboriginal flag was a positive outcome from years of advocacy from Indigenous groups.

"It's a great result to free the flag, it means a lot to a lot of people - a lot who are not with us today who contributed to getting us recognised and giving us some of the rights we have today," Mr Bell said.

"As someone who sits on the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria, looking to develop a new Treaty negotiation framework - that's all done under the Aboriginal flag. The red, yellow and black.

"Aboriginal communities still have a long way to go with having an economic base and wealth but we really appreciate the fact it was freed.

"The acknowledgement of this will see the flag status grow even more.

"I'm very proud that the flags are flying as acknowledgment to the First People and also our connection to local community because prior to that, our recognition was very limited."

A day of reflection is the theme of the January 26 event at the Commercial Hotel Hamilton, and will be a chance for people to hear respected Federal Court Judge Peter Gray speak and hear Johnny Lovett and his band play.

Boandik Gunditjmara Elder Uncle Johnny Lovett said the January 26 debate is one he's been talking about as long as he can remember.

He said he feels like a broken record advocating on the issue year in, year out with no tangible change.

"You'd like to think that things are improving but by God almighty, there's still a long way to go," he said.

"White settlement has been here 232 years as opposed to 60,000 years. There's a great hell of a difference.

"That needs to be looked at if we're going to try and bridge the gap on reconciliation.

"The date needs to be changed, they can still have Australia Day whenever they see fit to have it, but don't have it on our mourning day.

"Settlers did their best to eliminate Aboriginal people over the years, there's a whole history of it here in the south-west where 60 per cent of those massacres took place.

"There's a terrible amount of ignorance out there and some people who just won't and don't change their thought pattern on what's right and wrong.

"The country hasn't healed and I would go as far as to say the descendants of the perpetrators haven't healed either. I think they currently hold a lot of guilt and I don't think its a good thing for them either. But you cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.

"I think there needs to be a really recognised effort or acceptance by white Australia as to who we are. We haven't come from anywhere, we've been here all the time and we're not going anywhere."

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