Message to Yorta Yorta People October 2019
Dear Yorta Yorta Nation members, the Victorian Aboriginal Treaty process has been long, expensive and arduous for all our People. To our People trying make a living in which for many of our people is a challenging world and hard to know whether this will provide long lasting justice for our People.
For more than 2 years of consultation with Yorta Yorta Elders and Yorta Yorta members it has been determined by the Yorta Yorta Nation Council of Elders and extended Yorta Yorta Elders that the Victorian Aboriginal Treaty process is not conducive to providing long term recognition of Yorta Yorta Nation Sovereignty Rights and will only set us back if capitulate our lore, culture and inherent rights to join in as one of the Traditional Owners for the formation of a Victorian Aboriginal Assembly.
Yorta Yorta Elders believe the onus is on the Victorian Government to come directly to all First Nations such as Yorta Yorta Nation, to negotiate directly through our representative bodies of the Yorta Yorta Council of Elders and the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation. We cannot relinquish our inherent rights as First Peoples, and provide certainty of our Yorta Yorta Sovereign First Nation including all our clans groups that are within our territory, which has existed since the dreamtime, prior to the invasion and occupation of our lands and waters by the colonial state of Australia which holds fast to the British Crown.
A Final Yorta Yorta Treaty Report will be posted once we have analysed the Victorian Aboriginal Treaty Annual Report 2019 (as attached). In late November and early December 2019 YYNAC will be hosting a gathering to celebrate our achievement as a Peoples and provide space for yarning circles on how far we have come over the last 30 odd years since forming a strategy for our rights and in formalising our Yorta Yorta Sovereign Government.
Please find attached document that were written for the Yorta Yorta Elders and People to provide an informed analysis of the Victorian Aboriginal Treaty process whether directly under the Victorian Aboriginal Treaty Process or any through the NSW and Commonwealth Governments and whether there are other avenues to pursue long justice recognising Yorta Yorta Sovereign Nation through either International, Australian political and/or legal systems. These are held by the YYNAC Board of Directors and the Yorta Yorta Nation Council of Elders and we will provide a briefing on all these papers at our 16 Yorta Yorta Family Group meetings which will be held in late November and early December 2019.