We the Yorta Yorta Council of Elders representing the Family Clan Groups of the Sovereign Yorta Yorta Nation, rejects the “Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018”.

We view this Treaty process as a trip wire and only a pathway to assimilation as we are not “ABORIGINAL VICTORIANS” but “YORTA YORTA”, and as such we will not be appointing a Yorta Yorta representative to any Treaty Regional Representative Body nor will any of our Yorta Yorta Council of Elders be nominating for the People’s Assembly.

Further, we will not participate in a farcical regional representative body that will erode our authority and provide a fast track toward the disempowerment of the Sovereign Yorta Yorta Nation and its People.

The Yorta Yorta Council of Elders say that any Yorta Yorta person can nominate to stand and vote, but you do so as a Victorian Aboriginal person and not as a Yorta Yorta Nation representative.

The Yorta Yorta Council of Elders say this as Yorta Yorta People, with our Sovereignty intact, as we neither ceded our country to the British Colonial Authorities at any material time, nor its agencies. We assert that our Yorta Yorta Law, Culture, Language and Traditions remain the Lore of our Yorta Yorta country.

We believe that the Victorian Government has no authority to determine the terms and conditions of negotiating a Treaty, as this is within the jurisdiction of Australian Commonwealth Government in the first instance, otherwise the Victorian Government can only enter a contract or agreement with each First Nation within its boundary.

The Yorta Yorta Nation Council of Elders understand that in today’s Australia, the Victorian State governs by right of the Crown of Great Britain and operates under British Sovereignty under colonial based laws. This is endorsed by assent of the Governor General over any legislation passed by the Victorian Government, (therefore) we assert that a Treaty needs to deal directly with the Commonwealth and the Crown.

For this to be recognised in International Law it needs to be mediated through an international process, otherwise we will be left with broken promises that have plagued First Nations Peoples in other similar colonised nations as Australia, such as New Zealand, Canada and the United States of America.

In July 2019 Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation will be holding No Treaty information sessions in Melbourne, Shepparton and Echuca. Dates are to be confirmed. All Yorta Yorta People are invited to attend.

Please keep posted to our Facebook page and website for further information. All registered members of the YYNAC will receive invites in the mail.

Research will be posted online once we have made our report to the Victorian Government in early July.

Yorta Yorta Council of Elders Press Release