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Welcome to the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations

The Federation is the Victorian state-wide body that convenes and advocates for the rights and interests of Traditional Owners while progressing wider social, economic, environmental and cultural objectives.

About Us

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we work on as the First Peoples of this Country.

Country

Healthy Country means healthy communities. Our work recognises Traditional Owners’ rights and responsibilities to care and make decisions for Country.

Traditional Owner groups have knowledge, rights and responsibilities, stemming from 65,000 years of experience on Country. The Federation works in the following areas to embed Traditional Owner voices in management of Country.

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Community

Community wellbeing means strong culture, people and place.

The Federation’s work recognises Traditional Owner groups as authoritative decision-makers with rights and power. Our advocacy, programs and services enable Traditional Owners to get on with the business of caring for Country, culture and community.

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Impact

The Federation’s advocacy shapes the landscape in which Victorian Traditional Owner corporations do their important work.

We have put cultural fire and cultural water on the agenda for government, sought greater protections for Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, fought for a fair place in the expanding native foods and botanicals industry, championed treaty and self-determination, supported a drastic reconsideration of how our cultural heritage is approached at both state and national levels, and worked to have economic development considered as more than just small business grants.

 

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About

The Federation is the Victorian state-wide body that convenes and advocates for the rights and interests of Traditional Owner groups while progressing wider social, economic, environmental and cultural objectives.

We support the progress of agreement-making and participation in decision-making to enhance the authority of Traditional Owner Corporations on behalf of their communities.

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Hello from another working week at the Federation! Here’s what some of our team are getting stuck into. ✨

🌩️ Daniels reviewing the draft guidelines for VicGrids renewable energy connections and access regime, and exploring the best way to support Traditional Owner groups in their advocacy for the best outcomes in this space.

💧 Jill’s pulling together a big round of feedback to Ngaweeyan Maar-oo on specific actions to meet three socio-economic targets: target 8 (economic development and employment), target 15 (land and waters), and target 17 (digital inclusion) – and has a minute to catch her breath before revising our draft final report to Emergency Recovery Victoria for administering the Aboriginal Culture and Healing Flood Recovery Grant Program.

✍🏽 Sophie’s drafting our September monthly newsletter (message us if you’re a Traditional Owner Corporation staff member who’s not yet on our mailing list!), before heading up to Sydney for media training with Kaley – who’s in danger of being out of town as her beloved Cats line up for a grand final…

🏕️ Steph has just sent two significant Cultural Landscape Strategy reports to Traditional Owner Corporations – the Year 2 activities report on Strategy implementation, and the report capturing outcomes from the monitoring and evaluation process – and is looking forward to their review and any feedback from corporation members. 

👷🏾‍♀️ And Gabby’s continuing a reorientation of the Workforce Development Strategy’s approach, based on direct feedback from Traditional Owner Corporations and in consultation with our staff – to ensure it’s an authentic expression of Traditional Owners’ worldviews and priorities.

(📷 Kaley and Sophie with media trainer Simon on a sunny arvo in Chippendale – thank you Cox Inall Ridgeway! Thank you Sydney spring!)

Hello from another working week at the Federation! Here’s what some of our team are getting stuck into. ✨

🌩️ Daniel's reviewing the draft guidelines for VicGrid's renewable energy connections and access regime, and exploring the best way to support Traditional Owner groups in their advocacy for the best outcomes in this space.

💧 Jill’s pulling together a big round of feedback to Ngaweeyan Maar-oo on specific actions to meet three socio-economic targets: target 8 (economic development and employment), target 15 (land and waters), and target 17 (digital inclusion) – and has a minute to catch her breath before revising our draft final report to Emergency Recovery Victoria for administering the Aboriginal Culture and Healing Flood Recovery Grant Program.

✍🏽 Sophie’s drafting our September monthly newsletter (message us if you’re a Traditional Owner Corporation staff member who’s not yet on our mailing list!), before heading up to Sydney for media training with Kaley – who’s in danger of being out of town as her beloved Cats line up for a grand final…

🏕️ Steph has just sent two significant Cultural Landscape Strategy reports to Traditional Owner Corporations – the Year 2 activities report on Strategy implementation, and the report capturing outcomes from the monitoring and evaluation process – and is looking forward to their review and any feedback from corporation members.

👷🏾‍♀️ And Gabby’s continuing a reorientation of the Workforce Development Strategy’s approach, based on direct feedback from Traditional Owner Corporations and in consultation with our staff – to ensure it’s an authentic expression of Traditional Owners’ worldviews and priorities.

(📷 Kaley and Sophie with media trainer Simon on a sunny arvo in Chippendale – thank you Cox Inall Ridgeway! Thank you Sydney spring!)
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We’re thrilled to say the Victorian Traditional Owner Economic Development Roadmap is a national excellence finalist!

A few weeks ago, we entered the Roadmap in the National Economic Development Awards for Excellence – which recognise excellence in driving growth and prosperity, held by the peak body, Economic Development Australia – in the strategic thinking category.

Together with SGS Economics and Planning, we submitted the Roadmap as a first-of-its-kind, transformative approach to economic development that offered new empirical evidence about First Nations’ economies and reoriented the research approach away from ‘Western’ industry and towards Traditional Owners’ priorities.

And it’s one of three national finalists!

We’re up against the councils of Sydney and Casey, and winners will be announced in Newcastle in late October. 

The Roadmap is a collaborative and costed blueprint for how investment in Traditional Owner Corporations could bring self-determined prosperity for Victorian Aboriginal communities – and offer $1 billion in health, employment, tourism and productivity benefits to all Victorians, from a $300 million investment over 40 years.

Cross your fingers for the Roadmap, and learn more about it here 👉🏾 https://fvtoc.com.au/sections/roadmap/

We’re thrilled to say the Victorian Traditional Owner Economic Development Roadmap is a national excellence finalist!

A few weeks ago, we entered the Roadmap in the National Economic Development Awards for Excellence – which recognise excellence in driving growth and prosperity, held by the peak body, Economic Development Australia – in the strategic thinking category.

Together with SGS Economics and Planning, we submitted the Roadmap as a first-of-its-kind, transformative approach to economic development that offered new empirical evidence about First Nations’ economies and reoriented the research approach away from ‘Western’ industry and towards Traditional Owners’ priorities.

And it’s one of three national finalists!

We’re up against the councils of Sydney and Casey, and winners will be announced in Newcastle in late October.

The Roadmap is a collaborative and costed blueprint for how investment in Traditional Owner Corporations could bring self-determined prosperity for Victorian Aboriginal communities – and offer $1 billion in health, employment, tourism and productivity benefits to all Victorians, from a $300 million investment over 40 years.

Cross your fingers for the Roadmap, and learn more about it here 👉🏾
... See MoreSee Less

The weather’s warming up and our team’s hard at work. Here’s another look into what some of the Federation staff are up to! 🌞

Jill, Nikita, Gabby and Sophie have completed a first draft of our final report for Emergency Recovery Victoria for the Aboriginal Culture and Healing Flood Recovery Grant Program – a grant program we administer that supported 14 Aboriginal organisations to design and deliver 16 incredible projects healing Country and community after the October 2022 floods.

Lisa and Kurt held a fantastic closed session for the Traditional Owner group representatives on the Cultural Fire Leadership Group, and Kurt’s continuing with our trust-based evaluation of the Nation Building Resource Pool Program: he had a great chat with BBunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporationfor their semi-structured interview, to close their reporting.

Gabby’s hard at work on the Workforce Development Strategy: she’s spoken with representatives from 10 Traditional Owner Corporations, and is now turning what she’s heard into a useful, de-Westernised framework for how employment needs to change.

Reece is preparing to present on our work ensuring Indigenous food sovereignty is recognised and respected at next week’s Australasian Seed Science Conference, and joined the national First Nations Cultural Heritage Alliance’s meeting to workshop changes to national cultural heritage legislation following Rio Tinto’s destruction of Juukan Gorge in 2020.

Steph’s also turning to cultural heritage management policy ahead of a Traditional Owner Corporation workshop we’re running – more on that next month! – and resting her eyes and voice after a full-day inland water target workshop (where she volunteered for a working group to formalise the definition of an ‘Aboriginal organisation’ for the purpose of understanding when Closing the Gap water entitlement targets have been met).

And Sophie had a short week, because she spent four days on beautiful Yorta Yorta Country near Echuca – but, after swimming at Dunghala and photographing these two Wigilupka, she got stuck back into editing the Federation’s annual report.

The weather’s warming up and our team’s hard at work. Here’s another look into what some of the Federation staff are up to! 🌞

Jill, Nikita, Gabby and Sophie have completed a first draft of our final report for Emergency Recovery Victoria for the Aboriginal Culture and Healing Flood Recovery Grant Program – a grant program we administer that supported 14 Aboriginal organisations to design and deliver 16 incredible projects healing Country and community after the October 2022 floods.

Lisa and Kurt held a fantastic closed session for the Traditional Owner group representatives on the Cultural Fire Leadership Group, and Kurt’s continuing with our trust-based evaluation of the Nation Building Resource Pool Program: he had a great chat with BBunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporationfor their semi-structured interview, to close their reporting.

Gabby’s hard at work on the Workforce Development Strategy: she’s spoken with representatives from 10 Traditional Owner Corporations, and is now turning what she’s heard into a useful, de-Westernised framework for how employment needs to change.

Reece is preparing to present on our work ensuring Indigenous food sovereignty is recognised and respected at next week’s Australasian Seed Science Conference, and joined the national First Nations Cultural Heritage Alliance’s meeting to workshop changes to national cultural heritage legislation following Rio Tinto’s destruction of Juukan Gorge in 2020.

Steph’s also turning to cultural heritage management policy ahead of a Traditional Owner Corporation workshop we’re running – more on that next month! – and resting her eyes and voice after a full-day inland water target workshop (where she volunteered for a working group to formalise the definition of an ‘Aboriginal organisation’ for the purpose of understanding when Closing the Gap water entitlement targets have been met).

And Sophie had a short week, because she spent four days on beautiful Yorta Yorta Country near Echuca – but, after swimming at Dunghala and photographing these two Wigilupka, she got stuck back into editing the Federation’s annual report.
... See MoreSee Less

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