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Welcome to the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations

We’re the state-wide body fighting for the rights and interests of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations while progressing wider social, economic, environmental and cultural objectives.

About

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 with Country. The Federation’s policy, advocacy and government relations work helps restore Traditional Owners’ authority in frameworks for managing of Country.

View our work for Country

Community

Community wellbeing means strong culture.

The Federation’s work recognises Traditional Owner Corporations as authoritative and representative decision-makers with rights, power, and responsibilities. Our advocacy and services support Traditional Owners to care for Country, culture and community.

View our work for community

Economy

Strong and independent economies sustain Traditional Owner communities and enable self-determination.

The Federation’s research, grant administration, knowledge-sharing and advocacy promote rights-based economic development for Traditional Owner Corporations.

View our work for economy

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 rights, 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 Traditional Owners’ economic development considered as more than just small business grants.

See our impact

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.

Founded in 2013 by Traditional Owner Corporations who recognised they could be stronger together, we are by and for Traditional Owners: their policy and advocacy body, helping to enhance their authority on behalf of their communities.

Our strategy

Resources

Discussion papers
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Information sheets
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Publications
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Happy Tuesday! Heres what some of us are up to this week.

🟡 Lisa’s wrapping up the minutes from Thursday’s great CEO Forum, then turning to her sections of our next Cultural Fire Leadership Team policy paper.

🟡 Steph’s interviewing Traditional Owner Corporations to shape the development of a new framework that will guide engagement and partnership with Traditional Owners on proposed critical minerals mining projects.

🟡 Our newly minted TOCC secretariat contract is keeping a few of us busy – Steph’s also progressing key actions, including preparing for a 2027 work planning session at the next TOCC meeting in early December.
 
🟡 Sophie’s helping out with some new, clearer document template types for the TOCC, and proof-reading our freshly laid-out annual report.
 
🟡 TOGMS, TOGMS, and more TOGMS, says Kurt, who’s steering our project reviewing the implementation of the Traditional Owner Game Management Strategy.
 
🟡 When Dan and Gabby aren’t progressing that review’s first-draft milestone report, they’re scoping a proposal for a Traditional Owner forum on data centres and writing that cultural fire policy paper, respectively.
 
🟡 And Kaley’s sat down with Uncle Charles Pakana for a Victorian Aboriginal News interview before our team’s visit to Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation – and a few well-deserved days of annual leave.

Happy Tuesday! Here's what some of us are up to this week.

🟡 Lisa’s wrapping up the minutes from Thursday’s great CEO Forum, then turning to her sections of our next Cultural Fire Leadership Team policy paper.

🟡 Steph’s interviewing Traditional Owner Corporations to shape the development of a new framework that will guide engagement and partnership with Traditional Owners on proposed critical minerals mining projects.

🟡 Our newly minted TOCC secretariat contract is keeping a few of us busy – Steph’s also progressing key actions, including preparing for a 2027 work planning session at the next TOCC meeting in early December.

🟡 Sophie’s helping out with some new, clearer document template types for the TOCC, and proof-reading our freshly laid-out annual report.

🟡 TOGMS, TOGMS, and more TOGMS, says Kurt, who’s steering our project reviewing the implementation of the Traditional Owner Game Management Strategy.

🟡 When Dan and Gabby aren’t progressing that review’s first-draft milestone report, they’re scoping a proposal for a Traditional Owner forum on data centres and writing that cultural fire policy paper, respectively.

🟡 And Kaley’s sat down with Uncle Charles Pakana for a Victorian Aboriginal News interview before our team’s visit to Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation – and a few well-deserved days of annual leave.
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Just because you cant touch it doesnt make it not real.

Just because you can't touch it doesn't make it not real. ... See MoreSee Less

Today marks 41 years since the handback of Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park to Anangu Traditional Owners.

Anangu people fought for decades to have their rights in Country recognised, and their success is a model for how cooperative co-management of Country could look nation-wide.

On 26 October 1985, the governor-general handed back the title deeds to Anangu people. They immediately offered the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service a 99-year lease to co-manage the national park – an arrangement governed by a predominately Traditional Owner land management board.

Strong, legal rights returned to Traditional Owner groups, who have the authority to make decisions for the management of their Country – this is what we want to see nation-wide.

This photo, and the history, from the National Museum of Australia.

Today marks 41 years since the handback of Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park to Anangu Traditional Owners.

Anangu people fought for decades to have their rights in Country recognised, and their success is a model for how cooperative co-management of Country could look nation-wide.

On 26 October 1985, the governor-general handed back the title deeds to Anangu people. They immediately offered the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service a 99-year lease to co-manage the national park – an arrangement governed by a predominately Traditional Owner land management board.

Strong, legal rights returned to Traditional Owner groups, who have the authority to make decisions for the management of their Country – this is what we want to see nation-wide.

This photo, and the history, from the National Museum of Australia.
... See MoreSee Less

Buying from Traditional Owner Corporations supports and sustains the organisations delivering for their communities.

Buying from Traditional Owner Corporations supports and sustains the organisations delivering for their communities. ... See MoreSee Less

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