‘What this means to my people is almost beyond words’
On Tuesday, Brunswick-based MP Sheena Watt — the only Aboriginal member of the Legislative Council — delivered a powerful speech urging her colleagues to support a treaty with First Nations Victorians. Following the passage of the legislation on Thursday, we reproduce this edited version of the speech taken from Hansard
Friday, October 31, 2025
TODAY is a historic day. Today is a day decades in the making. Today is the day we come together as members of this place, as advocates, as allies and as a community to speak to the first ever Statewide Treaty. This moment – this history, this legacy – and what it means to my people, my community, is almost beyond words …
I stand today and every day in the footsteps of generations of our ancestors. I carry with me the knowledge, stories and spirit of our elders. I am strengthened by a deep and powerful connection to country, kin and culture, one that stretches back more than 60,000 years.
Standing before you all in this place, I feel the weight of this heritage, and it fills me with pride.
Today we join together in the spirit of healing and reconciliation to acknowledge the past and commit to a better future for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Victorians alike. Today we heed the call made by generation after generation of our elders, a call to move forward to a new era together. Today, after more than a century of waiting, we mark the beginning of that new era, the treaty era.
The path to treaty has been long. Our old people have been on the journey to treaty since the beginning of colonisation, having long been vocal in calling out the history of injustices and dispossession faced by First Peoples in this country.
As a state we began to walk alongside First Peoples in 2016, when this Labor government embarked on the first community consultations with the Aboriginal Treaty Working Group.
In 2018 we strengthened our commitment to treaty through the establishment of the Victorian Treaty Advancement Commission and the passing of the Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018. In 2021 we established the country’s first ever truth-telling commission, the Yoorrook Justice Commission, to reckon with the past and ongoing injustices experienced by mob in this state, recognising that a commitment to treaty is also a commitment to honesty, reconciliation and healing.
In 2022 we agreed to the treaty negotiation framework and created the Treaty Authority to facilitate fair, effective and efficient treaty negotiations between the state and First Peoples. In 2024 we began treaty negotiations and began the task of translating our commitment to a better, fairer tomorrow into the bill and Statewide Treaty that are before this house today.
Over the course of this week we will take the final step towards this nation’s very first treaty, the culmination of 10 years of leadership and hard work by this government, the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, the Treaty Authority and the Yoorrook Justice Commission as well as the advocacy of many staunch, deadly First Nations people who have fought for justice and recognition for mob over the decades…
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What I have not said publicly before is that these last two years have been both a challenge and a triumph, as I discovered out there was my grandmother, alive and strong on Yorta Yorta country, after a lifetime of me and my mum being told otherwise. My story is not uncommon, but the opportunity I had to connect with a family member is.
Up in Mooroopna I met my grandmother for the very first time last year, in an embrace that crossed the generations and, truthfully, our imagination. The hurt, the pain, and the attempt at erasure of our people, history, culture and language cannot and should not be a burden to bear alone as First Peoples, as it has been for me and my family and too many Aboriginal families in our state.
That is why I want to take this time to thank the truth tellers who so bravely shared their stories at Yoorrook for speaking truth to power and for changing the public record of our state. I honour their courage, and I commit to never letting their histories and their stories that so closely echo my own be forgotten.
In the name of those who came before us, I am here today with a message to my fellow stolen generation survivors and their descendants, those of us driven by a fierce determination to not let the atrocities of the past ever happen again.
To you I say this: Parliament will from today hear you. It will hear your stories, your truths and your dreams, and it is upon all of us here in these red and green seats to forever honour the promise of treaty.
Throughout this process I have been reflecting on my unique position as the only Aboriginal member of the Victorian Parliament. And it is not lost on me – as I stand before you today speaking about the meaning and significance of treaty, of self-determination and of justice – that I am in the very place that has historically excluded and contributed to the very inequalities experienced by Aboriginal Victorians.
As I stand here in this chamber, it is not lost on me that this place voted on inflicting pain and hurt and irrevocable damage to our communities. The removal of our children and the dispossession and separation from country, kin and culture happened because of decisions made right here. For too long our lives were at the mercy of people speaking for us – never, never held accountable for their historic failures to change our lives for the better…
For over 200 years in this place and many other halls of power like it, laws and policies have been made about my people without us.
But today we change that.
Today we create a new status quo, recognising that where past governments have tried and failed time and time again, it is time to try something new.
We know that giving people a say on the issues that impact them leads to better outcomes for health and wellbeing, for housing security, for education and for so much more. For First Peoples, this is no different.
We know from decades of failed policies and ineffective commissions and bodies that the best way to make a difference in the lives of First Nations people is by giving us the tools to take ownership over our own lives. That is how we close the gap. That is how we end the ongoing harm and inequalities faced by our people.
That is what treaty is all about. It is about giving Aboriginal Victorians a say in the processes of law and policymaking so that we can have the same opportunities and the same chances to thrive and succeed as any other Victorian.
It is about acknowledging the scars of colonisation, of the stolen generations and of past and ongoing injustices experienced by First Nations Victorians and committing to doing better. It is about justice, self-determination and creating a better future for all Victorians, one built on respect, truth and mutual understanding.
The truth is the treaty is not just a promise for a better tomorrow, it is also an invitation – an olive branch extended from my elders to the Victorian community, asking you to join us in righting the wrongs of the past. It is an opportunity to meet the moment, to walk beside us.
Shamefully, it is an invitation that those opposite have turned their backs on in the other place, and I urge the members opposite not to make the same mistake here.
On our side we have accepted this generous offering from our First Peoples because we do not shy away from change.
Treaty is not just words on a page, it is action. It is how we face the truth of our past and turn it into a shared strength. It is not about division; it is about coming together as equals, as partners in a shared future.
I have said before that today is a day that will go down in the history books, that will be remembered for generations to come.
I ask this chamber: how do you want history to remember you? Do you want to have to apologise in years to come? For treaty is here, treaty is now.
I invite everyone in this place and beyond to walk with us together, hand in hand. Let us make history.
The full transcript of the speech given by Sheena Watt is available from the Victorian Parliament Hansard.