July 27 will be a significant day for Aunty Geraldine Atkinson — and there have been many days of note in her life of considerable milestones.
On that day, the co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, along with her fellow leader Marcus Stewart, will step aside for new leaders to step up and take the body forward into the next era of Victoria’s Treaty process.
A Bangerang and Wiradjuri woman, Aunty Geraldine was elected as one of the inaugural assembly’s 31 members in 2019.
It was an historic milestone in Victoria’s bold Treaty movement, which is the first of its kind in Australia.
The assembly was created to represent the state’s First Nations peoples in negotiations with the Andrews Government to create the rules and infrastructure that would then enable Treaty negotiations to follow.
“We were very fresh, we were starting something new. We realised that we had to build something from the ground up and I knew that it was going to be a huge task,” Aunty Geraldine said.
Four years on, the Treaty process has now reached a stage where individual Traditional Owner groups will negotiate localised treaties with the state government. The state will also negotiate a statewide Treaty with the assembly.
“From the very beginning, as I said, the work that we were mandated to do, it was seen as extraordinary, an extraordinary task and it was daunting, but I, being the person I am, I’ve always known that I have determination, I have resilience and I know that I’m a really strong Aboriginal woman,” Aunty Geraldine said.
“I knew that I could assist in ensuring that we achieved those outcomes that we were mandated to do.”
Aunty Geraldine’s father died when she was just five years old and her mother was then left to raise 14 children in an era when parents feared their children would be stolen from them.
“I think when I look at the stories that my mother had told us about how she lived on the mission, and how they had to survive, there were cruel missionaries, and they endured a lot of pain,” Aunty Geraldine said.
“She could only go to school to Grade 3, she never learned to read.
“Hearing those stories, it made me realise that what she was doing for us as we were growing up, was she wanted a better life. She wanted a better life for her children.”
Her mother’s determination and that of the Aboriginal rights movements that grew from those struggles have driven Aunty Geraldine on.
“I guess what motivated me to stand (for the assembly) was that I could carry on the legacy of my ancestors and my Elders in the past who wanted a treaty, who had worked so very hard over many decades for that to occur,” she said.
The assembly’s second election will be held between May 13 and June 3, and Aunty Geraldine is encouraging First Nations people living in Victoria to enrol on the assembly’s Aboriginal Electoral Roll so they can vote.
“It's so very important that we get out in community and talk to people about enrolling, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, not just Traditional Owners, but those that have lived here, even if they’re from interstate and belong to other mobs, if they’ve lived here for over three years they can enrol,” Aunty Geraldine said.
Only Traditional Owners of land in Victoria can stand for election to the assembly, of which 76 have nominated.
“There are some amazing people that have nominated, and I really want to see them succeed because I believe that they can contribute and continue the work that we started,” she said.
Neither Aunty Geraldine, nor Marcus Stewart, a Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung Nation, will be among them, saying it is now time for others to take up the mantle and push the Treaty process onwards.
“I don’t think that I would have been able to go through this process and continue as co-chair without the support of my co-chair Marcus Stewart,” Aunty Geraldine said.
“He has been behind me 100 per cent of the way. He has supported me and he has guided me and he has just been absolutely amazing.”
Uncertain of any future roles, Aunty Geraldine knows she will continue contributing in the First Nations sphere, working for the advancement of her people, inspired, and supported, by her family and one person in particular from her past.
“When I was tired and downtrodden and wanted to give up. They supported me and told me you can do it. You’re a strong woman. You’ll get it done. So they were the ones that gave me that strength and that strength came from their grandmother, my mother,” she said.