Taking Care of Culture

Cultural Heritage is our lifeblood. As Traditional Owners, our Heritage is our relationship to Country – land and waters, the rocks, soil, plants, animals and all the things on it. Our Heritage connects us with each other. We look after Country, and it looks after us – body, heart and spirit. We want to make sure that the Culture is living, vital and continuing for many generations to come. We have that responsibility. It is our inherited and fundamental right, as custodians of the oldest living Culture on earth, to practice Culture and to set a vision for a strong future for our Cultural Heritage.

Legislative Review and Regulatory Functions Committee Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council

Every 5 years the Aboriginal Heritage Act (2006) in Victoria requires a report on the State of Victoria’s Aboriginal Cultural Heritage. This is the first report developed by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council and will reflect on:

What is Cultural Heritage?
What rights do Aboriginal People want regarding Cultural Heritage?
How are Aboriginal People able to exercise these rights regarding Cultural Heritage currently?
What stops Aboriginal People from exercising their rights?
How well does the wider Victorian community understand Aboriginal Cultures?
What is the vision for the future?

The Taking Care of Culture Discussion Paper will then inform the State of Victoria's Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Report 2016-2021.

On 9 June 2022 our Chair met with Minister Williams to personally table the very first SoVACH report. The report was produced by Council in collaboration with Dr Terri Janke and staff. Dr Terri Janke is co-author of the 2021 Federal State of the Environment Report which was released on 19 July 2022.

SoVACH addresses the subject of the State of Victorian Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in a holistic, landscape approach, and doesn’t limit itself to addressing matters legislated within the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006. The report includes significant commentary from Victorian Traditional Owners in an honest, compelling and thought-provoking way. This commentary is primarily the product of the extensive consultation undertaken by Dr Janke and her team which included RAPs, Council members and OVAHC staff. A significant aspect of this consultation was the in-person workshop hosted by Dr Janke's team for RAP staff and members and OVAHC staff. Dr Janke's team also made themselves available for one-on-one sessions with RAP staff and members.

It was important to Council that an independent assessment of the state of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in Victoria was undertaken, ensuring transparency and best practice research, consultation and analysis. Dr Terri Janke is a Wuthathi/Meriam woman and an international authority on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP). It was essential that in undertaking this statutory function, Council decolonised the process, ensuring it was undertaken with an Aboriginal perspective and embedded with Aboriginal approaches and understandings.

As members of our communities, as descendants of our Ancestors and as members of a statutory authority, we felt a profound responsibility to speak frankly in this report.

For more information on SoVAHC, refer to VAHC State of Victoria's Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Report 2016-2021.

Updated 13 February 2023