Charles said he was placed in the Box Hill Boys’ Home,where he experienced “cruel and callous punishments” in the 1950s,and spoke of the cycles of incarceration,homelessness,familial dislocation and drug addiction he experienced for decades as a result of that treatment.
“I wasn’t even told I was Aboriginal. I had to discover that for myself. I knew nothing,was told nothing,and had to assimilate ... I was whitewashed by the system,” Charles told the Yoorrook Justice Commission on its first day ofpublic hearings.
Elders were invited to make submissions at the commission’s hearings,or wurrek tyerrang,that opened at the former site of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service building on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy,a symbolic landmark of self-determination to First Peoples in the state since the community organisation was founded in the early 1970s.
Submissions to the commission,also referred to asnuther-mooyoop (a Boon Wurrung word for truth),were designed to provide an opportunity for First Nations elders in the state to share their experiences of the impacts of colonisation,including their experiences of resilience and survival of languages and little-known histories and traditions.
Nuther-mooyoop made to Yoorrook may take the form of writing,artwork,cultural artefact,photo,performance,or audio and video recording.
Yoorrook commission chair Eleanor Bourke said “all ways of telling the truth are of equal importance. A nuther-mooyoop can include anything about a past or current experiences of systemic injustice for an elder,in addition to that of their family or community”.