Dja Dja Wurrung Traditional Owners were recently granted title over land within Bendigo by the Victorian State Government as part of the 2013 Recognition Settlement Agreement.

Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation trading as DJAARA received ownership of a former school site which will be transformed into a cultural and community hub. 

At a ceremony held on the site, DJAARA Chairperson Trent Nelson officially received title of the land from State Attorney General Jaclyn Symes.

“For us it’s been a long journey,” he told the Koori Mail. “For us it’s honourable because it’s about recognising Dja Dja Wurrung, our ancestors that fought for this country and lived on this country for thousands of years.”

He said that the vision for the site was not just for the present but also for the future generations, stating that the cultural and community centre will be “set up for future generations coming after us to actually be able to rejoice and share in all this good work that we are doing.”

Nelson also said he hoped the land title handover and the building of the cultural and community centre will set a precedent for other Traditional Owner groups around the state and see more land handed back under similar agreements with government. 

“It creates an opportunity that we can look at other areas and parcels of land that maybe we can acquire for various reasons,” he said. “But first and foremost it’s about just having a place in the landscape that we can grow from and have those opportunities down the track.”

The anticipated Dja Dja Wurrung Corporate and Community Centre will be the permanent base of the DJAARA’s operational activities. 

It aims to be a place of learning and interaction and honour the survival, growth, and culture of Dja Dja Wurrung peoples.  

 The State of Victoria has committed $11.288 million to develop and construct the Dja Dja Wurrung Corporate and Community Centre, of which the Attorney General stated she hoped similar settlement agreements with other Victorian Traditional Owner groups would follow.

“Hopefully I can get similar successes for other organisations around the state such as Dja Dja Wurrung,” she told the Koori Mail.

The land title handover is part of an ongoing process of the 2013 Recognition Settlement Agreement which has finally come to fruition.

“It’s a significant milestone for the journey that we’ve been on,” Dja Dja Wurrung Elder Uncle Graham Atkinson told the Koori Mail. 

“We’re really proud of what we’ve been able to witness today. My ancestors – in difficult circumstances – laid the foundation. We stand on their shoulders, and I really believe that our future generations will benefit from today’s significant event.”

Dja Dja Wurrung Elder Aunty Fay Carter, who recently turned 87 and was part of the Cummeragunja Walk Off and grew up on the Mooroopna Flats, told the Koori Mail that “it’s an amazing event for me.”

“To reach my age and be able to see something like this developing for the next generation so they don’t have to struggle like we did,” she said.

The ceremony was MC’d by Dja Dja Wurrung Group CEO Rodney Carter and featured a music performance by Andrew Travis and Jason Kerr accompanied by Dja Dja Wurrung dancers Nikita Charles, Cassandra Lewis and Kayla Baksh.

Attendees were also invited to participate in the smoking ceremony, guided by fire keepers Troy Firebrace and Aunty Marilyne Nicholls.

Staff from the firm Y2 Architecture, who are employed to design the cultural and community hub, also gave a presentation of the how the proposed site will be developed. 

However, while acknowledging the significance of the ceremony and the land title handover, DJAARA Chair Trent Nelson also said that just handing back small parts of land was not enough for First Nations’ communities. 

“Government love hanging their hat on giving opportunities to blackfullas and for us, we need more than that, we need to make them accountable that this country was built on a lot of wealth that was taken from our people.”

“They’ve got to start doing the hard yards and the hard work to support us and create reconciliation.”