Acknowledgements: Multicultural health action plan

Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners

The Department of Health acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Victoria and pays respects and recognises the contribution from their Elders past and present.

We proudly acknowledge the strength and resilience of Aboriginal people as the world’s oldest living culture and the contribution of generations of Aboriginal leaders who have fought tirelessly for the rights of their people and communities.

We recognise that we have a long way to go in understanding and addressing the intersections of racism and the ongoing effects of dispossession and colonisation.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander recognition statement

The Department of Health pays respect to and recognises the contribution of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in Victoria. Throughout this document the term ‘Aboriginal’ is used to refer to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

We recognise the diversity of Aboriginal peoples living throughout Victoria. While Aboriginal people commonly use the terms ‘Koorie’ or ‘Koori’ stead to describe Aboriginal people in southeast Australia, we have used the term ‘Aboriginal’ to include all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in Victoria.

Treaty and truth in Victoria

We acknowledge the impact of colonisation to this day and seek ways to rectify past wrongs, including through truth-telling and the development of treaty.

We are deeply committed to Aboriginal self-determination and to supporting Victoria’s treaty and truth-telling processes. We acknowledge that treaty will have wide-ranging impacts for the way we work with Aboriginal people living in Victoria. We seek to create respectful and collaborative partnerships and develop policies and programs that respect Aboriginal self-determination and align with treaty aspirations.

We acknowledge that Victoria’s treaty process will provide a framework for transferring decision-making power and resources to support self-determining Aboriginal communities to take control of matters that affect their lives. We commit to working proactively to support this work in line with the aspirations of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.

Language statement

Language is an effective tool for changing community attitudes and promoting inclusion.

We know language is always changing, and we recognise that words are powerful and can have different meaning for different people. Our language continues to evolve.

In this plan, the term ‘multicultural communities’ refers to the vast number of diverse cultural, linguistic, ethnic and faith groups in Victoria. We recognise that everyone has different preferences for how they describe their identity. There is no universal conceptualisation of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious identity, but we hope that providing some insight into definitions and key terms in Appendix 1 will help promote inclusive language.