Executive summary
This Strategy for Aboriginal Community-led Recovery (the Strategy) describes how Emergency Recovery Victoria (ERV) supports Victorian Aboriginal communities and Traditional Owners in their efforts to plan and deliver recovery in their communities. It provides an approach to realise culturally responsive Aboriginal community-led outcomes in recovery in coordination with government, councils and delivery partners.
The Strategy supports the Emergency Recovery Victoria - Recovery Framework, its outcomes and outlines the key areas of focus for the Victorian Government as system steward in planning, coordinating and supporting emergency recovery with strong and resilient Victorian Aboriginal communities. ERV acknowledges and respects Aboriginal expertise is central to recovery efforts for Aboriginal communities, while recognising the ongoing impacts and intergenerational trauma resulting from past policies of governments at all levels.
This work provides a path to build trust with Aboriginal people and navigate complexities in meeting the Victorian Government commitment to enable and address barriers to Aboriginal self-determination in recovery processes. The key enablers of self-determination are to:
- Prioritise culture
- Address racism and cultural healing
- Transfer power and resources to communities
- Address trauma and support healing.
The Strategy is informed through the generous contribution and insights shared by members of Victorian Aboriginal communities impacted by disaster and emergency in Victoria. An extensive consultation process with Victorian Aboriginal communities impacted by the Eastern Victorian Fires 2019-20 was led by the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations throughout 2022. Further insights were gathered following subsequent disaster events and shaped by key expertise from staff in the ERV Aboriginal Culture and Healing team.
This work also draws on key findings, experiences and stories from those impacted by Victoria’s most devasting bushfire season in more than a decade, as documented in After the flames - Community Reflections and through key recommendations of the Inspector General for Emergency Management in Victoria.
The Strategy is a roadmap for ERV to support Aboriginal community-led recovery by embedding the principles and enablers of self-determination in our work. It is supported by a Strategic Framework and template for annual implementation planning, under the following 4 domains:
Foundations of culturally responsive recovery
Informed by the enablers and principles of self-determination, ERV strategy and delivery is culturally safe and responsive.
Strategic reform and operational needs for Aboriginal community-led recovery
Systems and processes are reformed to enable and support Aboriginal community-led recovery.
Aboriginal expertise and decision-making inform government accountability
ERV decision-making processes respond to Victorian Government commitments including cultural rights and self-determination.
Monitoring and evaluating for success
Processes to monitor and evaluate are informed by the ERV Outcomes Framework. Indicators for success are identified by Aboriginal community in local recovery plans. Key to realising the outlined strategies and approaches is:
- a commitment to understand and respond to the unique and diverse needs of Aboriginal communities across Victoria
- a long-term commitment to realise Aboriginal community-led recovery in Victoria in response to increasing disaster events, and
- a sustained focus and efforts by ERV and the Victorian Government to achieve the Aboriginal Culture and Healing (ACH) recovery outcomes, enabled by principles of self-determination.
Updated