Victoria increases funding for Aboriginal cultural heritage

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Aboriginal cultural heritage sites have been allocated approximately $13.5 million as the Victorian government announced new funding to protect and preserve this heritage. 

This sum comes as a portion of a 2022-2023 Victorian budget proclamation entailing a total investment of $35.7 million for Aboriginal cultural heritage celebration, promotion, and protection.

The allocation is set to ensure that places of cultural significance are managed by their rightful owners and for their rightful owners, the First Nations People.

The funding will provision Registered Aboriginal Parties to continue their role as the primary source of advice and knowledge about places significant to Aboriginal people on their Country.

Minister for Treaty and First Peoples, Gabrielle Williams, acknowledged the importance of supporting Traditional Owners in handling places of cultural importance.

“Victoria’s Traditional Owners are the knowledge keepers of our precious Aboriginal cultural heritage,” said the Minister.

She added that “aboriginal cultural heritage, honored during annual NAIDOC celebrations, is best maintained and preserved by First Nations people, so it can continue to be enjoyed and shared now and into the future."

Read more: Museum of Sydney to transform into Aboriginal cultural space

“Through putting the protection of Aboriginal cultural heritage in Aboriginal hands, we ensure that we can learn from, preserve and celebrate these beautiful places, long into the future.”

A portion of the funding will go to each registered Aboriginal Party in Victoria, and a portion of that money will go toward hiring a Cultural Heritage Officer and a Government Heritage Liaison Officer to make sure resources are used properly over the next two years.

One such organization that will profit from the funding is Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation.

A variety of services are offered through the corporation such as cultural heritage protection, consultations, and practices for events, as well as having natural resource management, language, education, and research divisions.

Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation’s cultural heritage unit manager Matthew Chamberlain said the funding will have a significant impact on the organization.

“It’s crucial for us because the Aboriginal heritage offices look after compliance within cultural heritage management plans,” adding that “from our perspective, it’s fantastic – the ability to have additional compliance officers on board really gives us greater scope to ensure that those management plans are being implemented as they should be.”

Chamberlain said the funding would allow the corporation to double their Aboriginal heritage officer workforce “to be able to get out and pay visits to active work sites and ensure that regulations are being abided by is positive as far as the organization is concerned.”

Traditional Owners will also receive help through the provision of an additional $3.3 million for the examination and mapping of Aboriginal cultural heritage sites in their Country as part of the investment plan.

The additional cash is intended to help the government and land users protect important sites from harm and to enable registered Aboriginal parties to communicate their culture and knowledge about their country.

Traditional Owners have the last say in decisions about heritage conservation as part of planning processes only in Victoria state, Australia.

Read more: Museum of Sydney to transform into Aboriginal cultural space