WHERE Victoria leads on Indigenous policy, the nation should follow Greens candidate Cate Sinclair has said while officially launching her campaign for Bendigo.
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The lower house candidate is helping spread the word about the Greens' first all-indigenous upper house ticket for Victoria.
The Greens could end up holding the balance of power in the next parliament, which was not lost on Ms Sinclair's supporters as they posed for photographs at Friday's campaign launch.
"Everyone say 'hung parliament'," one called moments before the camera's shutter clicks.
Greens senator and Indigenous leader Lidia Thorp was a late apology for the campaign launch, with Dr Sinclair citing COVID-19 issues.
Her posters feature prominently on walls and in windows at the Greens' Bendigo campaign headquarters overlooking the fountain.
They hang alongside those of Dr Sinclair, who says her campaign is partly about supporting the all-Indigenous senate ticket.
"My role is making sure we have an Indigenous voice in the senate, and in Australian politics," she said.
"We need to be listening to people and that doesn't happen if they are not in our parliament."
The all-Indigenous ticket comes as Australian politicians contemplate Reconciliation and the long shadow of dispossession.
The Greens want parliament to work towards a truth and justice commission, Dr Sinclair said.
"And working towards Treaty," she said.
Victoria is itself leading the way on truth-telling and, potentially Indigenous Treaties, Dr Sinclair said.
This week, renowned actor and activist Uncle Jack Charles became the first person to share his truth with the state's Yoorrook Justice Commission, the state's own justice commission.
He spoke about feeling "whitewashed" after being stolen from his mother as a baby, and about being able to make his mark on society only after coming to understand who he is.
"I was a lost boy but now I am found," he told the commission as he described intergenerational trauma.
The justice commission's findings will inform Victoria's Treaty negotiations.
Many of Yoorrook's commissions feel the weight of history.
"I'm grateful to be part of this, though the enormity of the task does keep me awake at night, sometimes," commissioner Maggie Walter said last month as her colleagues visited Bendigo to consult with Elders.
Dr Sinclair said work at the state level would build momentum federally.
"Victoria's a real leader in this way and people are being listened to across the state. Their stories are being heard," she said.
- With Australian Associated Press
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