Australia's 'First Treaty' 220 Years After Settling the Score
Australia's Victoria state has signed what Al Jazeera hails as its 'first treaty' with Aboriginal people, complete with an assembly and 'truth-telling' body. It’s a remarkable gesture, considering it comes 220 years after the land was simply taken. For those keeping score, that's roughly two centuries of dispossession, massacres, and systemic eradication of culture, now to be gently explored by a
'truth-telling body.' One might wonder why it took so long to acknowledge the obvious truths. This 'historic first' (as reported by Al Jazeera on November 13, 2025) glosses over the fundamental truth: sovereignty was never ceded. It's akin to a colonial power declaring a 'historic peace treaty' with a people it previously erased, conveniently forgetting the century upon century of violence that
necessitated such a 'treaty' in the first place. How many generations must pass before a 'first treaty' genuinely addresses the first theft?