Fake Aboriginal treaty negotiating letter referred to police
Police have been referred a fake letter purporting to be from a member of Victoria's peak Aboriginal body negotiating treaty. The letter was circulated in the state's North-West and has been slammed by Indigenous advocates who say it attempts to sow division.
Transcript
00:00 A letter carrying the official logo of Victoria's First Peoples Assembly, but the message - a
00:07 fake.
00:08 We're trying to have important conversations and we have morons taking fake letters like
00:13 this out in the community.
00:16 The assembly presenting a united front in Bendigo this morning, behind Dylan Clark,
00:21 the member and Wajibulloch man falsely named as the author.
00:25 It's an attempt to damage my reputation and create fear about an important work that we're
00:29 doing and trying to get done on a shared journey to create treaty. It really is the dog fact.
00:34 The fake letter was addressed to landholders near Bort in the state's north-west, claiming
00:39 that as part of Victoria's treaty process, the next phase of reacquiring land is underway
00:45 and landholders will be formally contacted to arrange geological and anthropological
00:51 inspections of the land. Also recommending recipients investigate if they have indigenous
00:56 ancestry as it could very much go in your favour during these and future treaty negotiations
01:03 in Victoria.
01:03 Even though it didn't have our name on the letter, it actually had a typed label with
01:09 our farm address on the letter which meant it seemed to be really targeted.
01:15 It's prompted widespread condemnation from indigenous groups and politicians.
01:19 Sadly, this has been a trend across our people's history as when we're advocating for our rights.
01:26 Federal Minister of Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, who was named in the letter,
01:30 described it as dirty tricks and said she believes it's part of a campaign to influence
01:35 the upcoming referendum on the indigenous voice to parliament.
01:40 One group campaigning against the voice, Fair Australia, has refuted that claim. The letter
01:45 is now in the hands of Victoria Police with questions over who wrote it and how widely
01:51 it's been distributed.
01:54 Gillan Clark has now written a letter to landholders across the region to correct the record.
01:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]