What is the work of truth-telling? How is evidence collected? What happens next?

What role should schools play in teaching Australia’s full history?

Australia has completed its first, formal truth-telling process — the Yoorrook Justice Commission of Victoria.

We joined Commissioner Travis Lovett on his 500-kilometre Walk for Truth from Portland on Gunditjmara Country, to Parliament House on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country in Melbourne, to hear firsthand of the Commission's work.

Along the way, you'll hear testimonies from Elders and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, reflections from researcher Dr Matthew Keynes, and insights into how truth-telling can transform education, policy, and our shared future.

Travis Lovett is a proud Kerrupmara/Gunditjmara man and Traditional Owner and the Deputy Chair and Commissioner of the Yoorrook Justice Commission.

Dr Matthew Keynes is a non-Indigenous scholar working on unceded and sovereign Wurundjeri land. His research investigates the ways that education contributes to justice, peace, and social transformation by repairing historical injustices and legacies of violence.

Links

• Yoorrook Justice Commission Truth Archive
• Yoorrook Justice Commission Reports and Recommendations
• We have always been here by Dr Matthew Keynes
• National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition
• Truth-telling in early education by Gowrie Victoria
• Day Break by Amy McQuire
• How do you prepare your child for truth-telling? by Shelly Ware
• Teaching truth-telling: Children's Ground panel on YouTube

• Produced on Gadigal and Gunditjmara Country by Jane Curtis.
• Sound engineering by Jollyvolume.
• Production assistance from Alexandra Morris.
• Hosted by Tamson Pietsch.
• History Lab is produced by the Australian Centre for Public History at UTS and UTS Impact Studios.
• Impact Studios' executive producer is Sarah Gilbert.

This episode was made possible by Dusseldorp Forum, a family foundation committed to a just and equitable Australia, one that is caring, ethical and honours our First Peoples.

Special thanks to Rachel Fyfe and the Yoorrook team.

This special episode from our archives speaks to this year’s NAIDOC Week themes of strength, vision and legacy.

Fishing for Answers explores the sophistication of the fishing practices of Eora women in Sydney Harbour, and asks, How can we hear from the women themselves and find out what their world sounded like?

Content warning: If you are an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person this episode may contain the names of people who have died.

• Producers: Tom Allinson and Ninah Kopel
• Collaborators: Anna Clark, Nathan Sentance, Tim Ella and Maddison Lyn Collier
• Executive Producer: Emma Lancaster
• Associate Producer: Anna Clark
• Sound Design: Joe Koning
• Host: Tamson Pietsch
• Voice Actor: Steve Ahern
• Additional production assistance: Ellen Leabeater and Miles Herbert
• Marketing and communications: Andy Huang

Thanks to Les Bursill OAM for his advice on the Darug language, and Grace Karskens and Renee Cawthorne.

This episode was made on Gadigal Country.

Colonial portraits have long dictated how Indigenous people were seen. But Indigenous artists continue to challenge that power. Through satire, reinterpretation, and resistance, they’re using art to question history—and reshape the future.

In this episode, historians Kate Fullagar and Mike McDonnell speak with contemporary Indigenous artists who are confronting the legacy of empire. Michel Tuffery, a New Zealand-based artist of Samoan, Tahitian, and Cook Islander heritage, reimagines Captain Cook through the eyes of those he encountered. Daniel Boyd, one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary artists, subverts colonial iconography, turning figures like Cook into symbols of piracy and exploitation. Daniel Browning, an Aboriginal journalist and art critic, reflects on the power—and the lies—embedded in colonial paintings.

Can art break the cycle of representation, or does it always carry the weight of its past? Join us on this final episode of Unsettling Portraits to find out.

Episode images

Cookie in the Islands

This representation of Captain James Cook belongs to a narrative series titled ‘First Contact’. The series retells the story of James Cook’s Pacific voyages from a Polynesian perspective, focusing on the profound way in which Cook himself was altered through his experiences in the Pacific. His identity is altered, as marked by hibiscus flowers, hei-tiki around his neck and his Polynesian features. The name Cookie is not only a more familiar name for Captain Cook but it is also a nickname for a Cook Islander. (Curator's comments)

By Michel Tuffery. 2009. British Museum.

Portrait of Captain James Cook RN

By John Webber, 1782. National Portrait Gallery Australia

Captain No Beard

By Daniel Boyd, Kudjla/Gangalu/Kuku Yalanji/Jagara/Wangerriburra/Bandjalung peoples, 2005. National Gallery of Australia.

Nannultera, a young Poonindie cricketer

By J.M. Crossland, 1854. National Gallery of Australia.

Portrait - Eva Johnson, writer

By Destiny Deacon, 1994. Queensland Art Gallery.

Guests

Michel Tuffery, a New Zealand-based artist of Samoan, Rarotongan, and Ma’ohi Tahitian heritage, creates work that bridges environmental, cultural, and historical divides. Known for his role as a connector between people and places, he engages communities through exhibitions, research, and residencies across the Pacific and beyond. A passionate educator, he shares his kaupapa and knowledge with young people through workshops in New Zealand and abroad. Appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2008 for his contributions to art, he continues to enrich communities through his creative practice.

Daniel Boyd, one of Australia’s leading artists, is a Kudjala, Ghungalu, Wangerriburra, Wakka Wakka, Gubbi Gubbi, Kuku Yalanji, Bundjalung, and Yuggera man with ni-Vanuatu heritage. Based on Gadigal/Wangal Country, his work reinterprets...