ANTaR Victoria is a not-for-profit non-governmental organization (NGO) run largely by volunteers and paid for by its members and supporters. With over 400 members and associations with a range of supporting community organizations, ANTaR Victoria operates at the grassroots level to raise community awareness on the issues of reconciliation, land justice and native title.

 

OUR VISION is to generate in Australia a moral and legal recognition of, and respect for, the distinctive status of Indigenous Australians as First Peoples. Recognition of Indigenous Australians’ inherent rights – which include self-determination, their relationships to land and the maintenance and growth of their cultures and heritage – is essential to creating a just and fair society for all Australians.

 


OUR PRIMARY GOALS are:

1.  To support Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples’ public voice on issues of:

  • self-determination
  • land rights/native title rights
  • disadvantage
  • treaty/treaties
  • cultural respect

2.  To promote respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures amongst non-Indigenous Victorians.

ANTaR Victoria achieves its goals through community-awareness raising projects such as schools engagement, community stalls, provision of resource packs, facilitating networks of individuals and community organization, and through state and nationally-generated grassroots campaigns, such as Sea of Hands and Fanning the Flames (**Hyperlinks to Sea of Hands and Fanning the Flames campaign pages)

 

Our outlook

ANTaR Victoria Inc acknowledges that at the time of European invasion the totality of lands now known as Victoria were occupied by sovereign Indigenous nations who owned, cared for and enjoyed them in accordance with their laws, customs and traditions. The Indigenous nations’ sovereignty as well as their peoples’ right of ownership, occupation, use and enjoyment of lands have not been ceded.

The impact of invasion forced drastic changes on Indigenous peoples, including where and how they lived, their languages, religion, health, economic status, freedom of movement and association, and in some cases their very survival.

We acknowledge all Indigenous peoples in Victoria today, including the original language groups as well as all clans, family groups and land owning groups; as well as their rights to their lands, self determination and control over their culture and traditions.