The truth exposed in Four Corners TV show

Victoria’s truth-telling inquiry Yoorrook has spent years collecting testimony from First Nations and non-Indigenous people, and as the ABC revealed on Monday, the scale of 19th and early 20th century colonial atrocities is shocking.

Bit perhaps, more importantly it his also the failure of governments to reckon with the past that needs to be addressed.

Yoorrook is the Wemba Wemba word for “truth”.

And the Yoorrook Justice Commission, while not a criminal investigation, is at last revealing what happened over a century ago.

One such atrocity took place at Warrigal Creek in the 1840s where 125 Indigenous locals were massacred in a five-day reprisal raid following the death of a local pastoralist.

Professor Eleanor Bourke came out of retirement to chair the commission.

And in the years since, thousands of First nations people have been raped, poisoned and killed. Men women and children.

For many the truth telling is part of a healing process. The chance to tell their stories, be heard – and listened to.

Professor Eleanor Bourke, a Wergaia/Wamba Wamba elder, came out of retirement to chair the commission. She said it was the most important thing she had ever done in her life.

The program can be watched on ABCiview – free to air – https://iview.abc.net.au/show/four-corners