Thursday, 11 September 2025

Camp Sovereignty

Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (10:37): Right in the heart of our Melbourne CBD, just across the road from the NGV, behind a small grassy hill is a very special sacred place, and it is called Camp Sovereignty. Aboriginal elders lit a ceremonial fire on this site around the Commonwealth Games 20 years ago and reignited this fire in January last year and have kept it going ever since. The site, which governments called Kings Domain but which is about as far away from the King’s Buckingham Palace as you could possibly get, has a long history for First Nations people – before colonisation as a corroboree site and then, shamefully, as an Aboriginal reserve. In 1985 it became a sacred burial ground for 38 people, many of whom had their bodies returned from overseas institutions. Now it is a peaceful place where people come together to talk, yarn, heal and build connection.

So it came as a horrific shock last week when a gang of cowardly, violent neo-Nazis attacked and violently assaulted people at this sacred site. It was a disgusting attack, and it deeply shook so many of our First Nations communities and also our multicultural communities, who are bearing the brunt of a deeply disturbing rise in far-right extremism in our state. Elders at Camp Sovereignty have issued an invitation for the Premier to visit the camp, to visit with elders and victims and to discuss ways the government can support them and fight the rise of far-right extremism. They are calling for government and council investment to rename the site and to build infrastructure for a permanent ceremonial ground. What a great way that would be to show the neo-Nazis they will never, ever win.