VACCHO is encouraging Community to connect with family and friends and to look out for one another ahead of another distressing Invasion Day on Thursday 26 January.
January 26 is a reminder of the painful legacy of invasion – a legacy that continues to have a devastating impact on the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria.
VACCHO finds it insensitive and highly disrespectful that January 26 continues to be marked formally as a day of celebration by the nation.
For the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community of Victoria January 26 symbolises a brutal and rapid invasion that brought with it theft of children from their parents, the introduction of disease, massacres, theft of land, and the widespread repression of Aboriginal culture.
These atrocities continue to have devastating impacts on the health and wellbeing of Community, culminating in a significant gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous people.
Deaths in custody, intergenerational trauma, institutionalised racism, higher rates of chronic illness, children in out of home care, elders dying before they are old enough to access the Aged Pension – this is the legacy of January 26.
November’s 2022 Closing The Gap Report data confirmed that important key areas continue to worsen including suicide rates, incarceration rates, and child-removal rates.