Truth, Voice, and Justice: Reflections from Yoorrook
The Session
Elizabeth Balderstone
Elizabeth Balderstone
Truth-telling is not abstract — it is lived, contested, and deeply human. In this powerful session, Elizabeth Balderstone, Peter Sharp, and Jan Wositzky reflect on the work and significance of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Australia’s first formal truth-telling process into historic and ongoing injustices experienced by First Peoples i
Truth-telling is not abstract — it is lived, contested, and deeply human. In this powerful session, Elizabeth Balderstone, Peter Sharp, and Jan Wositzky reflect on the work and significance of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Australia’s first formal truth-telling process into historic and ongoing injustices experienced by First Peoples in Victoria. Through testimony, insight, and lived experience, this conversation brings truth-telling out of official chambers and into the heart of the festival — asking what justice looks like, how stories shape reform, and what responsibility listeners carry once truth is spoken. A vital, moving, and necessary discussion about memory, accountability, and the long work of justice.
2.00 - 3.00pm
Saturday 30 May
Highland Society, High St, Maryborough 3465
$20
Elizabeth Balderstone
Elizabeth Balderstone
Elizabeth Balderstone
Elizabeth Balderstone is the current owner of a property in Gippsland on which the ‘Warrigal Creek’ massacre occurred in 1843.
"Carried out by a group of settlers as a reprisal after a Brataualung warrior killed the nephew of a prominent squatter in the area, that killing itself a reprisal for the killing of Aboriginal people by colonists
Elizabeth Balderstone is the current owner of a property in Gippsland on which the ‘Warrigal Creek’ massacre occurred in 1843.
"Carried out by a group of settlers as a reprisal after a Brataualung warrior killed the nephew of a prominent squatter in the area, that killing itself a reprisal for the killing of Aboriginal people by colonists at the nearby Port Albert settlement. It has been estimated that roughly 150 Brataualung people were killed in the massacres.
Ms Balderstone has been part of a community push in Gippsland to better educate the community on the violent past of colonisation." ABC News online
Peter Sharp
Jan Wositzky
Jan Wositzky
Peter Sharp, a great grandson of former Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, who has researched Deakin’s involvement in the passage of the Aborigines Protection Act 1886, more commonly known as the ‘Half Caste’ Act.
Jan Wositzky
Jan Wositzky
Jan Wositzky
Jan is a storyteller, singer and musician who works on stage, in theatre or music, in schools, writes books and scripts for radio and TV documentaries, works in broadcasting, production of audio tours and CDs, and other bits and pieces to keep the mind occupied and the wolf from the door. He has survived in his version of ‘show business’ for forty years now, and it’s too late to give up.