In a packed room in Melbourne's north, Gunditjmara man Rod Lovett encouraged those before him to think big.
"This is not about me and my generation," he said.
"This is about what we leave for our children and our grandchildren and our grandchildren's children."
The room was filled with Aboriginal people who had come to find out what treaty might deliver for them.
"At the moment, the government sits there and they make a whole lot of decisions that directly affect us, our people, our community, our land and our water," fellow Gunditjmara man Rueben Berg told the crowd.
"And that's not right. They shouldn't make those decisions. We should make those decisions."
While a national debate plays out over the merits of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, Victoria is forging ahead on its path to state-based treaties.
This month, Indigenous communities are voting to elect members to the next First Peoples' Assembly.
It's a high-stakes election — these members will be the ones to sit down opposite government and negotiate the terms of a blanket treaty covering the state.
Where are treaty discussions at nationally?
Exactly what might go into a statewide treaty is unknown.
Victoria is the first jurisdiction to arrive at formal state-based treaty negotiations, which are expected to start later this year.
Queensland recently passed a bill to set up a treaty body and truth-telling inquiry and the Northern Territory government has also been moving towards a treaty.
Treaty discussions are underway in Tasmania, while in New South Wales, Labor was elected with a mandate to carry out treaty consultations.
South Australia began then abandoned a treaty process, but has recently moved to set up a representative "Voice" body similar to that proposed in the federal referendum.
A deal struck with Noongar people in Western Australia's south-west is viewed by some experts as Australia's first formal treaty, but WA has not been preparing for a blanket treaty covering the state.
Push to use treaty to overturn dispossession from colonisation
Across speeches from more than 20 candidates running for Victoria's First Peoples' Assembly's metropolitan region, clear themes emerged.
Ideas raised included securing an ongoing cut of government revenue to fund long-term successful community projects, and having the power to veto activity on culturally sensitive land.
For candidate and Bangerang, Taungurung and Wiradjuri woman Esme Bamblett, treaty is a chance to reshape Victoria to address the disadvantage that's flowed to Indigenous communities since colonisation.
"We need to be really aspirational about treaty," she said.
"We want reparations for the lands that have been lost ... we want to fly high.
"We don't want to be on the ground like chooks, begging for scraps all the time. We want to be up there like eagles and know where we're going."
Gunai, Monaro-Ngarigo and Gunditjmara man Paul Paton said he wanted to see interim outcomes early on in treaty talks, to begin addressing the dispossession at the root of so many disadvantages faced by his community.
"We've been locked out of the economy, our land's been taken away, those opportunities have been taken away from us to be able to create businesses, to have that land to use as an asset to build strong and intergenerational wealth," he said.
'We need to demand things'
Candidates standing for Assembly seats across the state are offering years of experience across government, community and grassroots organisations, which they plan to bring to the most complex agreement the state has ever attempted with traditional owners.
Gunditjmara and Bundjalung woman Tracey Evans, who is running for a second term on the Assembly, told the meeting she was a strategic thinker whose government work "within the enemy" had equipped her for the challenges of treaty.
"We need to align ourselves and come together as a collective and be a strong voice so that we're able to hold ourselves in a strong position to be able to negotiate," she said.
Yorta Yorta, Ulupna man Barry Firebrace-Briggs said he had worked in government for 25 years and been frustrated by the way money had been distributed in the past.
"We need to have our people's voices to say where the money should go and how the resources should be used," he said.
"For realistic outcomes for us, we need to demand things.
"It's no longer this 'oh can we have this please, sir' — we need to start demanding, and treaty's the process to start that."
Peek Whurrong, Djab Whurrong and Kirrae Whurrong woman Zali Mifsud is among the youngest candidates running for the Assembly.
"Our children, our youth, are going to be the longest beneficiaries of the outcomes of treaty," she said.
"I want to be a face, a voice, a body that they can see who will be there to advocate for their voices in the process."
Retiring Assembly co-chair says community must push treaty forward
Outgoing co-chair Aunty Geraldine Atkinson, a Bangerang and Wiradjuri woman, said she was feeling proud and "exhilarated" as she cast her vote in the treaty elections and prepared to step back from the Assembly.
She said the strength of treaty would come from the community uniting behind it.
"It's very important for everyone to be actively involved," she said.
"It's going to involve their lives, it's going to work towards improving the outcomes of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders in this state and they should be very much a part of the journey."
The First Peoples' Assembly maintains the treaty voting roll, which is open to all Victorian traditional owners aged 16 or older, as well as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people who have lived in Victoria for three of the past five years.
The Assembly did not provide an updated figure on its Indigenous electoral roll, but indicated it had increased more than threefold since 2019, when it sat at around 2,300 people, out of roughly 30,000 eligible voters.
Some nations still pushing for a seat at Assembly
In the state's north-west, Wamba Wamba and Mutthi Mutthi man Jason Kelly is running for a second term on the Assembly.
He said he wanted to see through "unfinished business" after the first Assembly set up the framework to guide treaty talks.
The framework lays out plans for a blanket treaty, negotiated by the Assembly and delivering statewide reforms, followed by individual treaties for separate Aboriginal nations in Victoria.
"I decided it was critically important for me to run again, because I've always been passionate about mob and the grassroots voice," Mr Kelly said.
"And I think that we need to be really pushing for someone who's going to advocate for the protection of grassroots and make sure that voice is ... protected to have a say in the treaty negotiations, particularly in the statewide treaty."
During his first term, Mr Kelly enlisted the support of fellow members to successfully push for the formation of a truth-telling inquiry.
"We needed to find a way to inform all other Australians, let alone Victorians, as to why we're doing a treaty," he said.
"The history that we know so well, that was inflicted upon us with different government policy areas and the racist policy areas ... massacres, the protection era, the assimilation era, why we deal with intergenerational trauma and why we talk about closing the gap."
That inquiry, the Yoorrook Justice Commission, is now scrutinising government actions across a raft of issues affecting Indigenous communities, in a process designed to help inform treaty negotiations.
The new Assembly will also have more work to do as it seeks to improve on the representation it offers Aboriginal nations across the state.
In its current form, 21 members are elected and there are 11 seats reserved for traditional owner groups who have been recognised under Victorian laws.
There has been ongoing concern that the criteria has shut out nations who do not have a corporation recognised under the Traditional Owner Settlement Act, something the Assembly moved to address through a pathway to allow other groups a designated seat in the chamber.
Mr Kelly, whose Wamba Wamba nation is among the groups that do not currently hold a dedicated seat at the table, said his nation would likely consider putting in a fresh application for a seat at the Assembly, after its first application was unsuccessful.
A chance to 'go after what we want'
While some nations are pushing to be recognised with a seat at the Assembly, the Yorta Yorta corporation has opted not to take up its designated seat at all.
As the process got underway, the corporation voiced its concern the state government lacked the authority to negotiate a treaty that it argued should be struck with the Commonwealth.
But the formal stance of the corporation hasn't held back several Yorta Yorta people from joining the treaty effort.
At a candidate forum in Shepparton, Yorta Yorta man Levi Power said he had resigned from his role as an Assembly staff member to run as a candidate.
"I think it's really important to make sure the community's voices are really being heard, really loud and clear," he said.
Yorta Yorta elder Uncle Lance James told those gathered at the Shepparton forum treaty represented a chance to "go after what we want".
"We've been more than patient. We've been more than considerate," he said.
"And now we have a government that wants to listen to what we say, what we want, what our needs are.
"I never thought I'd live to see that, but here we are today."
It's a powerful moment for Uncle Lance, whose mother lived through the historic Cummeragunja walk-off before playing a key role in the formation of the local community-controlled health organisation, Rumbalara.
"I think of all our elders who've come before us … the 1939 walk off when our people walked off Cummergunja Mission because of brutality, because of the way they were treated," Uncle Lance said.
"But with sheer grit and determination, look where we are today.
"We're on our country, we're on our land, we have all our nations here today to be able to say 'time is up'."
