DPP v Rotumah [2022] VCC 1532

• At sentence proceedings for indigenous offender sentencing judge accepted Aboriginal Communities Justice Report – part of pilot scheme in Victoria to provide ‘holistic account of individual circumstances, including as they relate to a person’s community, culture and strengths, as well as making recommendations regarding community-based options’: at [30]-[38]
• Accepted from Report evidence of impact of Stolen Generation and Intergenerational Trauma on offender’s personal circumstances.

[44] I accept the fact that inherited traumas endure amongst the Gunditjmara descendants today due to the history. Not just the early history but the continuing history which spans early contact, dispossession, massacres, the Eumerella wars, the legacy of trauma stemming from places such as Lake Condah Mission, Framlingham Mission and the instruments that underpinned those missions and subjugated Aboriginal people. The tragedy which was a daily tragedy for those affected and their families decade after decade of the Stolen Generations is also a matter that sits in that history and has continuing repercussions up to the present.

…

[47] I just raise that as one example, amongst the many, of the continuing impacts of dispossession, segregation, subjugation, assimilation policies, systemic racism and discrimination that Aboriginal communities have suffered and that have led to disadvantage and further trauma. Alongside that history, of course, sits the amazing resilience, leadership and strength shown by many of your community and family and that your Elders have set as examples and urge you to look towards for inspiration in the future.

[48] Other examples or reference points of that history that I have spoken about and are touched on in the ACJR is the personal story to you in relation to your great grandmother and hiding young Peter Rotumah. …

[50] It is significant that the prosecution make the following concessions based upon the report. The prosecution accepts that intergenerational trauma impacted your childhood with specific reference to the report’s commentary on children being raised by Stolen Generation members. The prosecution submission also states and I quote.

The prosecution acknowledges the contents of the ACJR and accepts that structural and systemic racism and colonisation influenced Mr Rotumah’s personal circumstances and outcomes in life thus far.

…

[52] I too accept that structural and systemic racism and the continuing impacts of colonisation have shaped you and your life circumstances thus far. The ACJR helps demonstrate how your life circumstances sits in that continuum and trauma that I have touched upon and is connected to it.

See also:

DPP v Tirris [2022] VCC 1575 (Judge Johns)

DPP v Poole (a pseudonym) [2020] VCC 340 (Judge Johns)