Home - Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations

Welcome to the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations

The Federation is the Victorian state-wide body that convenes and advocates for the rights and interests of Traditional Owners while progressing wider social, economic, environmental and cultural objectives.

About Us

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we work on as the First Peoples of this Country.

Country

Healthy Country means healthy communities. Our work recognises Traditional Owners’ rights and responsibilities to care and make decisions for Country.

Traditional Owner groups have knowledge, rights and responsibilities, stemming from 65,000 years of experience on Country. The Federation works in the following areas to embed Traditional Owner voices in management of Country.

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Animals

Climate

Cultural Landscapes

Fire

Heritage

Plants

Water

Community

Community wellbeing means strong culture, people and place.

The Federation’s work recognises Traditional Owner groups as authoritative decision-makers with rights and power. Our advocacy, programs and services enable Traditional Owners to get on with the business of caring for Country, culture and community.

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Aboriginal Culture and Healing Flood Recovery Grant Program

Country-based planning services

First Principles Review

Nation-building

Rights

Treaty

Economy

Economic development supports community wellbeing and is critical to enabling self-determination.

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Aboriginal-owned joint ventures

Indigenous preferential procurement

Local government

Native foods and botanicals business grants

Native foods and botanicals strategy

Renewable energy

Victorian Aboriginal economic development

Impact

The Federation’s advocacy shapes the landscape in which Victorian Traditional Owner corporations do their important work.

We have put cultural fire and cultural water on the agenda for government, sought greater protections for Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, fought for a fair place in the expanding native foods and botanicals industry, championed treaty and self-determination, supported a drastic reconsideration of how our cultural heritage is approached at both state and national levels, and worked to have economic development considered as more than just small business grants.

About

The Federation is the Victorian state-wide body that convenes and advocates for the rights and interests of Traditional Owner groups while progressing wider social, economic, environmental and cultural objectives.

We support the progress of agreement-making and participation in decision-making to enhance the authority of Traditional Owner Corporations on behalf of their communities.

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10 Year Anniversary

Contact Us

Federation Enterprises

Memberships

Our Partners

Strategic Documents

Welcome to Country

Resources

Discussion papers

Information sheets

Publications

Connect with us on social media

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Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations

18 hours ago

Here’s some cautiously good news from the Herald Sun (!) – has the Victorian Government renamed its misleading and harmful dingo killing program?

If the ‘wild dog management program’ has in fact been renamed the vertebrate species management program, it’s a late but welcome step towards recognising the native dingo as a distinct and vulnerable wildlife animal – not a feral pest.

Dingoes are genetically, ecologically and culturally different from domestic dogs run wild, and the best and most recent science shows extremely limited cross-breeding between dingoes and dogs. The idea of hybrid feral dingo-dogs is a myth, and decision-makers must stop relying on it to appease landholders, at the expense of a culturally significant and vulnerable native species.

The next step: fully recognise dingo as a species that is on a pathway to extinction, and partner with Traditional Owner groups to make decisions for dingo care and management – so that dingo, kin, lives on for future generations.

Here’s some cautiously good news from the Herald Sun (!) – has the Victorian Government renamed its misleading and harmful dingo killing program?

If the ‘wild dog management program’ has in fact been renamed the vertebrate species management program, it’s a late but welcome step towards recognising the native dingo as a distinct and vulnerable wildlife animal – not a feral pest.

Dingoes are genetically, ecologically and culturally different from domestic dogs run wild, and the best and most recent science shows extremely limited cross-breeding between dingoes and dogs. The idea of hybrid feral dingo-dogs is a myth, and decision-makers must stop relying on it to appease landholders, at the expense of a culturally significant and vulnerable native species.

The next step: fully recognise dingo as a species that is on a pathway to extinction, and partner with Traditional Owner groups to make decisions for dingo care and management – so that dingo, kin, lives on for future generations. ... See MoreSee Less

Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations

21 hours ago

People have always been part of the landscape. But contemporary land management practices tend to look only at trees, animals, water and soil – as if for thousands of years they were completely untouched.

Traditional Owners’ knowledge, Lore and cultural practices, plus western science studies, show how Aboriginal people interacted with landscapes – applying fire to increase plant diversity or protect habitat for particular species; managing river flows to provide Country with water for ceremony and sustenance; understanding the health of places based on the abundance of other species.

This way guided how land was managed and cared for over tens of thousands of years. More recently – 237 years ago, or so – it was rejected.

But the Victorian Government is listening to Traditional Owners, who have designed ways to restore a biocultural approach to land management.

The Traditional Owner Cultural Landscape Strategy recognises and embraces the holistic, interconnected, and symbiotic relationship between ecosystem and human culture.

It offers a framework – including bridging tools that link Traditional Owners’ knowledge to western ways of thinking –to systematically enable Traditional Owner groups in Victoria to reinstate their cultural knowledge and practices, to fulfil cultural obligations to care for Country, and restore the ways Country has been managed so well over so many years.

We were proud to facilitate development of this Traditional Owner document in 2019 and 2020, and continue to advocate for its implementation in land management today.

READ MORE | https://fvtoc.com.au/sections/landscapes/

People have always been part of the landscape. But contemporary land management practices tend to look only at trees, animals, water and soil – as if for thousands of years they were completely untouched.

Traditional Owners’ knowledge, Lore and cultural practices, plus western science studies, show how Aboriginal people interacted with landscapes – applying fire to increase plant diversity or protect habitat for particular species; managing river flows to provide Country with water for ceremony and sustenance; understanding the health of places based on the abundance of other species.

This way guided how land was managed and cared for over tens of thousands of years. More recently – 237 years ago, or so – it was rejected.

But the Victorian Government is listening to Traditional Owners, who have designed ways to restore a biocultural approach to land management.

The Traditional Owner Cultural Landscape Strategy recognises and embraces the holistic, interconnected, and symbiotic relationship between ecosystem and human culture.

It offers a framework – including bridging tools that link Traditional Owners’ knowledge to western ways of thinking –to systematically enable Traditional Owner groups in Victoria to reinstate their cultural knowledge and practices, to fulfil cultural obligations to care for Country, and restore the ways Country has been managed so well over so many years.

We were proud to facilitate development of this Traditional Owner document in 2019 and 2020, and continue to advocate for its implementation in land management today.

READ MORE | ... See MoreSee Less

Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations

4 days ago

Grants of up to $300,000 are available for Traditional Owner Corporations cultural tourism!

A just-announced Victorian Government grant program has $3.6 million available for Victoria’s 12 Registered Aboriginal Parties to to engage in tourism-related economic development activities.

We know investment in enterprises that benefit groups collectively creates enormous economic, social and cultural benefits – and in March will release research that steps out the billion-dollar benefits to the Victorian economy that could be brought by investing in Traditional Owner Corporations enterprises.

This grant program is a fantastic step towards strengthening Traditional Owners in culture and on Country, and driving economic sustainability for Traditional Owner groups across the state.

The First Peoples Tourism Industry Strengthening Program is open now until 10 April 2025.

LEARN MORE | bit.ly/4barqfW

Grants of up to $300,000 are available for Traditional Owner Corporations' cultural tourism!

A just-announced Victorian Government grant program has $3.6 million available for Victoria’s 12 Registered Aboriginal Parties to to engage in tourism-related economic development activities.

We know investment in enterprises that benefit groups collectively creates enormous economic, social and cultural benefits – and in March will release research that steps out the billion-dollar benefits to the Victorian economy that could be brought by investing in Traditional Owner Corporations' enterprises.

This grant program is a fantastic step towards strengthening Traditional Owners in culture and on Country, and driving economic sustainability for Traditional Owner groups across the state.

The First Peoples Tourism Industry Strengthening Program is open now until 10 April 2025.

LEARN MORE | bit.ly/4barqfW ... See MoreSee Less

Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations

1 week ago

Today is the anniversary of the Apology to the Stolen Generations.

It’s a sombre reminder of the harm caused by government intervention into First Peoples’ lives.

Between 1910 and 1970, thousands of First Nations children were stolen from their families – estimates range between one in 10 to one in three children forcibly removed.

These stolen children were exploited, neglected and abused, and raised without the vital lifeline of culture and Country.

In 2023, Yoorrook Justice Commission found that Stolen Generations survivors are more likely than other First Peoples to be living in hard conditions, including facing higher rates of poor mental health, disability, financial and housing insecurity, and discrimination.

Survivors told Yoorrook it took years to learn family and Country – connection that is vital to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity and wellbeing, and an internationally recognised right of Indigenous peoples worldwide.

Nothing will ever undo the harm caused by policies that tore families apart, destroyed culture and customs, and obliterated connection to Country. And we still see today government policies that doubt and limit First Peoples’ role as managers of our lands and affairs.

Big, systemic and structural change is needed.

A reimagined system that recognises First Peoples’ right to determine our own lives, supports communities to lead our own healing and be strong together on Country, and which restores rightful authority and power back to First Peoples, can address the legacy of the Stolen Generation and chart a new path forward.

Today is the anniversary of the Apology to the Stolen Generations.

It’s a sombre reminder of the harm caused by government intervention into First Peoples’ lives.

Between 1910 and 1970, thousands of First Nations children were stolen from their families – estimates range between one in 10 to one in three children forcibly removed.

These stolen children were exploited, neglected and abused, and raised without the vital lifeline of culture and Country.

In 2023, Yoorrook Justice Commission found that Stolen Generations survivors are more likely than other First Peoples to be living in hard conditions, including facing higher rates of poor mental health, disability, financial and housing insecurity, and discrimination.

Survivors told Yoorrook it took years to learn family and Country – connection that is vital to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity and wellbeing, and an internationally recognised right of Indigenous peoples worldwide.

Nothing will ever undo the harm caused by policies that tore families apart, destroyed culture and customs, and obliterated connection to Country. And we still see today government policies that doubt and limit First Peoples’ role as managers of our lands and affairs.

Big, systemic and structural change is needed.

A reimagined system that recognises First Peoples’ right to determine our own lives, supports communities to lead our own healing and be strong together on Country, and which restores rightful authority and power back to First Peoples, can address the legacy of the Stolen Generation and chart a new path forward. ... See MoreSee Less

© 2025 Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations