We’re the state-wide body fighting for the rights and interests of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations while progressing wider social, economic, environmental and cultural objectives.
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we work on as the First Peoples of this Country.
Traditional Owner groups have knowledge, rights and responsibilities, stemming from 65,000 years of experience with Country. The Federation’s policy, advocacy and government relations work helps restore Traditional Owners’ authority in frameworks for managing of Country.
The Federation’s work recognises Traditional Owner Corporations as authoritative and representative decision-makers with rights, power, and responsibilities. Our advocacy and services support Traditional Owners to care for Country, culture and community.
The Federation’s research, grant administration, knowledge-sharing and advocacy promote rights-based economic development for Traditional Owner Corporations.
We have put cultural fire and cultural water on the agenda for government, sought greater protections for Indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights, 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 Traditional Owners’ economic development considered as more than just small business grants.
Founded in 2013 by Traditional Owner Corporations who recognised they could be stronger together, we are by and for Traditional Owners: their policy and advocacy body, helping to enhance their authority on behalf of their communities.
Colonisation, not climate change, first primed these forests to burn
theconversation.com
For more than 800 years, frequent cultural burning kept this land as stable, open woodland.
© 2026 Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations
