Victoria has an important Aboriginal history, one that is often not well recognised. Together the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council and the Heritage Council of Victoria sought to achieve greater recognition of this history through a series of joint projects – the first being Victoria’s Framework of Historical Themes prepared by Context and published in 2010.
This project – Acknowledgement of places with shared heritage values – started with a scoping phase in 2013, followed by a detailed investigation in 2015. The key aim was to recognise the Aboriginal history and the significance of heritage places initially identified as having non-Aboriginal heritage values on the Victorian Heritage Register, through research and engagement to encompass Aboriginal heritage values.

Context prepared a comprehensive historic thematic framework for Aboriginal heritage places generally in Victoria, nominating example places relating to each theme and sub-theme. Eleven case study places were chosen, and the team consulted with Traditional Owner community groups both ‘on Country’ and in a workshop environment to investigate Aboriginal heritage values for each place. The team also carried out extensive documentary research to revise and augment previous place histories. A large open-discussion workshop was held with heritage practitioners, Traditional Owner members, and government officers of Heritage Victoria, the Office of Aboriginal Affairs Victoria, the Heritage Council of Victoria and the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council. This was followed by a second targeted ‘in-house’ workshop with government officers.
The project outcomes included a thorough and innovative consultation methodology for integrating Aboriginal heritage values into the Victorian Heritage Register nominations and listed places, and provided qualified recommendations to assist in this process. Other outcomes focused on raising awareness generally about the project, and guiding the two Councils in expressing appropriate value associations. A final report was prepared revising Victorian Heritage Registry citations for each case study place, along with an extensive bibliography of sources that could be used into the future (including primary, secondary, grey literature and digital sources) relating to Aboriginal history in Victoria. [Source: https://www.gml.com.au/projects/acknowledgement-of-places-with-shared-heritage-values/]