The genesis of Victorian Aboriginal News was a half-hour current affairs program on 3KND, running three times a week.

It was initially called Connection Matters Radio (CMR) and, being primarily self-funded, soon became an impractical exercise.

During the first year of COVID lockdowns in Melbourne, CMR once again emerged, this time going to air for half-an-hour five times a week.

It was a labour of love and despite consuming up to 12 hours a day in production and post-production – again, entirely self-funded – stayed on air during the worst and most difficult periods of the lockdowns.

Following a decision to pull the program from 3KND and go beyond just radio, CMR was rebranded Victorian Aboriginal News (V.A.N.).

It was purely good fortune that the acronym of the new project was an entirely accurate description of its production platform – Violet the Van!