After the turmoil of the 2023 Referendum and the enormous amount of work undertaken by Victorian Aboriginal News in the 10 months leading up to that historic event, the VAN Talks podcast takes us back to our roots – positive news, stories and current affairs from across the diversity of Aboriginal Victoria.

The plan is really simple – the execution, somewhat more complex.

At a very base level, the podcast will be published every Monday and Thursday, featuring interviews from right across Victoria. That’s one of the major benefits – and the key reason behind – being a full-time vanlifer.

The stories are set to cover as much as possible of the broad spectrum of Aboriginal Victoria, with key topics including:

• Voice (yes, it’s definitely still something to be achieved)
• Treaty in Victoria
• Truth-Telling
• Reconciliation
• Aboriginal Gathering Places
• Victorian Traditional Owner initiatives
• Government, state and local
• Health
• Self-Determination (such as Aboriginal-owned businesses)

A logical transition

On the 28th of January 2023 we started an innocuous little – or so we thought – project called The Referendum 23 Tapes podcast. It was all about sharing interviews that spoke to the truth of the Voice and issues relating to the 2023 Referendum.

It soon became an all-encompassing project that blew us away with the response – positive and negative, of course – from right across the country.

Following the publication of our 40th episode in that series, which came out just a few days before the final polling day, we immediately started planning the logical transition to a more general podcast.

Now, as of the 17th of November we’re pushing out the VAN Talks podcast across every single podcasting platform; and the response? Wow! Once again we’re being blown away by all the positive response. Yeah, we know full well that we’ll receive our fair share of “hate mail” but, frankly, we’re used to it! 🙂

A podcast driven by you!

Sure, we have put together a really exciting schedule of episodes, but it’s your experiences, knowledge and insights that will ultimately drive the content and direction of the VAN Talks podcast.

Already we are receiving some amazing suggestions for interview from right across the State; and those suggestions are coming in from our listeners who have taken just a minute or two of their time to complete the form right here.

We’d love to hear your ideas for new stories. It doesn’t matter where it is in Victoria, let us know and we’ll check it out and if it meets our remit, we’ll get on the road and get things happening.