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A pro-brumby activist organisation racially vilified the then head of an Indigenous group in Victoria through posters and social media posts showing her face and racist slogans, the state’s civil and administrative tribunal has found.
The Barmah Brumby Preservation Group displayed public posters showing the face of Monica Morgan, a Yorta Yorta woman, and racist slogans, the court heard. Morgan argued at the Victorian civil and administrative tribunal (Vcat) the posters, along with social media posts and comments between 2020 and 2023, incited hatred of her and Yorta Yorta people on the basis of race.
The group did not make a defence to the allegation or attend the tribunal hearing, a Vcat document said.
The tribunal in September upheld Morgan’s claim and found the group had racially vilified her in contravention of Victoria’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001. But the group on Tuesday denied any racial vilification had occurred.
Morgan, who was chief executive at the Yorta Yorta National Aboriginal Corporation until earlier this year, said the Barmah national park was “central to our country” and had the “longest history of occupancy by our mob”.
“But the problem is, with these feral animals, they decimate the floodplain, decimate with the hooves … the marshy lake area,” she told Guardian Australia.
“It’s about trying to ensure that the inhabitants of it … have a place in that forest.”
The Barmah-Millewa Forest, on both sides of the Murray River, is listed under the convention on wetlands of international importance (the Ramsar convention).
Morgan said the campaign by the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group was “hurtful”.
“I have grandchildren and children, it’s very hurtful when they see these posters every day.
“This decision is a small victory that shows the white legal system can sometimes acknowledge the detrimental harm of the society it represents.”
Vcat senior member Charles Powles on 11 September ordered the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group to remove all posters it created, sold, published, circulated or displayed which depicted or referenced Morgan, the Yorta Yorta National Aboriginal Corporation or the Yorta Yorta people.
The tribunal also ordered the group to provide a written apology to Morgan, her family and the Yorta Yorta people, which “acknowledges the harm suffered”.
But Julie Pridmore, president of the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group, argued the group’s actions was “never racial vilification”.
“I will never write a letter of apology to her, because there is nothing to apologise for,” she told Guardian Australia. “We made a very definitive stand on how we felt about the removal of the horses.”
Pridmore said the group had removed some posters, but could not remove those displayed on private properties.
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The Barmah Brumby Preservation Group is staunchly opposed to the culling of feral horses in the Barmah national park on the Victorian-New South Wales border. Pro-brumby activists argue the horses provide a link to Australia’s colonial history, while others cite animal cruelty concerns.
The Barmah national park is jointly managed by Parks Victoria and the Yorta Yorta National Aboriginal Corporation.
Parks Victoria has a long-term strategy to eradicate feral horses in the national park, following the launch of a four-year strategic action plan in 2020, due to widespread ecological damage.
Vcat said the group needed to remove all posters and issue an apology by 21 September. But Environmental Justice Australia (EJA), who represented Morgan, said these orders had not been complied with.
EJA lawyer Virginia Trescowthick said the group had “overstepped the mark on what is considered reasonable freedom of expression”.
“Rather than engage with the substance of government policy to protect the environmental and cultural values of the Barmah national park, some members of the feral horse preservation group instead spent their time attacking … Ms Morgan,” she said.
Trescowthick said EJA believed this was the first time a First Nations person in Victoria had successfully argued they had been racially vilified.
Parks Victoria’s Barmah strategic action plan aimed to reduce the number of feral horses to 100 by 2023, with the end goal of removing all brumbies from the national park.
An evaluation of the plan, completed in July, revealed 700 feral horses had been removed in the four years to May 2024. Parks Victoria believe less than 100 feral horses remain, the plan said.
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