On a recent Tuesday morning, dozens of indigenous people have gathered in this struggling town some 120 miles north of Melbourne to discuss a radical reimagining of their relationship with their government.

Far removed from the center of Victoria state politics, the residents are focused on a proposed treaty between indigenous people and their state, which, if ratified, would be Australia's first such legal document since the arrival of British settlers in 1788.

"We are making history with this dialogue, and it is an opportunity," Richard Frankland, an indigenous activist, writer, and filmmaker, tells the forum in Shepparton, one of a series organized by the Victoria government. "With all the scars we've got on our soul for the last 228 years, this opportunity has taken this long to come around."