As negotiations for treaty legislation heat up in Victoria, a group of Aboriginal people are letting the non-indigenous public pepper them with uncomfortable questions.
The Deadly Questions project is an online platform designed as a safe space for anonymous questions for Aboriginal people about their history, culture and identity.
The state government-funded initiative involving Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy and playwright Richard Frankland, among others, aims to feed public conversation about what a Victorian treaty would look like.
In two months, 2600 questions have been asked, with one in six participants wanting to know what their indigenous counterparts want from the treaty process.
About 19 per cent have asked specific questions about cultural traditions such as face and body painting, dancing and family names, while seven per cent have asked how they could teach Aboriginal culture and language.
Deadly Questions panellist Carissa Lee said there had been some racist questions, but most were a genuine attempt at learning.
People have wanted to know how she feels about Captain Cook or statues of prominent early settlers such as John Batman.
The Noongar woman's skin is thick from years of racist taunts at her rural South Australian school, but some questions are still hard.
This one recently came through on the Deadly Questions website: "Do you think Aboriginals deserve preferential treatment?
"Preferential as opposed to what?" Ms Lee said to AAP.
"Does wanting to be treated like a human count as preferential?
"When I was going to uni and the students I was there with found out I was on Abstudy (government-subsidised fees for indigenous students), they had a bit of a chip on their shoulder."
Ms Lee says she's learned over time not to take ignorance personally but instead see it as a result of upbringing and lack of education.
Looking back on her own schooling, she knows most people's education about indigenous Australia is limited.
"We never got to hear about our mob doing great things and achieving things," Ms Lee said.
The Victorian parliament passed legislation in June allowing for the creation of a representative body, elected by Aboriginal Victorians, by mid-2019 to help design a framework for treaty negotiations.
Ms Lee believes a treaty at state level is the best way for indigenous Australians to be acknowledged as custodians of their land.
She hopes it could lead to federal treaty legislation in the future, but says the current government seems to have no interest in it.
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