How the youth justice system could change to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal young people will be discussed in Wodonga today.
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Victoria's Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People Justin Mohamed is visiting the Border for one of 13 regional forums for the Our Youth, Our Way inquiry.
Mr Mohamed spent Wednesday listening to personal stories from local youth.
"This is our fourth regional forum and on Thursday we will look at the system," he said.
"The youth justice system on a whole hasn't really been designed to look at how we rehabilitate and support young people.
"Close to 90 per cent of Aboriginal young people in youth justice come from child protection and out-of-home backgrounds and 65 per cent are re-offenders.
"We want to get a good picture of what's happening in this region, and the solutions we can then present to state government to hopefully implement a plan that can be owned by community, and not by Melbourne."
Mr Mohamed said the inquiry's report will be tabled in Parliament in March, alongside possum skins burned with local design by youth from each of the 13 regions visited.
"In every possum skin we've done with the youth justice clients, including in Wodonga, they've got a symbol which talks about protection," he said.
"It shows there's a human side to what society might see as young people just doing the wrong thing.
"Some of the things afforded to other young people haven't been afforded to them, such as feeling protected, loved and valued."
The inquiry builds on the work from the Koori Youth Justice Taskforce, which was established following Penny Armytage and Professor James Ogloff's review into the youth justice system in Victoria.
Mr Mohamed, who took over the role of Commissioner last year, was confident this inquiry would make ground and that prevention was an important factor.
"Once a young person is in the system, if we don't intervene, the system has a pretty slippery slope into custody," he said.
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"The regions where there are less numbers (of youth in the system) seem to have a lot more preventative action, done from a really young age - not just when they turn 13 or 14.
"I'm really looking forward over the next four weeks as we get closer to the halfway stage, seeing some of the trends both positive and negative.
"We should be able to see this trend change of over-representation.
"The government wants to see change and this idea of 'What does that change look like?', that's what we're about; talking to local people living and breathing it."
