"I don't really want to go into the history or politics of [the Games]," Joy Oldaker told me, as her dark eyes darted back down to her Victorian government approved media statement.

"I just want the Wadawarrung community to be proud of me," she said, looking up. "I don't want them to think I haven't done them justice; and I want them to know that I am representing each and every one of them."

The proud Wadawarrung elder and traditional owner is something of a rarity, as one of four delegates - all of Indigenous heritage - carefully selected by the powerful Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games organising committee to preside over the handover at the Birmingham Games' closing ceremony.

Respectively drawn from each of the four regional centres across the state to play host to the 2026 Games, their selection is, on any view, a gesture of cultural recompense to First Nations communities, and one inconceivable perhaps as little as a decade ago, such is the progress of Indigenous reconciliation in Victoria.

"The fact it's four Indigenous elders chosen to do the handover says a lot," agreed Oldaker, adding that this outward shift in community sentiment had, at times, rendered the past few weeks "emotionally overwhelming".

But the choice of four Indigenous delegates is perhaps also a nod to the altered rationale of the Commonwealth Games, which is not, and never was, just a sporting event. From its inception, it was a naked celebration of the perceived triumphs of colonialism; yet nowadays approaches something closer to a modern reckoning of the same legacy.

Scant mention, however, of the historical injustices forged by British imperialism is to be found on the website of the Commonwealth Games Federation, with emphasis instead afforded to the "peaceful, sustainable and prosperous communities" which comprise the Commonwealth.

Though unsurprising, it's something which plays hostage to yet more historical myth-making, and risks shrinking the significance of moves to acknowledge traditional owners as a source of undiminished national pride.

"It's been a very, very long journey to recognition," Oldaker said, as she spoke of the pivotal role her mother and oldest surviving Wadawurrung elder, Violet McPherson, played in rebuilding the frayed and seemingly broken ties of the Wadawurrung.

"The truth is we [Wadawarrung] wouldn't be here today were it not for our three starting members, including my mum - they did all the hard work in the '80s, tracing back our lineage," she said.

"I, myself, didn't know I was Indigenous until a bit later in life; it was their bravery and strength which led to what we have today - the foundation of everything here."

Oldaker's mother, by contrast, always knew she was Indigenous, as one of six daughters born to a white woman and a Wadawurrung man. But from a young age, and particularly after the death of her father, she consciously silenced her Indigenous heritage due to the chilling realities of eugenics-inspired assimilation policies.

For uncounted decades, Oldaker told me, that same fear or sense of foreboding reverberated over time, long shadowing every hard-fought step towards formal recognition of the Wadawurrung in 1998.

"The journey has been long - there's always been a lot of negativity about Wadawarrung; a lot of closed doors in our faces," she said, having taken over the work of her mother some 30 years ago.

"But this," she added, referencing her selection as a Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games delegate, "is a wonderful way to repay our founding members for everything - to make them proud and to make our community proud."

"We've often been pushed down or downtrodden and told we can't achieve this or can't do that; well, this shows us we can, and I just want everyone to know this [Victoria 2026] will be everyone's Commonwealth Games - it's going to be magical."

Oldaker was among a delegation of two dozen people, led by Jeroen Weimar, the chief executive of the organising committee for the Victoria 2026 games, to fly to Britain on Sunday to participate in the closing ceremony of the Birmingham Games on August 8.

CORRECTION:

A previous story published in The Courier on 21 July 2022 said Macaylah Johnson was the Ballarat-Geelong region's chosen delegate for the Victoria 2026 Games. That was an error. Ms Johnson is not a delegate but one of 26 special Indigenous dancers selected to participate in the Birmingham Games closing ceremony.

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