Reconciliation: Now More Than Ever
Today marks the start of National Reconciliation Week. This year’s theme is ‘Now more than ever’ – a reminder that our individual and collective efforts towards reconciliation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more important than ever.
We must continue the work of educating and learning, truth-telling, tackling racism, and sharing the history of First Nations people of this land. As allies, we believe it is our responsibility to listen deeply and learn from the rich knowledge and experiences of Australia’s First Nations people.
At CMY, we’ve begun to develop our next Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) – the Innovate RAP. Our RAP working group held a planning workshop earlier this year, drawing from the valuable learnings of our Reflect RAP.
The work undertaken has included building a whole-of-organisation understanding through Aboriginal Cultural Competency training; supporting our staff to take action in Changing the Date Ourselves on 26 January; and establishing new relationships, such as our CMSport x Koorie Heritage Trust partnership and collaborating with the Department of Education Koorie Outcomes Division to deliver anti-racism training for school leaders.
At the RAP planning workshop, our team spent time mapping out next steps for engaging the whole organisation in the development and delivery of our Innovate RAP. The focus of this next phase of our journey will be on deepening our commitment and understanding of reconciliation as an organisation, and strengthening relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
To find out more about Reconciliation Week and what you can do to help achieve reconciliation, visit the Reconciliation Australia website. There are a range of events happening throughout the week and resources translated into a number of languages here.