Page 1036 - Week 04 - Thursday, 22 April 2021
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administration processes of the fund. This work will be undertaken through a co-design process with the community to ensure that self-determination is baked into the structure of the fund.
We have also heard loud and clear that exploring a treaty process with the traditional owners of the ACT, the Ngunnawal people, is a priority for the community. This funding will support the facilitation of discussions with and between traditional custodians on what a treaty process might mean to them and what it could look like in the ACT.
The experience of other jurisdictions and other nations shows that treaty or agreement making is a complex process. Into the future the healing and reconciliation fund will provide the resources to support Ngunnawal traditional custodians to consider and progress a treaty process.
Strengthening the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector is a priority reform under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and a further priority for our local community.
Another key purpose of the healing and reconciliation fund will be to support local initiatives that build community-controlled sectors and increase the proportion of services delivered by community-controlled organisations.
Projects supported by the fund will include the establishment of a Ngunnawal language centre and the return of Boomanulla Oval and Yarramundi Cultural Centre to community control. The work in relation to Yarramundi Cultural Centre is currently underway. I have had the opportunity to meet with the consultants, Thirriwirri, who are undertaking that consultation with the community as we speak.
Additional to the healing and reconciliation fund, the budget commits $425,000 towards detailed design work for the new purpose-built facility for Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation, advancing ACT Labor’s $10 million election commitment to complete this important project in partnership with Gugan Gulwan.
The budget is also committing almost $4.9 million to continue to implement the recommendations of the Our Booris, Our Way review, the wholly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander co-designed and led review into the circumstances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people involved in the child protection system. This will include ongoing funding for improved frontline services, including family group conferencing and family finding, as well as work to embed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child placement principle within decision-making. This initiative will also support the continued operation of the review’s independent implementation oversight committee.
All governments have a unique responsibility to do what we can to correct the issues born of colonisation, issues caused by generations of mistreatment, dispossession and racism. There is absolutely no doubt that the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in child protection is one of these
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