Page 243 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 November 2012
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today. Woden Community Service wants to help redress some of the disadvantage experienced by first Australians through its programs. It will also enjoy the fruits of reconciliation.
Woden Community Service is one of six regional community services in Canberra. In my electorate of Ginninderra in April this year I had the pleasure of launching Belconnen Community Service’s reconciliation action plan. We celebrated BCS’s commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and to reconciliation in the workplace and the community.
Reconciliation is nation building. In 1788 this country was invaded and the dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders began. This is our history. We cannot change it. We cannot ignore our history because it is part of us. Yes, we can change our future to become an Australia without shame and embarrassment or the anger of dispossession. As I said in my inaugural speech in this Assembly, reconciliation will be the nation building task of this century, a nation building that redefines what is Australia and what it means to be an Australian. As Phillip Pepper, Gurnai elder said, we are what we make ourselves to be. Australia is its people, the land and a shared future.
Reconciliation action plans are about building a future together. In organisations and communities, these plans are about taking practical, planned steps with visible progress. Good intentions alone are not enough. The ideal of reconciliation is generally welcomed in our community, but knowing where to start can be confronting without a plan or a framework. Reconciliation Australia offers their extensive expertise online and in person to organisations wanting to start the reconciliation journey.
Woden Community Service’s plan was developed by staff, members of the Woden community, including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, and other community organisations working together. The Woden Community Service RAP working group draws on staff across the organisation and regularly reports to staff and the leadership group. The process of developing a RAP plan brings people in and makes implementation less daunting. Actions of the plan are about building a dialogue, including getting to know the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community better and building mutually beneficial relationships, actively participating in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and their events, projects and celebrations, and making Woden Community Service accessible to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and ensuring their needs are met by the service.
The plan is about building respect and celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. Part of this is building cultural awareness in staff through courses and using ACTCOSS’s cultural awareness self-assessment toolkit. It is about creating opportunities, actively building the capacity through recruitment, training, supporting governance and business opportunities. I congratulate Woden Community Service on their reconciliation journey. It is inspiring to see their commitment and to see them enjoying the benefits that flow from this initiative. As the first Indigenous member and minister of the ACT Legislative Assembly, I am honoured to have been part of the launch of Woden Community Service’s latest reconciliation action plan.
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