Kyleigh Nash

I'm Kyleigh Nash, principal at Yarrawarrah Public School, which is in the Sutherland Shire on the lands of the Dharawal speaking people.

Jenny Walker

I'm Jenny Walker, and I'm principal of Kellyville Public School and we're on Darug land.

Tessa Keenan

I'm Tessa Keenan, I'm a non-Indigenous person. Grew up in Wonnarua Country, living and working on Yuin Country. I'm general manager of the Narragunnawali program at Reconciliation Australia.

Ashli Ware

I'm Ashli Ware, and my school is by Baryulgil Public School on Bundjalung Country, and I'm also a non-Aboriginal person and am really passionate about working in Aboriginal education.

Tessa Keenan

So Narragunnawali was launched back in 2015, and it's one of quite of a few programs at Reconciliation Australia. And when the Australian curriculum came about and the professional standards for teachers at that national level, our board kind of said, we need to be working in the space of reconciliation and education, particularly now, it's a real professional expectation. So the Narragunnawali program now has over 10,000 schools and early learning services registered to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan, which is pretty exciting. So we've got about 50% of all early learning services and about 40% of schools. So we'd love to see more come through. And I guess what we're focusing on as a program now is really the professional learning side of things and really ensuring that schools and early learning services are making that ongoing commitment to reconciliation. And I should say that Narragunnawali is a word from the Ngunnawal language, and it means alive, wellbeing, coming together in peace. And that alive part is really important when they're talking about RAPs. And I'm sure you all agree that it's not just about National Reconciliation Week, which is a great time to shine a bit of a spotlight on reconciliation and particularly Reconciliation Action Plans, but yeah, it's a 365 day.

Jenny Walker

Absolutely.

Ashli Ware

All the time.

Jenny Walker

Yeah, reconciliation is every day.

Tessa Keenan

Every day.

Ashli Ware

Yeah.

Kyleigh Nash

Yep.

Jenny Walker

It also brings your community together, with the Reconciliation Action Plan. And it's really important that your early learning plus your primary, but even your high schools, your high schools, because it's a continuing journey for all our children.

Tessa Keenan

Yeah, and particularly in the early years space, you know, reconciliation, it's a big word, to even just get your mouth around in terms of what it means, and you know, when we're talking about looking at historical acceptance, which is one of the five dimensions of reconciliation that you know, yeah, they're incredibly confronting parts of our histories, and it's about how do we kind of do that in an age appropriate way and we've just been so inspired by so many of the early learning services, yet if early years can do it, we can do it right through. And if you think about it, reconciliation as a movement is only one generation old. Yeah, that started in 1991 as kind of a formal process of reconciliation, and, yeah, it's only one generation. And it's amazing to see the shifts that can happen in such short amount of time when you have that leadership and commitment.

Jenny Walker

The most important thing is when people say, I didn't realise. I lived in this area and I didn't realise this was happening in my backyard. And that's when the truth-telling comes into it. And it also makes them, I want to learn more. It is confronting, but I wanna learn more. And that's all about the reconciliation and the process you go through with that. Nobody knows everything, but you're open to learn many things.

Kyleigh Nash

And that's the importance of cultural training for our staff too is that, I think initially when I started my journey at Yarrawarrah, it was, oh my gosh, I don't know enough to be able to teach the children, or I'm scared I'm going to do it wrong and there's that fear aspect. But I think the more cultural training we do, the more people feel safe to, it's okay if you don't know, let's find out together, let's be on that journey together. It just opens up the doors to be able to feel safe to, you know, share truth-telling with our kids.

Ashli Ware

We started our RAP journey after our school was impacted by bushfires, Covid, and the floods. And what we were finding is that some of our families were losing engagement with our school and having an enrollment of 100% Aboriginal students, it was so important for us to find something to support our families to come back to our school. And basically, we had some conversations with our staff around it and explored it, explored the platform, and we went from there. It just grew and grew after that. Currently, an exciting part of where I've come from is to support other schools in our network to go on the Reconciliation Action Plan journey as well and it's quite, I think in the beginning, an abstract concept. And at the beginning, I would've loved to have had somebody to sit with to say, this is how you can make a start, just start small, one thing, it's okay. And from there, I hope that that can also grow and grow.

Kyleigh Nash

I'm working with two networks too. The Fairfield Network and the Wonnarua River Network, and I think that that is absolutely right. People are already doing so many amazing things in terms of Aboriginal education in their schools, that it's really just formalising what they're already doing. So it takes that huge, like, oh my gosh, we're developing a RAP that's really huge, to hey, we're already sort of doing these things, let's formalise it.

Ashli Ware

Yeah, let's pick out the ones that we are already doing, but how can we get better at some of these other things or how can we start to implement these things and prioritise those for the needs of the schools?

Tessa Keenan

So there's 40 actions that schools can choose from, and I guess each year in that refresh process, it's about taking those minimum ones deeper, but also looking at what other ones can you take on? And it is about kind of, sometimes we have schools that, you know, they might select all 40 and go, yep off we go, and then realise, actually we're gonna go back to maybe 15 the next year, because that was a bit ambitious.

Ashli Ware

Yeah, so ambitious.

Tessa Keenan

Exactly. But it is about kind of trying to break it down to really, you know, clear steps and being able to assign deliverables to different members of your working group. And with dates, you know, it's a planning tool, really, in terms of the online platform and it is really important that everybody has a really clear idea of what they're doing. And I guess the reason that Narragunnawali is an online platform is largely because we know how busy you guys are within schools, and it is really important that the curriculum resources and professional learning resources and everything is there to support the why behind each of the actions, but also linking them to the professional requirements as well.

Jenny Walker

And with the RAP, one thing about, as a principal, it is not outside what you do in your school. You know, if anything, it goes in your strategic improvement plan.

Ashli Ware

Absolutely.

Jenny Walker

And it's part of your community, it's part of your learning. So weave it into your SIP and make it part of your deliverables. And with the RAP, with the structure you've got with the RAP, it is easy to find those deliverables. At Kellyville, our journey has been a long journey, and it wasn't until my staff said to me, we want a RAP. It's not coming from the top, it is coming from the ground, it's coming from the roots saying this is what we want, but it's absolutely weaved into our schooling strategic improvement plan, which is important. And the community, sorry, the community signs off on that, an AECG signs off it, so therefore it is embedded in what you're doing with that.

Tessa Keenan

Yeah, as long as you're doing the thinking and the learning and the hard work.

Ashli Ware

And I think the way to make it not tokenistic is to have it woven into your school plan and to see what other people are doing within their school plan. If you can show somebody your initiatives, your IPMs, that you've already done to help somebody else to do it, then I think that we're going to find more and more schools having a go.

Kyleigh Nash

I think that if we, as the leaders of our school, have a passion for it as well, I think,

Ashli Ware

So helps.

Kyleigh Nash

It's contagious, right?

Ashli Ware

Yeah.

Tessa Keenan

Yeah. We've seen that as well, that you know, principals and school leaders or directors of services are the biggest enablers, but also can be the biggest barriers, unfortunately. But, you know, there's still, yeah. So there's a really important role that leaders, educational leaders play. And it's a unique role. It needs to be modelled, you know, it can't just be one really passionate teacher doing a fantastic lesson.

Jenny Walker

And build the capacity in your staff. That's important because staff move, principals move. But if you've got that capacity, that is the culture of your school, doesn't matter who comes in and out. It will still continue.

Ashli Ware

It's there anyway.

Jenny Walker

Yes.

Kyleigh Nash

Aboriginal education's always been a really huge passion of mine coming up from the South Coast where it's very much embedded, coming into my school and going, okay, well, you know, this is still really important to me and I'd love for it to be important for you as well. Let's go on the journey together. And then through that process, we had more families feel safe, culturally safe to identify. So, you know, it went up to 7% at one point. And, you know, it's dropped a little bit now as children graduate and go into high school. But it fluctuates, we know that. We do a reconciliation term, we don't do a week. We embed it as a term thing. So our activities are across the term so yeah, it's nice.

Jenny Walker

Taking on your point of view, from my school, we have about 67%, 70% non English speaking background. And it's so important because a lot of these families have come to Australia and they don't know the history of Australia, and it's important that they learn the truth. And they're great ambassadors.

Kyleigh Nash

Yeah.

Jenny Walker

Absolutely. As I said, it's all year long. And one of the activities- and it's not activity, it's embedded in what we do- every class writes their own Acknowledgement. And in the classroom, you've got, welcome to such and such class, and this is our Acknowledgement. So it's there all the time. At assembly, the children get up and read and say their Acknowledgement at assembly. So there's this ownership and the growth of writing Acknowledgement, even from the teacher's point of view, it's not stock standard, it's not a,

Kyleigh Nash

Script.

Jenny Walker

script, absolutely not a script. It is coming from the heart because of the knowledge that these children have received over the last couple of years. It is really coming from the heart. So they talk about that and they own that. And it's really important that people see that. And that's why it's done at our assemblies when we have visitors, we have a school Acknowledgement, and that's said all the time and shown to our visitors.

Tessa Keenan

And I love the incredibly visible Acknowledgement that you put on the very busy road.

Jenny Walker

Yes.

Tessa Keenan

At your school, so you can't miss it.

Jenny Walker

Yeah.

Ashli Ware

Ours was a lot to do with welcoming our communities and our surrounding communities as well. Not just Baryulgil and Malabugilmah, which are the two communities which feed to my school. But it was about getting our neighbouring countries, like the Yagul Country and Gumbaynggirr Country to come to Baryulgil and see what we do at Baryulgil. So we had a big togetherness day and that was named by our staff and students, and we were able to invite students from our neighbouring small school and the wider community came, I think that there was probably about 200 people there. And my director came up for the day and he thought that he was gonna have my director meeting after it. And he said, I didn't realise you were gonna have so many people there, we won't have the meeting.

Kyleigh Nash

That's great.

Ashli Ware

It was just a really beautiful day to have non-Aboriginal people and Aboriginal people come together surrounding the children, the children were engaged in activities throughout the day. We had Elders yarning over at our yarning circle, it was really special. That was the highlight so far.

Kyleigh Nash

And it builds that sense of community because you involve your community and so you get to build those relationships with Elders and with your Aboriginal community and they then bring amazing creative ideas to the table as well. And so your children just are benefiting so much from the connections that you're making.

Ashli Ware

Yeah.

Tessa Keenan

Yeah and not all schools, or staff or school leaders within schools, have those relationships. They can take a really long time. I guess if we think about schools as institutions and the history of education, particularly in New South Wales, that it hasn't always been inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures, people. You know, the exclusion on demand policy was active till 1972. And so, you know, there's a lot of trust that needs to be rebuilt.

Kyleigh Nash

Well our RAP, we started in 2020. I mean, there was Covid lockdowns and all sorts of things in between there, right? But we didn't actually publish till 2023. And that for us was about building those connections and getting it right and making sure that it wasn't tokenistic and that it was going to be a document that really was driven within the school. So, you know, it's definitely not overnight. Yes, definitely not.

Jenny Walker

Yeah.

Tessa Keenan

I think the thing to remember though, it is a plan and it is forward looking. And if you don't have those relationships, you know, you can get started. There's so much that you can learn. And I think a lot of the platform has very introductory information because it's not assuming too much in terms of this, it's assuming there's a level of interest.

Kyleigh Nash

Yeah, yeah.

Tessa Keenan

But in terms of, I guess knowing that many teachers, particularly who went, you know, through the education system in Australia are having to unlearn a whole lot of stuff. I think the story you told before about, you know, when you started as 1% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and that grew to seven at one point.

Kyleigh Nash

Yeah.

Tessa Keenan

You know, this is a really hard thing to measure, but I think when you see families enrolling their children, they're entrusting your school. Like I think that is an incredible measure of success and you, I guess, yeah.

Kyleigh Nash

Even the survey, you know, once you go through the refresh process and your staff redo the survey.

Tessa Keenan

Yeah.

Kyleigh Nash

The growth you get in that data is amazing because of the things that you've done across the 365 days, people are feeling more comfortable and that the growth and the impact there, that's huge.

Jenny Walker

And I think, I've just noticed something in my school that the lens that staff are putting over resources now. Instead of just saying yes, that is. That is really important because it's not saying this is, we can't have that, but they put the lens over in saying, no, this isn't true. No, we don't want that book, we don't want that in there. Which is outstanding and it's not coming from the principal, it's coming from the staff because they have learned, they have been on the journey, and they feel uncomfortable if they've got that in their classroom now. And that to me, that's a growth.

Kyleigh Nash

Yeah, I had a great chat with your teacher librarian who, you know, she was talking about how helpful the evaluating resources guide has been and she did a huge audit of the whole library.

Jenny Walker

Yes.

Tessa Keenan

And started using the guide, which is just a series of questions really. But now that's just the lens that she sees it through. She doesn't have to sit down with the questions to work through it. What about when it comes to like recruitment and bringing on new staff? So thinking about how you measure, you know, how you go, I guess so much of it comes down to your team. So is that something that you think about? Yeah.

Jenny Walker

Well, in my induction,

Tessa Keenan

Yeah.

Jenny Walker

There's a whole unit on Aboriginal education and what we do at Kellyville, so that a new new staff member, whether experienced staff member or new staff member, would have that. And that's part of the first 10 weeks. There's a whole unit on that that has been taught by one of our executives.

Ashli Ware

And going back to

Tessa Keenan

Yes.

Ashli Ware

the evidence and how have I measured that? For me, I go back to my story about engaging after all of the natural disasters and things. And just between the end of last year and the year before, my attendance had risen 12%

Tessa Keenan

Yeah.

Ashli Ware

in 12 months. And I put a lot of that down to the initiatives that are taking place within the school, but also the further connections that I've now got with the non-Aboriginal community and the Aboriginal community as well. That's been so important for us and really, really important for student growth. Yeah.

Tessa Keenan

Yeah, that's fantastic.

Jenny Walker

And also your measurement, you were saying that you're working with networks, you're working with a group of schools, it's across your network as a principal that you've gotta RAP and that you are doing that journey that you're recognised with that.

Ashli Ware

Don't expect that it can be one person or yourself doing it. The collaboration is the key.

Kyleigh Nash

Yeah, the team, the working team. And my director's given us half days together. It gives us the time and space to work together. So that's something that's been really powerful and had a huge impact on our network is coming together, talking about the RAP that Yarrawarrah has, but also then reflecting on the RAP that they would like to have and how their team can go about it.

Tessa Keenan

So, how as principals, how do you support that and resource the work of reconciliation?

Jenny Walker

I think for us it was a priority. As I said, it was in our strategic improvement plan, so that that came about. We had a budget towards it, but it was really time budget, more than money budget. But it's priority. Doesn't get put on the back burner. This is where we are, we do the plan for it. It's just like anything else in your school, if you make it a priority, it will happen. The other thing is from the benefit of spreading it out, not just one person doing it, you build the capacity in that team so it doesn't fall over. And that way your priority's there, but also your timeframe is spread across instead of having a person off doing it, they don't have ownership of it, the team has ownership of it.

Kyleigh Nash

Yeah and that's something that we found with the Narragunnawali platform was that although you assign it to a person, we have a working document that's aside from that where it's assigned to a position because we have had quite a bit of change, you know, staff are being upskilled and moving into higher positions. So you don't want particular deliverables falling down and being left by the person who's left the school. So by assigning, you know, this to the stage three assistant principal, then it's the stage three assistant principal, whoever they are, then that's part of their role, you know. So that's something that we found, you know, that's very useful.

Tessa Keenan

Particularly where those networks of principals or schools exist on the same country. You know, that you can also share those networks of relationships and that, you know, particularly for, there's 26,000 schools and early learning services in the country, and that's 26,000 schools and early learning services that we'd love to see developing relationships with the local Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander communities. And that's a lot of demand on people's time. So I think also trying to think of ways to, I guess, yeah, pull resources and opportunities where, you know, it could be working with Elders or Traditional Owners or community members in a one to many relationship as well, so that it's, yeah. You know, and 'cause the stories of that place are the same regardless of the schools.

Ashli Ware

We need to come together and support one another in this change. So important. It's interesting that our school hasn't had a reconciliation action yet as teach about reconciliation and to create something specific for a celebration for reconciliation. And that's what we're doing this year because it's written in our SIP so that's part of our plan for this year. And just last week, because I am a teaching principal, I started to brainstorm with the children, what does reconciliation mean to you? And it was really interesting that they had heard about it, but they weren't able to answer deep into what that was. So I know that just from that teaching experience, that teaching them about it is going to be so important this year. We're going to do an artwork and that's in collaboration with one of the high schools in our area, which is around the theme of 'Now More Than Ever'. And with those artworks the children are, this week they'll be designing an invitation to their parents to come into our school for morning tea during reconciliation week.

Tessa Keenan

Oh, that's beautiful.

Ashli Ware

Yeah!

Kyleigh Nash

Student voice is so powerful. You know, I think that that's something that really came out through our RAP process was that we did involve our students and hearing what they want in their school and how they wanna see reconciliation progress is so, so interesting.

Jenny Walker

For Kellyville now more than ever, it's important that the whole school moves forward. And when you have new people coming in kindergarten, we don't leave them behind. And the travel through into the high school and our connection with Kellyville High is outstanding because we've got that journey together. So now more than ever, we need to be standing up. And to teach, but also to action. It's got to be a whole generation and two generations that we are moving forward because if it's not now, it's not gonna be.

Ashli Ware

Yeah, yeah. I think for Reconciliation Australia, setting the theme this year was probably, it was pretty challenging. And in terms of what happened last year,

Kyleigh Nash

Absolutely.

Tessa Keenan

With the referendum. You know, I think we learnt a lot about where people are at in terms of their knowledge of the true histories of this country, but also the current realities of many Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people. So for me 'Now More Than Ever', it is about education and how critical it is for this next generation coming through and it's so important to be looking back and really, particularly in the space of education and the people who have really dedicated their lives to changing the system. And you know, we wouldn't have the Australian curriculum, cross curriculum priority that focuses on Aboriginal Torres Strait Islanders histories and cultures if people didn't fight for that to be in there. So I think that this is where education, we were talking about generations before, that this is where it's at. And we're kind of educating multiple generations at any one time. It's not just about the students and the children coming through. It's about the teachers and the parents and the grandparents and community members that are all kind of learning alongside the journey of the schools. So yeah, that gives me hope to also see how well it is being and how possible it is, you know.

Jenny Walker

And I would say as principal, we'll be saying to principals who are thinking about a RAP, now more than ever you should be doing the RAP and getting that process done in your school so that you've got a blueprint of where to go forward.

Ashli Ware

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And starting right from early stage one, right through to stage three,

Kyleigh Nash

That's it.

Ashli Ware

And then working with your high schools.

Kyleigh Nash

Yeah.

Ashli Ware

That are in your local area to see how to navigate that run through so that it doesn't just stop there.

Jenny Walker

And now more than ever, take that first step.

Ashli Ware

Take the first step.

Kyleigh Nash

Yeah, absolutely.

Transcript

- Thank you for joining us for this Reconciliation Week webinar; Be Brave: Examples of Aboriginal Activism. I'd like to start with Acknowledgement of Country. I would like to acknowledge the Kameygal clan of the Darug nation, who are the ongoing custodians on this beautiful land, on which I live and work today. I thank them for their perspective on Connecting To Country and also to one another. At its heart, reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians for the benefit of all. And I thank them for their brave actions that have led to positive change in my community. I pay my respects to elders both past, present and emerging and extend that respect to my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues within the department, any other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders online with us today and throughout the communities that we serve. I'd now like to introduce you to our panelists for today's webinar. I have with me Cathy Trindall, President of the New South Wales AECG. Cathy Trindall is a Gomeroi woman with more than 30 years of experience working in public education in New South Wales. She began her work in education in 1985 as the first Aboriginal teaching assistant in Tamworth before becoming a primary trained educator. I also have Warren Bridges from School Performance. He is a proud Ngunnawal man from Yass and Canberra, and he is passionate about linking culture to education and supporting the rights and aspirations of Aboriginal people. I am delighted to have with us, Rachael McPhail. She is a proud Gomeroi social worker who lives on Wiradjuri country in Coolamon. She currently works as a project manager for a not-for-profit disability organisation. She was successful in her campaign to ask Australia Post to include traditional place names in addresses. As well as Rob Waters, a spoken word artist and cultural educator. Rob is also a Gomeroi man with deep cultural connections to north-west of New South Wales. He uses storytelling methodologies to examine the history of Australia through contemporary practices. And finally, I have with me Benjamyn Glachan, head teacher of Aboriginal Education at Gorokan High School on Darkinjung country. He's a proud father, husband, and a passionate advocate for inclusive and Aboriginal education. Over the next 20 minutes, we will be having a chat about this year's theme, 'Be Brave, Make Change', and what it means to the panelists, both professionally and personally. I'll also invite each person to talk about how they've been involved in Aboriginal activism over the years, and what they hope for in our ongoing journey for reconciliation, especially in education. As we discuss with our panelists how they have been brave and made change, I invite you to think about what your actions impact on how we can close the gaps and achieve a sense of fairness and justice. I would now like to welcome Cathy, to share her story in demanding the rights of Aboriginal people to have equitable access to education and creating change that is needed to ensure improved outcomes for Aboriginal students. Cathy.

- and hello, everyone. Yes, Cathy Trindall, very proud Gomeroi Murri Yinaar. I guess I was born into activism simply through who I am and the fact that my Aboriginality and the fact that I'm a very strong, proud Gomeroi Murri Yinaar has context menu from north-western New South Wales. I come from a very long line of activists. And activism, I'm reminded, takes many, many forms. It takes many forms from the spoken word to music, to posters, to silence, to walking the streets, which, as the President of the AECG, we have done for many, many years, for over 40 years. We are a community controlled organisation. And the power is in the strength of our local and our regional community members who are constantly being activists, who are currently and always have been, and always will be advocating for the human rights of our people to access an equitable and mainstream education. Activism is something that is, we are innately doing because of the injustice, which had occurred to us previously from the point of invasion in this country. And it's around reclaiming what is just, what is right, and a way forward that we are acknowledged as the very first people on the whole entire planet and our languages were the very first languages spoken on Country here in Australia, that we know it. But I'm actually not Australian, I'm a Gomeroi Murri Yinaar And it is important that I acknowledge that, I may be born here, but part of the reconciliation process is being brave enough to change the way that people and their mindset is around, and the way they perceive Aboriginal people. Aboriginal education just doesn't encompass going into a mainstream school, whether that's Catholic, independent, or a department school. It's around education across accessing all levels from the early years, right through to lifelong learning when you know, it's from the cradle to the grave. So it's about being brave. And it's about the New South Wales AECG, having the ability to instigate change and to ensure that we are the number one peak advisor when it comes to Aboriginal education on all levels and all platforms. Because it is a human right that has been denied of us for a very, very long time. And I in a position to be the voice to advocate that change and to be brave enough often to be the lone wolf and to be that lone wolf at times, that sometimes has to step on the edge and be the loudest voice until we can hear. But in saying that, government, community, we have always spoken the words and people have heard, but they've never really listened. So it's around us in times to be able to be that person to ensure that our voices are heard, that they are listened to and that they are enacted upon in terms of the way that we, as Aboriginal people, view the world, see the world, hear the world, fear the world in our ways of knowing and our ways of doing, in our ways of being. But yet we can't do that alone. Everything that you do in life should be in partnership with someone. Ensuring that you know what the rules of engagements are, and that you're in a position to be able to facilitate that change, not by being that lone wolf, but being brave enough to be the lone wolf, to have the followers that will come with you, to walk with you beside you in front of you, behind you, and acknowledge those who have gone before me, those who will come in front of me after my time is gone, and my words are gone and blown on the wind. And they have those ones that walk with me spiritually every day to be able to position me here right where I am today as the President of the New South Wales as AECG. And I encourage each and every one of you out there, be brave, ask those hard questions. There's always an answer. There's always someone there that we will work with you. Activism doesn't have to be waving the placard. It can be listening to a song about change. Think about the songs that you can hear. And a number of those songs are songs that talk about change in activism. Think about the spoken word and think about the silences and why have we become complacent in a number of spaces? Is that because we are being forced into position of complacency? But now it's time for us in terms of our Aboriginal communities to ensure that we work together across all forms and all directorates and all levels of communication to be a advocates and to ensure that activism just constantly is evolving, and that it involves from street marches, to now TikToks, to using the technology to enable us and to ensuring that we are getting a widespread, that we are going from our young ones, our young babies to our youth, to our students, and actually moving on in terms of doing that together. Look, I say, Thank you everyone for taking the opportunity and allowing me to speak with you today.

- Thanks so much, Cathy. And so before we wrap up with you, what's the one key change you would ask of the department to be brave and make change?

- It's a bit like I wish I had another wish. So I guess the one thing is probably the hardest thing that anyone can ever do. It's around attitudinal change. 'Cause attitudinal change will be a roller coaster and a platform and a springboard for systematic change and behavioural change.

- Thanks Cathy. Yeah, that's a definite move in the right direction. I think that there's been a lot of pieces that have been rolling out lately, and it is that attitudinal change that will lead to behavioural change and we need to start making significant changes in the actions in the classrooms so that we can have a positive relationship. I'd now like to introduce Warren. Warren is going to give us a little bit of Aboriginal history around activism and the people who have had great impact. Over to you, Warren.

- Thank you. So the theme for this year's Reconciliation Week, it's a challenge. So it's a challenge to be brave and make change. And to me, this year's theme is really personified by activists. So for us to sort of understand why there are so many reasons for activism, it's important to understand the events that have shaped in particular Aboriginal activism. So let's look at a bit of a timeline. I'm just gonna put my screen up here, guys, so you can share. Great! So in 1770 , Lieutenant James Cook arrived at Gamay Botany Bay. In 1778, the first fleet landed and colonisation follows. In 1848, the Board of National Education concluded that it was impractical to provide any form of education facilities for the children of 'the blacks'. In 1883, non-Aboriginal parents at Yass Public School took their children out of school and protested the Aboriginal children being there. The school expelled the Aboriginal kids. And at the time, this was backed by the Department of Education. In 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia was formed along with the White Australia Policy. In 1938, the official start of the Day of Mourning, leading to what we now know is NAIDOC Week. In 1962, the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement proposed a referendum to grant equal citizenship, wages and employment for Aboriginal people. Unfortunately, this wasn't granted, but the Commonwealth Electoral Act was passed and Aboriginal people were given a federal voting right. 1963, in protest to proposed mining leases in Arnhem Land, Aboriginal elders at Yirrkala present the Federal Government with the Bark Petition. 1967, the Aboriginal rights activists succeed in their decade long battle for Aboriginal citizenship. Just over 90% of people that had yes to change the Australian constitution to recognise Aboriginal people as citizens. And then in 1977, the establishment of the New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council. Now these are the largest activist networks of people in New South Wales advocating for Aboriginal people. So now let's look have a look at some of the brave Aboriginal activists over time. But first of all, Aboriginal Torres Island people are advised that the following information may contain images and names of people who have died. So first all, Charlie Perkins. He was the first Indigenous man in Australia to graduate at university. And in 1965, one of the key members of the Freedom Rides, which was a bus tour to New South Wales by activists protesting the discrimination against Aboriginal people in small towns of New South Wales. So at the time, if you were born Aboriginal, by law, you couldn't marry, without permission, you couldn't eat in a restaurant, you couldn't enter a pub or a cafe or go to a picture theatre or swim in a public pool, or even vote. So about 30 students, led by Perkins and consisting mostly of non-Aboriginal people, travelled to Walgett, Moree, Kempsey and other towns exposing the discrimination Aboriginal people faced. The students uncovered violent racism, exposed huge welfare disparity and stood in the face of strong and often violent opposition they encountered in many of the towns. He played a key role in advocating for the Yes vote in 1967 referendum, and his effective use of television brought the issue of racial discrimination in country towns to a national attention. My next one is one of my favourite, Essie Coffey. She was born near Goodooga, northern New South Wales. She was affectionately known as Bush Queen and a well-known throughout the state as a country and western singer and songwriter. A Muruwari woman who co-founded the Western Aboriginal Legal Service and served in a number of government bodies and Aboriginal community organisations. She had a particular interest in women's affairs and helped to create the first women's knockout football team in north-west region. Coffey expressed her activism through filmmaking. So 1978 movie, "My Survival As An Aboriginal" showcases Aboriginal culture, the differences between the white man and the black man, the problems with Aboriginal people assimilating into a white man's world. The different standards in housing, wages, food, quality of life, the way history was being taught in schools, and the pain that Aboriginal people experience with that history. Her 1993 movie, "My Life As I Live It" showcases how Essie supported her community, Dodge City, for the better. She supported better housing, more employment, and a purpose in life for her people. Essie says, "we don't need a spear or boomerang to fight anymore, no way in the world. We don't have to fire one shot. All we need is a pen and paper and a strong and powerful voice to fight with." Charles Chicka Dixon. Dr Dixon was a great believer in the importance of gaining a good education, which you could then use to help empower yourself and your community. Chicka campaigned for the Yes vote in the 1967 referendum, and was an active part participant in the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in 1972. He was part of the delegation of Aboriginal Australians invited to visit China, to tell the Chinese people about the Aboriginal struggle for justice while at the same time shaming the Federal Government, Chicka lobbied for major reforms and Indigenous arts fundings and art administration. And he also took an interest in Aboriginal country western musicians, organising festivals and talent guests around Australia, including prisons. A reformed alcoholic himself, he worked with Fred Hollows and others to establish the Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service. Last one, Adam Briggs. He's a proud Yorta Yorta man from Shepparton, Victoria, Briggs is a pioneer of the Australian hip hop scene, a lyricist, rapper, hip hop artist, writer, presenter actor and a CEO. He's made an impression across the spectrum of creative industries. His lyrics are provocative and he wears his culture for all to see. Briggs stands tall amongst his peers, working across multiple mediums, sparking conversations, and creating cultural change. One of Briggs's songs released in 2015, titled "The Children Came Back". It's a social commentary song, which tributes the great musician Archie Roach's song, "Took The Children Away" celebrating Australia's first people. Briggs said, "this is a history lesson, a monologue, a celebration and education in one song. And it encourages the effort towards reconciliation between first peoples and non-Indigenous Australians." Mr Roach said, "I love Briggs' song. It's about Indigenous heroes. I feel proud to be part of what Briggs hopes to achieve, and I really love that he used young children to play the heroes because they are our future heroes." So I'm gonna leave you guys with the question. Or actually I'm gonna say, thanks for listening. And I'll leave you to formulate your own ideas, maybe on how you can be an activist for change in Aboriginal education.

- Thanks so much, Warren. That was really interesting. And it really, I liked the key pieces that you've pulled from history and then how the Aboriginal outcomes and partnership directorate have also been showing those stories throughout their NAIDOC Week pieces. Last year, the song that, well, two years ago now, the song that they showcased with schools throughout New South Wales was Archie Roach's "Took The Children Away." And then the mashup of "The Children Came Home" which was beautiful to hear. And I know that for this year's NAIDOC Week, they're also going to be doing a piece on "The Freedom Rides." And taking that journey and working with schools who are part of that journey and how that happened, how that's impacted them. And then how we're going to make the education system a better place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. So thank you very much for sharing that with us today. And now I'd like to introduce Rachael McPhail. Now this is close to my heart. Rachael has a strong story about advocating for change at Australia Post and having traditional place names placed on our mail. And for those of you who don't know, we've just recently updated all of the department's letterhead to also have the space to include traditional place names. And we are working with schools who are also putting traditional place names on their letterheads and also on their websites. So I invite Rachael to come on and tell her story.

- Yaama everyone, and for having me. As a Gomeroi Yinaar, I'd like to start by acknowledging and showing my respect for the Wiradjuri people as custodians of the place that I call home, and I'm dialling in from today. So as you just heard, I'm campaigning around the use of First Nations place names. And this started off with asking Australia Post to include place names and addresses, which they've now done. So I take photos of my mail and my parcels and I post them on social media. And lots of people have jumped on board with this campaign and they tag me in posts where they're using traditional place names as well, so I can re-share them. So along the way, I've also shared other ways of acknowledging country, such as on driver's licenses, most recently. On my assignment cover pages, on business cards, like at Perth Airport, and along major highways and on tour posters and things like that. However, when I first started this campaign, it quickly became apparent that there is a knowledge gap in Australia regarding First Nations place names, because almost every day I was receiving messages from people asking for help to find the traditional place name of where they live. So the best resource that we have available at the moment is the AIATSIS map. However, there are actually some elders who don't agree with the information on the map, and some countries are actually missing. So the issue is the map was created using like Trindall's map and colonisers' records and not enough consultation with community, which means that our best source of this data is actually inaccurate. It needs to be updated with comprehensive, inclusive, and trauma-informed consultation with elders and community leaders to ensure that all countries and nations are correctly represented. Otherwise, we're just contributing to ongoing oppression. So my campaign has now evolved into petitioning for the creation of a database of place names verified by elders and community leaders, as well as ensuring that we have a true record of this information for data preservation and educational purposes. This will also allow everyone to be able to use First Nations place names every day as a norm, and know that they're using the right name. So what prompted me to do this, the actual act of adding Wiradjuri country to my address when I placed an online order, it was just the spur of the moment thing. I literally was just filling in an online checkout and just thought I'd give it a go and add Wiradjuri country to my address. But I think that the lead up to me having that thought was partly due to my social work degree that I just completed or completed last year, and have my graduation next week, which is exciting. So as we moved through the subjects, we were taught to look at things from a macro perspective and the way that systems or social constructs impact on minority groups. And I really enjoy looking at things through a systemic lens, and so I like to find small ways that I can decolonise the way that I live my life and the way that I look at the world. So I think that that's what led me to think of adding Wiradjuri country to my address that day. Where to from here? So the next six months is gonna be quite busy. I'm still working full time, and I'm also doing a leadership program through Indigenous Allied Health Australia, but I'll be really focussing on getting our First Nations place name database project up and running. I've been working with a group of First Nations people, a small working group, for the past 12 months. And we've made a lot of grounds in terms of establishing the group, the objectives, the ethics, and now we're ready to form like an entity and then look at procuring philanthropic corporate and possibly government funding to be able to get things cracking.

- Thanks so much, Rachael. That is so important and amazing, the work that you've done. And I think that that's really something that we need to be looking at. That true sense of community consultation, that these maps aren't like our traditional suburb maps. And I guess that that's something that we called out when we invited people within the department to look at placing traditional place names on that. You know, sometimes you're in a suburb, but just because white man has deemed that as the suburb doesn't mean that there might be two Aboriginal lands and you need to have that community consultation. And whether it be your local AECG or your local land council, form a relationship there, have an understanding, and start having those conversations. Because without conversations, we are just left unaware and stuck.

- Yep.

- So just before you leave us, I'd like to ask you, what's the one key change that you would ask of the department to be brave and make change?

- So thank you for this question because I really love it. The thing that I would love to see the department do is to actively encourage students to be mini-activists. So if they see an injustice in the world and they think of a way that they can help, then I would love them to have been taught the tools and knowledge to be able to know what they can do. I really hope that if there's one thing that my campaign shows kids, it's that we don't have to be someone important or in a position of power to make change in the world. And they can just be a normal everyday person just like me and start off with a small action. But if lots of people jump on board with that and take on that change as well, then people power might create big change. So, please, I really encourage you to encourage your students to be activists and teach them how to do this.

- Awesome! Thank you so much for your time today, Rachael. I'm now going to introduce Rob Waters and invite him to share his story and how he sees himself as an advocate and as an activist.

- Yaama, guys. I'm a Gomeroi man from Tamworth, up north-west New South Wales. And I just want to acknowledge, yeah, acknowledge my country and just all the countries where we're coming to and coming from. I want to acknowledge our old people, our ancestors who have been been fighting, I suppose, for the last 250 years. They've been the activists for 250 years. You know, despite all attempts to get rid of us, we're still here. And I just wanna acknowledge that that's because of our ancestors and our old people. So I'm a spoken word artist and I am a bit of a storyteller and poets and a few other things. And what I really love about poetry and spoken word is that it can engage people in ways that, I don't know, that people don't usually see. I had a performance last night, and somebody said it was the first time they'd ever seen spoken word done and they loved it and they wanna go and see some more. And a lot of my stuff is, yeah, about protests. And it's about trying to change people's attitudes. That's a big thing. It started with, I've got uncles and stuff that my grandfather's brother was a published poet. I've got an uncle, John, who's passed away that was a, he was a singer, songwriter. He never wrote any of his stuff down, kept it all in his head. He was an amazing man. But yeah, growing up listening and reading their stuff and also listening to people like Kev Carmody. He's like songwriter, Kev Carmody. One of his songs, you know, it's called, "Cannot Buy My Soul." And there's a part in there that says, "they may take my life and liberty, friends, but they cannot buy my soul." And it was like, when I was growing up, I was like, wow, what a staunch way of looking at it. And I think, you know, for us to be able to use words, to start to change people's minds is, that's what we've been doing. We're storytellers. We've been telling story on this country since the first time the sun came up. That's how we've been for generations and generations and generations. And that's what's got us through. We talk about 250 years of intergenerational trauma, but we never talk about 100,000 years of intergenerational love and intergenerational strength and tenacity that has informed what we do. And we're starting to do that now and starting to speak up. You know, there's a big talk at the moment about truth telling and, yeah, I get where that comes from. But, you know, we saw Warren's presentation about a lot of the stuff that's been happening in the past. And we've been telling the truth for years, how about some truth listening? How about people actually acknowledging what we say and then taking on board what we say and putting it into action. I'll just share a quick one with you, a poem that I wrote. It's called "I Will Speak Now." And says, "I will speak now. I will speak now, and you, well, you will listen. I will speak your words. I'll speak in your language. Are you listening? You see the blood of my mother and all those mothers before her still run strong inside of me. And the tears that fell from my father's eyes and all those fathers before him still fall from my eyes, for I am a poem, and I am a story. I am my grandmothers raising children in a country that did not even see them as human. I am my grandfathers' callus hands and bent backs working for men that did not even see them as human. I am my uncles' voices raised. I am my aunties' fists raised. I'm the story that seeps up through the soul of my feet, bursting up through the tongue when they swim on the raise of the sun. I am raised I am a story still yet to be told from the tongues of my children and all those to follow. From the first sunrise to the first sunrise again, I am raised. If you see, I am Gomeroi. I am I am I am I am 600 nations strong. And from this time on, I will define me and I will tell my story Just as you have told yours. Over and over, I've heard it. And I've heard it from school teachers and university lecturers, from policemen, and television sets. I've heard it from newspapers and history books or his story books. But I will speak now. I will speak now on you while you listen." Thank you.

- Thanks so much, Rob. And I think that that's a really important takeaway, that words are powerful, and they can have a huge impact. But the key to having that impact is that people are listening, and I'd like to draw on something that one of my colleagues says time and time again, we have one mouth and two ears. Two ears means we need to be listening more than we speak. So I think that that's a really powerful takeaway, that if there is one action you take to be brave and make the change, let that be listening. Listening to the stories that are in community. And let that listening sink in and then drive you to make change.

- [Rob] Yep.

- Thank you so much for your time, Rob. That was really powerful. And I'm appreciative that you were here. I'd now like to introduce Ben, and he's going to be having a chat with us today about the work that he does, and how the work that he does with Aboriginal students, families and the community is making change.

- Yaama, everyone. Yeah, so I'm Ben Glachan. I'm the head teacher, or the proud head teacher of Aboriginal Education at Gorokan High School. And I would like to, first of all, just acknowledge that I'm on beautiful Darkinjung Country and pay my respects to elders past, present, and emerging. And also pay my respects to the country that everybody comes from today or is residing today. Thanks for the question. Thanks to the opportunity to be on here. As I said, I am extremely proud of the position I'm in and that's to make sure that all students, not just our Aboriginal students, understand the importance of Aboriginal history and culture, which is actually Australian history and culture. And yeah, I feel like sometimes we concentrate on the past 250 years, which has been a really terrible history, but we've got 60,000 plus years of history that we need to learn about and we can learn from and understand to be able to move forward. I also have the opportunity to work with our Aboriginal students and support them with, you know, I guess, attaining and learning to the best of their ability to help them flourish in a space that doesn't necessarily support them culturally. You know, we work in white institutions within schools and we have the Premier's priorities, which is really about trying to ensure students learn and attain the level to help them into the future, but also taking the opportunity for students to have cultural connection and identity, and not just maintaining, but flourishing with that. It's something that's been taken away. And we need to make sure that we as a school and as a place that young people come to, can learn about that, can learn about the importance of cultural connection to be able to have that happening in the future. We can't have that leadership in the future if we don't work on it now, and we don't support it now. As I said, it's been taken away, we need to reinforce that. I also get to work with our families and community. I get to sit in our Aboriginal Education Room every single day at Gorokan High School, and listen to the perspective of community and how they feel within the school. And I ensure that I'm able to connect with families and hopefully break down some of that intergenerational trauma that Uncle Rob just spoke about. You know, schools haven't been a nice place. They haven't been a great place for Aboriginal people in the past. And for us to move forward, we need to make that place as comfortable and as reassuring and supportive as possible. And I'm super passionate about making sure that can happen, to break down those barriers and to make sure that, in my position, I'm the magnifier of the voice to ensure the community, AECG, for example, and the Department of Education school can work in that partnership and honour that partnership. So I really am, you know, I hold it dear that I am able to have that voice within an executive, within a school, but that voice purely comes from community, not from me. It's not my perspective, although I definitely agree and support wholeheartedly that our community needs to be one of the strongest pillars in our schools. And having that within a school is only going to help us move forward. Then I have the role of being able to ensure staff have the opportunity to connect. We run Connecting To Country through the New South Wales AECG, which allows staff to sit and listen to our community members and our elders within the space that we work. And it's not just about pedagogy, it's not just about perspective within the classroom. It's understanding the past and understanding that intergenerational trauma still affects us or our community today, and how we can move forward. We can only move forward by understanding what's happened, and then being able to take that information and make sure that we have the support networks and the voice from community to be able to move forward. So I'm extremely lucky to work in a space like that within a school. And as a non-Aboriginal person, I completely believe that, you know, Aboriginal history and culture is Australian history and culture. So it's extremely important for us all to be a part of. A few more things that I'd like to say about being, I guess, supportive from a non-Aboriginal person. And that's about being brave. We do need to search for the truth. We do need to have that lifelong learning and the ability for us to connect within schools. We've had a certain style of learning within schools for a long time. And I guess now I'm in a position to be able to work with community and continue that learning. I take that home. And my bio says I'm a proud husband and a proud father, and I can't wait to take this information and the things that I've learned within my role back to my family, and that sort of water droplet effect. And you said it just before Shari, and Rob says it all the time, two eyes, two ears, and one mouth. Use it in that proportion. And I believe looking, you know, using your eyes and being able to see the perspective out on country, and being present and being mindful, that's culturally appropriate. And that's showing that we connect with what's around us because what's around us is beautiful, and we need to have the time to be able to take that all in.

- Thanks so much, Ben. And before we wrap, I'd like to ask you, what's the one key change that you will make this year in your personal or professional life to be brave and make change?

- Yeah, so for me, what will I do personally and professionally? It's about being fully self-expressed. It's about being able to have agency over what I do and ensuring that I'm true to myself and my moral compass. As I said before, I believe that First Nations history and culture is Australian history and culture, and I need to share that with the staff around me, within a school setting. And not just staff within a school, within the community. And ensuring that our community is proud and staunch of our history for 65,000 years, not 250 years. I'm also extremely passionate about being in service to others and ensuring that people who haven't been able to have that voice within the community can now have that voice. And I will just be magnified that voice and ensure that I take that into my job to support community, to support Aboriginal people, to support non-Aboriginal people, to lead a fulfilling life. And my suggestion for staff and community members out there from my own perspective and learnings over the last years, is to continue your learning and take a step every day. Find an area of your space on how you can improve yourself and learn a little bit more about Aboriginal history and culture to connect as much as you can, because that water droplet effect can really have a powerful impact on people around us. If you are just that water droplet in the middle, then hopefully everybody around you can start taking a little bit of what you've learned and we can move forward.

- Beautiful! I've had the wonderful experience of being able to be part of one of the New South Wales AECG Connecting To Country pieces. And I was out at Murrook and learning all about culture and connection and history. And it definitely has a great impact on your perspective. And yeah, I just hope that we can start to put a bit of that understanding into action as we move forward. So today, we've discussed with our panelists, how they've been brave and made change, which is the theme for this year's National Reconciliation Week. And now I invite you to think about the actions you can take to help Close The Gap and achieve that sense of fairness and justice. I actually want you to find a piece of paper or a Post-it note and commit that action to a physical presence that you can see and use as something to fall back on and to trigger you every day to take action. I also invite you to join us in the Reconciliation Action Group on Yammer. Put your voice out there, share how you'll be making being brave and making change this year and commit to a presence of reconciliation within the department. So thank you to all of our panel members, and happy National Reconciliation Week.

Transcript of Acknowledgement of Country and Welcome to Country: confidence with the basics video.

Other questions

In this recorded session, we didn’t get to all of the thought-provoking questions asked in the chat – so we’ve provided some responses below:

Without asking, because as a non-Indigenous person I wouldn't feel right asking, how do we know when is/isn't it right to use the term Aunty and Uncle for Elders?

Aboriginal people traditionally refer to an Elder as 'Aunty' or 'Uncle'. However, it is recommended that non-Aboriginal people check the appropriateness of their use of these terms – so even though you might feel a bit odd or uncomfortable it is appropriate to ask.

An Aboriginal Elder may also invite people to call the Aunty or Uncle.

Should an Acknowledgement of Country include emerging Elders?

There are differing views on this. Some people (including some Aboriginal members of our RAP team) see it as appropriate, while others have concerns that it undermines the traditional status and authority of Elders.

You can also acknowledge the contributions of all Aboriginal people including young people.

If my organisation wants to have a RAP, what is the best process?

Reconciliation Australia are the lead body for reconciliation in Australia and can help you to develop an official Reconciliation Action Plan.

How often should you do an Acknowledgement of Country for a meeting/gathering. Is it only at the beginning or should it be each speaker?

There are no firm rules but particularly for large or formal meetings it can be appropriate for each speaker to acknowledge Country.

I've heard some people say that doing an Acknowledgement too many times means it can become tokenistic. What can I do so that it’s not?

We will be providing a further webinar that talks more about this. But in essence, it’s important to be genuine in the way you speak – to think about the words you are saying and their meaning and hopefully that sincerity will be heard by your audience.

Once you feel comfortable with the ‘basic’ phrasing it might be time to branch out a little – educate yourself about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories cultures and achievements (our Resources are a good place to start) and you could talk about what you have learned and/or link what you say to the topic of your meeting. Just remember to be diligent in making sure what you say is both correct and appropriate.

Remember as well that an Acknowledgement shouldn’t be used in place of a Welcome for large or significant events.