Karen Mundine, Chief Executive Officer of Reconciliation Australia, explains the purpose and structure of the Reconciliation Action Plan:
“An Innovate RAP is a crucial and rewarding period in an organisation’s reconciliation journey. It is a time to build the strong foundations and relationships that ensure sustainable, thoughtful, and impactful RAP outcomes into the future … This Innovate RAP is an opportunity for Save the Children to strengthen these relationships, gain crucial experience, and nurture connections that will become the lifeblood of its future RAP commitments. By enabling and empowering staff to contribute to this process, Save the Children will ensure shared and cooperative success in the long-term.”
An honest assessment of progress
Within the document Mat Tinkler, Group Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children Australia, reflects on the achievements and shortcomings of the organisation’s history.
“While we can be proud of the progress our organisation has made with and for children over these years, we must also honestly reflect on Save the Children’s role in colonial Australia’s history. Because the truth is that we have not always sought to listen to and amplify Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices. Sometimes our ‘western’ approach did not empower local leadership or seek to fulfill the fundamental right of self-determination. Our child rights practice framework was not always driven first and foremost by deep respect for, and embrace of, community and culture. Our leadership team and Board did not include representatives from First Nations communities.
We recognise our brand itself may also conjure notions of white saviorism in a country with a tragic history of forced child removal, and that First Nations staff have not always felt culturally safe in our organisation. What’s more, our last Reconciliation Action Plan expired four years ago, and we did not make the space nor resources available to update it. And so here we stand on the precipice of renewing our Reconciliation Action Plan for a new age.
We have undertaken an honest assessment of progress against our last plan and formed a First Nations Advisory Committee to help drive the creation of a new one. We are genuinely proud of the important work we have done, but are honest about the things we could have, and should have done better. We have made space for difficult conversations and will continue to do so. We have made resources available to deliver key initiatives within the Plan, and we have sought do so from a place of humility and respect, and with a genuine desire to hear, and respond to, the invitation extended to us in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.”
Reconciliation Action Plan structure
To deeply embed action for reconciliation across the many areas of our work, and within our organisational culture, the 2025-2027 RAP is framed within the three pillars of Relationships, Respect and Opportunities and founded on strong Governance, monitoring and reporting:
- Relationships: Developing and maintaining relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, communities and organisations that are founded in two-way learning and equality. We will do this through stronger partnerships, appropriate representation, and through celebrating and promoting reconciliation internally and among our partners.
- Respect: Instilling deep and unfaltering respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout our programs and organisation as a whole through ongoing cultural learning, meaningful observation of cultural protocols and days of significance across our organisation.
- Opportunities: Growing representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across our organisation, with a particular focus on increasing the number of First Nations staff in management and leadership roles, and broadening commercial relationships with First Nations suppliers.
- Governance, monitoring and reporting: Engaging the Reconciliation Action Committee and First Nations Advisory Committee effectively and regularly to guide the implementation of the RAP; and building accountability and transparency through reporting RAP achievements and challenges internally and externally.
Our overarching goal is to be culturally competent. Through genuine partnerships, respectful engagement, and a commitment to walking together, we will strive to create a future in which all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples - especially children and young people - can fully exercise their rights and shape their own destinies.
Our RAP Artwork
Our Reconciliation Action Plan artwork, titled Strength Through Culture, was created by Elizabeth Yanyi Closea Panaka Skin Anangu woman from the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Language Groups, whose family links are to the communities of Pukutja and Amata in the APY Lands.
The artwork which you can view in the RAP and at the top of this story illustrates growth rings from trees that form a topographic representation of connection to Country. This artwork’s message is an urgent call for a deeper acknowledgement and understanding of this connection, and to further inform the way we support children and families. The painted dots represent children walking alongside 54 reasons, acknowledging the work we do in partnership with their families and community. The texture of the artwork is reflective of the relationships and interconnectedness of land and people. The colour palette reflects earth, water and the sun, givers and sustainers of life.