Leadership and advocacy
Following a meeting with Reconciliation Australia, the
RAP Working Group nominated a member of the KU
Executive Team to be the RAP Champion, responsible
for advocating for, and ensuring the development and
implementation of the RAP within KU. The current RAP
Champion is the General Manager Early Education
Inclusion.
Subsequent RAP Working Group meetings allowed time
for the results and feedback from the staff surveys to
be shared, discussed and collated. This information not
only provided a snapshot of the level of understanding
of KU staff on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
cultures, histories and heritage, but also provided a
solid basis and guided the direction for creating the
RAP.
Through this cycle of continual consultation, achievable
actions aimed at meeting the needs of all staff, were
able to be embedded within the RAP.
Sharing perspectives
Internal consultation
The momentum of developing the RAP was
maintained through a series of RAP Working Group
meetings, with regular input sought from KU staff,
including the completion of a whole of KU staff survey,
gathering information from across the organisation on:
Levels of cultural competency
The types of relationships staff held with
members of local Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander communities
Levels of engagement of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people in the delivery of the
educational program
Understanding and inclusion of an
Acknowledgment of Country or Welcome to
Country at a local, regional and Central Office
level
Types of specific cultural training undertaken by
individuals in recent years
KU Practice Managers and Education Support Managers
also participated in an additional survey, considering;
How KU’s Values were reflected in our work with
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children,
families and communities
What KU’s work may look like after a review of
current work practices
In May 2015, six KU representatives attended the
‘Reconciliation Symposium – Advancing reconciliation
in early childhood education and care’ in Adelaide,
hosted by Early Childhood Australia (ECA). The
Reconciliation Symposium explored the nature of
reconciliation within the context of early childhood,
featuring leaders in early education and reconciliation.
It provided opportunities for the participants to
contribute their shared knowledge and dialogue in
formal group discussions and informal networking.
In May 2016, a further twelve KU representatives
attended the Reconciliation Symposium in Sydney.
There, a number of KU representatives were asked
to be table facilitators and KU’s Manager, Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Programs participated in a
panel discussion on ‘Reconciliation in action: Respect,
Relationships, Opportunities’.