QCEC staff recently participated in cultural awareness training with John Briggs from JB Consultancy as we begin the process of implementing QCEC’s Reconciliation Action Plan.

Earlier this year QCEC submitted an Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) to Reconciliation Australia.

The Innovate RAP is a commitment to develop and strengthen relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

John shared with us his own story of growing up as an Indigenous Australian, as well as imparting knowledge around the diversity of Indigenous Australian cultures and focusing on the purpose of a RAP.

The Secretariat staff were engaged by his recount of critical points of Australian history including the strength of the “yes” vote in the 1967 referendum, the unpaid labour of Indigenous Australians (some of which now supports the QATSIF funds made available in schools), as well as the poignancy of reflective questions.

At the heart of John’s message was the need for reconciliation to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and businesses in commercial decisions such that the mechanisms are in place for Indigenous cultural groups to further develop and sustain the individual enterprise, pride and self-reliance that were once strongly embedded in their relationships and culture.