Reconciliation Action Plan
When Kevin Rudd issued his much awaited, long overdue public apology to indigenous Australians for past injustices, he set the nation on a path – one in which ‘sorry’ represented and required an ongoing series of positive actions. I feel very proud to have recently attended the launch of one of these – the Victorian Chapter’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). This is an initiative begun during my time as Victorian Chapter President and one that’s been 18 months in development. We’re bringing it to National Council as a template, in the hope that it will be embraced by other Chapters. At present, I believe there are only 10 registered indigenous architects in Australia, and we were very fortunate to have both Reuben Berg and Jefa Greenaway at the launch, along with a member of the indigenous band Jarrah. Mark Liebler also presented a heartfelt talk. RAP represents our commitment to indigenous Australians to offer enhanced opportunities to learn about and prosper from architecture. As caretakers of this land for 30,000 years, architectural practitioners also have much to learn from indigenous Australians, and it’s our hope that RAP facilitates this. Congratulations to all involved, in particular the RAP Working Party and Advisory Groups.
The RAP PDF is available at http://www.architecture.com.au/vic. Check out Jarrah at http://www.jarrahband.com/