Water authority launch RAP

CENTRAL Highlands Water have released the organisation’s Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan.

To mark the occasion the staff from the utility held an event, including smoking ceremony and welcome to county, in conjunction with members of the Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung peoples at White Swan Reservoir on Tuesday.

The launch was held at White Swan because it’s near the boundary of Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung lands.

Chair of the CHW board, Jeremy Johnson, said he’s worked with members of the Wadawurrung community before and it’s that experience that help guide him through the organisation’s RAP development process.

“I have a deep understanding and links there. At board level that plays out in the development of strategies to put in place and then deliver against it,” he said.

“This is a very important day for us and a very proud day.”

The reconciliation plan outlines the reasoning behind Central Highlands Water development of the document and a range of actionable items.

They include staff and board members taking part in cultural leaders training, strengthening cultural connection to land administrated by CHW through signage updates and traditional owner engagement and increasing employment opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Wadawurrung leader, Bonnie Chew, has been involved with the development of the plan since early in its inception after being approached by CHW.

She’s helped guide the organisation’s approach to the document and suggested to them which stakeholders to engage with.

She was positive about the plan.

“It’s definitely a meaningful document,” Ms Chew said.

“Their people are really on board with wanting to reconcile. It’s not about a document that’s going to be a shelf sitter. That was something we had a conversation we had from the very get-go.”

As Central Highlands Water’s Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan has a list of actionable items, Ms Chew was confident the organisation’s desire to achieve them was real.

“It’s now become part of their business planning and it’s in each of them management areas are writing it into their business planning to make sure people are on top of things,” she said.

“They have to go through an internal process to make sure and their board is on board to make sure everything is smooth sailing.”