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Relationships Australia Indigenous Network

Relationships Australia’s Indigenous Network (RAIN) has existed within the RA Federation for several years now.

Originally created to provide a space for our Aboriginal staff to network and share their issues, resources, concerns and successes over a monthly teleconference, the network has now become so much more.

There are three arms to RAIN:

  • an executive group who assist to advise CEOs across the country on best practice models and culturally appropriate policy development,
  • an Aboriginal practitioner caucus, and
  • a non-Aboriginal caucus where practitioners can either contribute to the national projects coming out of the executive group or gain insight and understanding into culturally appropriate practices.

The Walking Together plan (link), which was developed by our RAIN executive committee, provides a single page of commitments for how we will behave with each other.

Over time this network has provided much welcomed and valued advice to the CEOs and other staff of Relationships Australia (RA). Our cultural fitness package, which forms the basis of our cultural fitness training, was developed by the RAIN executive committee.

The Walking Together plan (link), which was developed by our RAIN executive committee, provides a single page of commitments for how we will behave with each other. It includes steps and actions to achieve a culturally safe organisational space and practice for our Aboriginal clients and our Aboriginal colleagues.

The plan provides us with some indicators for monitoring how well we will do this in each RA and will be monitored so that we can measure our progress internally.

The Walking Together plan was presented to, and respectfully embraced by, the CEOs of the RA Federation in 2019. Each state and territory has committed to a number of steps to ensure its success:

  • Implement the plan at each RA in the Federation,
  • have each state and territory’s Board endorse the plan,
  • provide it to all staff,
  • ensure that we monitor and report back on the indicators that tell us that we are making a difference,
  • continue to listen to Aboriginal staff and clients deeply and respectfully and ensure that we have a culturally safe organisation.

RA Tas is proud that our team have been involved in the development of the Walking Together plan, and we hope that you all will embrace it as we have.

An RA Tas Aboriginal staff member had disclosed that “it’s really hard to explain what it’s like to be an Aboriginal person in a mainstream organisation. Others may see me as a qualified co-worker and therefore someone with privilege but that’s not my true journey and the lack of opportunities, education outcomes, health outcomes and the ongoing institutional racism I have experienced creates a void in me that can’t be easily explained to those who don’t understand. I am pleased that RA Tas are planning to embrace the plan on a page with honest, genuine commitment and care to get it as right as we can for my community“.

RA Tas is proud that our team have been involved in the development of the Walking Together plan, and we hope that you all will embrace it as we have.