Reconciliation

The Eora Journey is made up of 4 projects – recognition in the public domain, a significant event, an economic development plan and a local Aboriginal knowledge and culture centre.

Recognition in the public domain

We have committed $5 million to create 7 works of national significance by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artists to celebrate the First Peoples of Australia in our global city.

Ahead of the Anzac centenary in 2015, we unveiled a major artwork in Hyde Park to honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service men and women.

Yininmadyemi (pronounced yinn-in-madj-amee), Thou didst let fall, by Aboriginal artist Tony Albert, features 4 1.5-tonne bullets standing 7 metres tall and 3 fallen shells to represent the diggers who returned to Australia and the ones who lost their lives. The artwork was the third to be commissioned under our Eora Journey program.

Another artwork is Reko Rennie’s Welcome to Redfern, which he created with the help of local young Aboriginal people. And in 2013, Nicole Foreshew’s Born in darkness before dawn was projected onto the Australian Museum for 4 months.

We announced Judy Watson's proposal, bara, in 2018, as the fourth Eora Journey public artwork. Located on the Tarpeian Precinct Lawn above Dubbagullee (Bennelong Point), bara will be a major new permanent artwork to celebrate the traditional custodians of Gadigal Country. The artwork is expected to be completed by early 2021.

More information about our Eora Journey public art program is on our City Art website.

Significant events

We provide support for a range of events to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts and culture.

For the past 7 years we have worked with Indigenous businesses to host NAIDOC in the City. The event on the Saturday of NAIDOC Week continues to grow, attracting over 8,000 people to the city centre to celebrate and share Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

We also provide grants to local organisations to hold NAIDOC celebrations in the community. We provided $40,000 in cash sponsorship to the National NAIDOC Awards ceremony which took place in 2018, in Sydney.

We are proud to be the major sponsor of Yabun. We contributed $110,000 in 2020 to support Gadigal Information Service to hold the 26 January event in Victoria Park. Yabun is the largest one day Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander gathering in Australia.

Every year, we support the Redfern Aboriginal Anzac Day commemorations hosted by Babana Aboriginal Men’s group. Babana was successful in gaining cash and in-kind support each year with $20,000 in 2017, $22,000 in 2018 and $24,000 in 2019, to celebrate the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service men and women on Anzac Day.

Economic development plan

We have consulted widely on developing an Eora Journey economic development plan to address the community’s access to education and training opportunities and issues associated with business investment, enterprise development and employment.

The plan was adopted by council in 2016 and has 4 themes: create an economic hub, maximise employment outcomes, enhance tertiary education opportunities and grow sectors of the economy.

We partnered with Indigispace in 2019 and sponsored the Indigenous Business Program with $30,000 to provide mentoring, upskilling, and programming resources to 16 Indigenous businesses.

We purchased the former Redfern Post Office in 2018 for use as a local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and knowledge centre. The details around the use and operating model for the building will be developed by the community with support from us.

We’ll coordinate a consultation process to support the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to develop a plan for the best use of the building.

Our advisory panel informs and shapes our work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The panel is made up of a cross-section of community members, including industry professionals, young people and Elders. They advise our organisation on matters important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Following a strong recommendation from the panel, a full meeting of Council in 2010 voted in favour of using the term 'invasion' to describe European settlement of Sydney. The sentence below was subsequently included in our 10-year corporate plan: “Despite the destructive impact of this invasion, Aboriginal culture endured.”

The panel is responsible for reviewing our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protocols, in conjunction with members of the community.

When consulting and working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, our staff are guided by a set of protocols based on respect, trust and a spirit of openness. The protocols express our commitment to working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents.

They also outline ways we can demonstrate its commitment to reconciliation, such as:

• acknowledging the traditional custodians of Sydney
• flying the Aboriginal flag above Sydney Town Hall
• recognising Aboriginal peoples' right to self-determination
• challenging negative stereotypes
• marking significant ceremonies and dates.

Joining forces with the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, we put together the Principles of Cooperation, a set of guidelines for government departments that provide services to the Aboriginal community.

We’re also an active member of the Eastern Region Local Government Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Forum. The aim of the forum is to stimulate and advocate a commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Events in the forum’s calendar include the Reconciliation Week Primary Schools Art Competition and the Pauline McLeod Awards for Reconciliation.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people practising cultural heritage in public spaces managed by us will no longer need to apply for a busking permit.

We recognise the intrinsic right to practise culture is vital to maintaining wellbeing, personal identity and connection to culture for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. So we’ve removed the need to seek approval to practise these traditions of art, dance, song and storytelling in public.

We’ve worked with the community to develop protocols to guide the practice of culture in our area and ask that people or groups follow these protocols.

You can read more in the busking and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Practice policy and our protocols for the practice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in public spaces.

The 2020 Yabun Festival was produced by Gadigal Information Service and supported by us. Yabun is the largest 1-day festival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in Australia.

Yabun takes place on 26 January at Victoria Park on Parramatta and City roads.

NAIDOC in the City is a free celebration of the world’s longest living cultures through food, song, art, dance, and stories in the heart of the city. The event includes a range of family-friendly activities and performances, such as live music, dance performers, dedicated kids zones, a marketplace, arts and crafts, sports clinics and food stalls.

NAIDOC Week is a national program that celebrates National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, which grew from the first political groups seeking rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the 1920s.

The Eora Journey builds on existing work undertaken by us to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and community. We published a free booklet in June 2011, Barani Barrabugu (Yesterday Tomorrow), a historical walking tour that takes in more than 50 sites around Sydney significant to Aboriginal people. The award-winning Barani Barrabugu was the result of 2 years of extensive research by our History Unit and Aboriginal historian Steve Miller, under the guidance of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Panel.

The Sydney Culture Walks app  features self-guided Barani walks for Redfern and Sydney Cove/Warrane.

The Sydney Barani website has more information.

More than 2,000 items make up our library’s Koori collection, a wide range of titles dedicated to Aboriginal storytelling, histories and cultures. Topics covered include land rights, Aboriginal leaders and sporting greats.

The Koori collection is held at Waterloo and Glebe libraries.

The Gadigal Information Service presents the Yabun Festival. Yabun celebrates the ongoing survival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures on this day each year. This festival is one of the most important arts and music events in Australia, reflecting the huge wealth of established and emerging Indigenous talent.

On this day in 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered an apology “for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments in Australia that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss” to the Stolen Generations and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia.

Each year Harmony Day, which coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, celebrates the cohesive and inclusive nature of our nation and promotes the benefits of cultural diversity. The continuing message of Harmony Day is 'everyone belongs'. It's about community participation, inclusivity, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone in the Australian community.

Close the Gap is a coalition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations that are campaigning to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians on life expectancy and overall health.

In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander military veterans, the Coloured Digger March is held in Redfern on Anzac Day. Along with our community partners we support the march each year through sponsorship, grants and publicity campaigns.

The Bringing Them Home Report recommended that a National Sorry Day be held each year on 26 May, "to commemorate the history of forcible removals [of Aboriginal peoples] and its effects". Due to recommendation number 7 in the report, the community-based organisation National Sorry Day Committee was formed, with affiliated groups in each Australian state and territory.

More than 90% of Australians voted yes to change the Australian constitution on Saturday 27 May 1967 after decades of campaigning for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The referendum shifted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs to the Commonwealth and removed a race clause that excluded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from the national census.

Each year, National Reconciliation Week celebrates the rich culture and history of the first Australians. It’s the ideal time for everyone to join the reconciliation conversation and to think about how we can help turn around the disadvantage experienced by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

On this day in 1992 in its historic judgement, the High Court of Australia accepted the claim by Eddie Mabo and several other claimants, that their peoples had occupied the Murray islands, which are in the Torres Strait, for hundreds of years before the British arrived. The decision gave native title to the claimants, in an Australian legal first, which effectively overturned the legal definition that Australia was ‘Terra Nullius’ (a land belonging to no-one) when Australia was colonised by Europeans.

National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Celebrations, NAIDOC, Week occurs between the first and second Sunday in July each year to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated in Indigenous communities, and by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities by participating in a range of events and activities.

This festival marks the day when the London Missionary Society first arrived in Torres Strait in 1871, with the society introducing Christianity to the region. It’s a significant day for Torres Strait Islander communities across the region and in mainland Australia.

The Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care organises this day each year, to raise awareness around the significance of providing a safe, nurturing and healthy environment for Indigenous children. The aim of the day is to enhance family relationships, which can lead to positive consequences for the wellbeing, self-esteem, sense of belonging, and resilience of Indigenous children.

Human Rights Day marks the anniversary of the United Nations (UN) adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration sets out certain rights that are the basic and minimum set of rights for all the world's peoples. Commemorating, educating and reflecting on the principles that formed the declaration, means celebrating the rights we exercise every day as Australians. The declaration acknowledges that by enjoying those rights, it carries with it the responsibility of promoting and upholding those rights for all peoples.