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A whole-of-community Walk on Country at the Kingscliff Foreshore, the Kinship Festival at Murwillumbah and the launch of a new interactive map detailing reconciliation achievements across the Tweed are highlights of this year’s Reconciliation Week festivities in the region.
Council will be supporting events across the Tweed this National Reconciliation Week which runs from 27 May – 3 June. The week will give our community an opportunity to participate in Indigenous culture and learn from First Nations people through a range of free events.
The theme for this year’s Reconciliation Week is Be a Voice for Generations. The theme encourages all Australians to be a voice for reconciliation in tangible ways in our everyday lives – where we live, work and socialise.
Council will also use the week to spotlight Aboriginal cultural heritage projects in the Tweed and launch a new interactive map of achievements in the reconciliation space.
The Kinship Festival will kick off celebrations on Saturday 27 May in Knox Park, Murwillumbah. The annual community-led event allows people to connect, share and participate in First Nation’s culture, community and country.
Kinship festivities will commence at 10 am with a welcome and smoking ceremony, followed by a corroboree with 10 different dance groups from across the Bundjalung Nation and beyond, celebrating kinship connections through dance, art installations, language workshops, weaving, children’s nature crafts and traditional games, live music, youth space – and the always popular Aboriginal artisan market.
Council will also be supporting the Walk on Country – a whole-of-community event which is being held in Kingscliff on the closing day of the festival, Sunday 4 June.
Following an official Welcome to Country, the walk will commence at 10 am at Ed Parker Rotary Park at Cudgen Creek and finish at Cudgen Headland Surf Life Saving Club. After the walk, there will be a free community barbecue and gathering, as well as a First Nations live music band, Elders’ morning tea, activities for children and opportunities to be involved in a Sea of Hands installation, which is occurring at various locations across Australia.
Tim Appo, Council’s Aboriginal Community Development Officer and member of Council’s Reconciliation Action Plan Committee is proud of Council’s achievements and collaborations over the past year.
“This year, Tweed Shire Council’s Aboriginal Advisory Committee – the official liaison between the local Aboriginal community and Council – celebrates 25 years of informing and collaborating with Council on culturally sensitive matters and issues that affect Aboriginal people,” Mr Appo said.
“The Committee has been instrumental in the creation of Council’s Aboriginal Heritage Management and Mapping Plan as well as the making of Council’s Reconciliation Action Plan. The Committee was also tasked with the cultural naming of new streets within the Kings Forest development.”
As part of Reconciliation Week, Council is launching an interactive map which allows users to visualise and discover achievements made towards reconciliation in the Tweed. Some achievements to date include Council’s recent submission of a new Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) to Reconciliation Australia.
The RAP is part of Council’s commitment to supporting an inclusive community and acts as a key guide to set the path for Council to enact the principles and purpose of reconciliation for the benefit of First Nations people within the community. This RAP will supersede Council’s last RAP which it submitted in 2018.
Another recent achievement has been the creation of Livvi’s Place – Goorimahbah Place of Stories, a playground and cultural space that celebrates the Bundjalung Nation through artwork and storytelling. Fingal Head playground was also recently updated to include homage to the deep cultural heritage of the area.
Council is currently working with Aboriginal groups to look at ways to preserve local cultural heritage and landscapes through projects such as the Hastings Point Headland Management Plan and the Norries Headland Masterplan. Council is also working closely with the Tweed Byron Local Aboriginal Land Council, to consider the impact of visitors to these areas and their impact on local species and sensitive coastal eco systems.
Other highlights have been Council’s support of the Tweed Goori Youth Holiday Program and the creation of Council’s award-winning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Town Planner Development Program which saw Council hire its first Aboriginal trainee town planner.
Find out more about what Council is doing towards reconciliation in the Tweed via our webpage. To see what is being done across Australia as part of National Reconciliation Week, visit Reconciliation Australia.
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