Speak Out June 2021

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee

Reconciliation news

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee has continued to meet electronically in the first half of 2021 to discuss matters of importance to the Association and the profession. The committee has provided feedback on the draft of the Innovate RAP, cultural responsiveness training for members, and proposed changes which will further embed the voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within the governance of the Association. Some changes to the membership of the Committee have taken place: • Tirritpa Ritchie, Kaurna man, IAHA representative and member of the Committee since its inception, has stepped down in order to concentrate on other commitments. • Corrine Butler, senior project officer at IAHA has joined the Committee. Corrine is an occupational therapist with strong family connections to Yarrabah, North Queensland. She is also a member of the steering committee for the project working towards implementation of the Professional Standards for Universities. • Lara Pullen has been appointed as a consumer member of the committee and brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience. She sees truth telling and healing work as part of her cultural obligation and connection. Lara is a Gundungurra woman, a mother, aunty and nana with lived experience of speech pathology at personal, family and community levels. RAP We would like to thank all those who provided feedback on the draft version of the Innovate RAP which was circulated in 2020. All feedback was carefully considered, and where appropriate, incorporated in the draft plan. Reconciliation Australia provides a template for each level of plan and requires that the actions and deliverables from the template are included, unchanged, within all plans. This meant that some wording within the plan could not be changed. A number of people queried the use of the term racism in the draft plan, asking whether this was the appropriate term to use. The actions and deliverables which use this wording are included in the template, and thus a requirement. The Reconciliation Australia vision for reconciliation is based

around five dimensions, one of which is race relations. You can read more about the Reconciliation Australia vision here. We have received our first round of feedback from Reconciliation Australia, indicating that we had included too many unique actions and deliverables (those not taken from the template). As a result, we have looked carefully at our original goals, and removed those which were deemed less important or more suited for the next level of RAP. The revised draft is now with Reconciliation Australia. Membership of the Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group has been expanded in 2020. Three new members have joined the Group. They are: • Mark Smith (SPA Manager Policy and Advocacy) • Yolande Burdekin (Branch Chair, NT) • Kathryn Fordyce (Branch Chair, Tasmania) The decision to include two Branch Chairs is seen as important in engaging the Branches in the reconciliation process. The terms of reference now specify that the working group will appoint two Branch Chairs, with representation rotating each year. Farewell Pauline Pauline Weldon-Bowen has left Speech Pathology Australia to take up a position with Aboriginal Affairs in NSW. Pauline filled the position of RAP implementation Officer from May 2020 until March 2021, providing her perspective as a Wiradjuri Bidjigal woman to conversations across the Association. She was a valued member of the Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee. She was instrumental in the development of a number of resources to inform the Association’s reconciliation goals. We thank her for her input and wish her every success in her new position. Cori Williams Senior Advisor Evidence Based Practice and Research

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Speak Out | June 2021