Reconciliation Action Plan 2023-2025

As the Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Champion for the Western Australian Museum, it is both a pleasure and honour to provide a Foreword to our second Innovate RAP.

Since the publication of our first Innovate RAP, the world has had to deal with the global pandemic and its impact on people and communities; the mental, physical, social and economic scars will remain for many years to come. Disruption caused by COVID-19 affected the delivery of our previous Innovate RAP targets, and that is why we decided to re-visit this process before proceeding to the Stretch level. 

That is not to say that we have not been active over the intervening period – far from it! In November 2020, we opened the much anticipated WA Museum Boola Bardip in Perth. Boola Bardip means many stories’ in Nyoongar, and we believe the new museum sets the standards for community engagement, cultural sensitivity, and story-sharing in museums. Some 54,000 people were involved in providing their stories, viewpoints and opinions, including many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers, recruited from their own communities ensured the integrity of bilateral relationships and provided both cultural safety and respectful facilitation. 

Key to the development of Boola Bardip is a principle that now permeates through every part of our organisation: that we will not speak for people who will speak for themselves. This has meant that in both Boola Bardip and the other sites that we manage, there are some tough stories and some pretty tough language: we do not apologise for this, because it is part of the truth-telling and reconciliation process that we must navigate carefully, but to which we are absolutely committed. Boola Bardip may be a flagship, but it is the mere tip of the iceberg that is WA Museum’s influence, impact and reach. Each one of our regional and metropolitan museums has played its own part in ensuring that we deliver on our commitments, right across WA. That commitment includes the marking of significant anniversaries, such as National Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week. The innovative Emerging Curators program has also continued successfully, providing learning experiences for Aboriginal trainees from across the State.

A new strategic plan and a new mission sees a continued focus on our RAP as the way in which to deliver meaningful outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and the way in which we challenge our organisation to maintain focus, and to step up to the next level. The Western Australian Museum needs to be a place where all people feel culturally safe: to misquote, we might say that it not always was such a place, but in the future, we are determined that it always will be.

 

Alec Coles OBE

Chief Executive Officer
Western Australian Museum

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Reconciliation Action Plan 2023-202523.74 MB