Leaving a mark: Yorta Yorta artist Troy Firebrace with his piece of art (right) and one by another Yorta Yorta artist, Tammy-Lee Atkinson, which will hang in the Greater Shepparton City Council offices to mark the council’s second Reconciliation Action Plan.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Two striking artworks by local Yorta Yorta artists have highlighted the launch of the Greater Shepparton City Council’s latest move toward reconciliation
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Council’s second reconciliation action plan — ‘Innovate July 2023 to July 2025’ — was launched at the council offices on Thursday, July 27, and aims to further “advance and develop collaborative relations with First Nations people and the broader community”.
It follows council’s first plan — Reflect— adopted in 2019, and the launch was opened with a Welcome to Country by Uncle Ruben Baksh.
Council’s director of community and chair of the RAP working group Louise Mitchell said the working group had spent two years speaking with more than 380 individual community members, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
“We’ve taken the time that’s required to have all the necessary conversations that we wanted to have and needed to have in community to get us to this point and we’re really proud of the work that we’ve done there,” she said.
Among the actions included in the RAP are having First Nations people close to council’s processes, raising employment goals for Indigenous community members, including in senior roles, and continuing to support important regional initiatives, such as the Munarra Centre for Regional Excellence.
Deputy Mayor Anthony Brophy said the RAP was not just a “tokenistic” or “tick a box” exercise.
“This genuinely is about committing to opportunity, opportunity that may not have presented itself without such an action plan,” he said.
“Council looks forward to building on this work and continuing to take positive steps towards reconciliation.”
Key role: City of Greater Shepparton Aboriginal engagement officer Biancia Cattanach-Firebrace at the launch of the RAP.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
The council’s Aboriginal engagement officer Biancia Cattanach-Firebrace said seeing the RAP implemented had a personal meaning for her.
“For me, a RAP is something that council has to be held accountable for and when it comes to community, I feel like that’s a big commitment to my community so seeing council go for their second RAP and being a part of that has just brought me a lot of joy and a lot of new connections to that,” she said.
Yorta Yorta artist Tammy-Lee Atkinson was unable to make the launch, but her work was unveiled during the event, along with a work by Yorta Yorta Dja Dja Wurrung man Troy Firebrace.
Mr Firebrace said it took him about two months of painstaking work to complete the painting, but he said that effort made him appreciate the dedication of his Elders, past and present, even more.
“So even though there is a lot of detail, the work kind of had meaning in itself, for me to really pay attention, to give it the respect needed, to give it the time that it needed, to not rush it to ensure that what I’m doing has that sense of purpose,” he said.
“So the detailed work in it kind of has its own meaning in itself as well.”
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