Clarence City Council is developing its first Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in partnership with Reconciliation Australia, Reconciliation Tasmania, and members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Community.  

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have experienced a long history of exclusion from Australian mainstream culture with settlement and dispossession underpinning the inequalities still experienced today.  

The Reconciliation Action Plan is our commitment to a meaningful relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples that is founded on respect for culture, spirituality, identity, knowledge, and beliefs.  

The development of council’s first Reflect RAP provides a strategic framework and mechanism for meaningful action, to begin addressing these uncomfortable truths, through listening, truth-telling, learning, healing, and by embedding pragmatic deliverables into our work which privileges First Nations stories and culture, and provides a platform for First Nations’ led projects. 

Since beginning the project in 2021, we have worked with members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Community on several important cultural heritage projects to highlight Tasmanian Aboriginal culture here in Clarence.  

Some of the initiatives that have come out of these discussions are:   

By partnering with Reconciliation Australia, Clarence City Council joins a network of more than 1,100 corporate, government, and not-for-profit organisations that have made a formal commitment to reconciliation through the RAP program.   

There are four RAP types — Reflect, Innovate, Stretch and Elevate — which allow RAP partners to continuously develop and strengthen reconciliation commitments in new ways. This Reflect RAP will lay the foundations, priming the workplace for future RAPs and reconciliation initiatives.   

The development of council’s RAP is driven by its RAP Working Group, which is made up of a combination of Elected Members, the Chief Executive Officer, and council officers from Children’s Services, Environment and Recreation, Community and Culture teams; as well as representation from the local community and Reconciliation Tasmania.  

The final published RAP is anticipated to be completed in early 2025.  

How can you get involved?  

There are two ways you could get involved with the development of the plan. You could be part of a conversation to share your thoughts and ideas on what council can do. To do this please use the contact details below.   

You could join the RAP Working Group to provide advice and support as we develop the plan.  

If you would like to schedule a conversation, learn more about the working group or express your interest in joining, please contact Jane Menzies on 03 6217 9773 or email jmenzies@ccc.tas.gov.au 

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