Reconciliation Action Plan
We are committed to working towards reconciliation and we invite our communities across Greater Sydney to join us on this journey.
Greater Sydney Parklands staff in a cultural learning session at Western Sydney Parklands.
Our vision is to honour and respect the cultural heritage of the Traditional Custodians of the land through an enduring commitment to reconciliation.
We are committed to incorporating Aboriginal knowledge and land practices in our work. We recognise that not only do we need to protect this heritage but celebrate it and learn from generations of knowledge on sustainable land management practices.
As part of our reconciliation journey, we will continue to work and grow our relationships with Traditional Custodians, local Aboriginal land councils, each park’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and Aboriginal consultants and service providers to co-design elements, projects and programs in the parks. This gives a voice and presence to each park’s Aboriginal heritage and Custodians and shares this ancient culture with all our park communities.
Reconciliation action plan artwork
We engaged Spirit Group to create an artwork for our Reflect RAP that represented the purpose, values and connection to Country shared throughout our organisation.
This artwork represented our vision so well and has become so embedded in our organisation that we decided to continue to use if for our Innovate RAP.
As we care for parklands across Sydney's Saltwater and Freshwater Countries, we worked with Spirit on a unique collaborative approach to engage with Traditional Custodians and artists from each Country to create an artwork that represents the traditional stories of both Countries.
The centre of the artwork shows a large circular motif that references a meeting place. Surrounding the meeting place is a track pattern with smaller dots to show the movement of people and the pathways they create. Outside this track of movement, there are brown (land pigment) lines that trail into 5 other circular patterns. These patterns are references to each of the parklands Greater Sydney Parklands cares for.
The parks are visualised from a topographical top view and coloured with greens and ochres to show how the artists see their Country. On the outside of the parklands, there are reflections of the stars that spread across the water.
This is to show how the parks are all connected with their surrounding waters such as rivers, streams, waterholes and coastlines. The artists, as Freshwater and Saltwater people, share a common theme in how their stories of culture, identity and lands are reflected in what they see above and below.
Lead artist: Dennis Golding
Local artist: Dakota Campbell
Local artist: Jessica Tobin
Graphic Designer: Dave Madelly - Spirit Creative
Acknowledgement of Country
Greater Sydney Parklands acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters and sky upon which the parklands are located and pays respect to the Elders of these lands – past, present and emerging.
We recognise First Nations peoples’ unique cultural and spiritual relationships to place and their rich contribution to society. We acknowledge the rights and interests of First Nations peoples to be involved in the ongoing management of these traditional lands. We work in a respectful manner with Traditional Custodians, local Aboriginal land councils and the First Nations communities of Greater Sydney.
We support their custodianship of the natural and cultural heritage of parklands so that these are places where First Nations peoples feel socially, culturally and economically included.