East Gippsland, unlike many other places in Victoria, is fortunate to have a very vibrant and visible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community that provides a depth of cultural and community diversity that is significant in a Victorian context.

Local government has a responsibility to engage with and provide services to everyone in our community.  

Council has for many years been clear about its intent to better engage with and improve its relationships with community members. While the level of engagement has been slowly growing over the last few years, the opportunity to prepare a Reconciliation Action Plan has enabled Council to formalise a range of actions that set out our contribution to reconciliation.

The Reconciliation Action Plan has been endorsed by Reconciliation Australia  and this endorsement comes with a responsibility to report publicly on the achievement of actions on at least an annual basis and so we aim to ensure that Council’s achievements are promoted in a way that reveals the real impact of having a planned and strategic approach to building Relationships, Respect and Opportunities in East Gippsland.

The artwork titled “Over Time We Come Together” by local artist Cassie Leatham was selected through a competition where local Aboriginal artists were invited to enter a work that represented what Reconciliation means to them.

Cassie says “the artwork means acknowledging a multicultural community, building bridges, working together and understanding each other”.

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