The intent was to enhance the sin­cer­i­ty of our mes­sage. In the spir­it of ​‘truth telling’ we want­ed to acknowl­edge the injus­tice and sad­ness that has gone before. We also want­ed to recog­nise the resilience of Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ple and their endur­ing and time­less con­nec­tion to Coun­try. And we want­ed to fin­ish in a place of hope for the future, with a strong com­mit­ment to work­ing in true partnership.

Dal­las’ gen­tle wis­dom and guid­ance was invalu­able through­out the process, pro­vid­ing yet fur­ther demon­stra­tion of the mean­ing­ful con­tri­bu­tion she is mak­ing right across the organ­i­sa­tion. Chal­leng­ing us and encour­ag­ing us in equal mea­sure is Dal­las’ unique gift.

Pre­sent­ing here our new Acknowl­edge­ment of Country: 

“CRANAplus acknowl­edges the Tra­di­tion­al Own­ers and Cus­to­di­ans of the land, waters and sky where we meet today, and respects their endur­ing spir­i­tu­al con­nec­tion to Coun­try. We acknowl­edge the sor­row of the past and our hope and belief that we can move to a place of equi­ty, part­ner­ship, and jus­tice togeth­er. We acknowl­edge Elders past, present and emerg­ing, and pay our respects to the cul­tur­al author­i­ty of First Peo­ples in atten­dance today.”

We hope that it encour­ages all who read and hear it to reflect with grat­i­tude and authen­tic­i­ty on the lands they are on, and the gen­eros­i­ty of the tra­di­tion­al own­ers and cus­to­di­ans in shar­ing it.

The process gave us pause to reflect on what we real­ly want­ed to say and what we believe is impor­tant for oth­ers to hear. We are proud of the final state­ment we set­tled on, but equal­ly impor­tant was the jour­ney to get there.

When was the last time your organ­i­sa­tion reviewed its Acknowl­edg­ment of Country?

Amelia Druhan
Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer, CRANAplus