Our Journey Towards Reconciliation

In acknowledging that many wrongs have been committed against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Western Australia and of Australia since colonisation, Palmerston sought through our Innovate RAP (2017-2019) to stand firm in our intent to work in different ways to improve the health and social wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with whom we work. Our Stretch RAP (2021-2023) builds on and seeks to embed and extend the successes of our inaugural Innovate RAP. Through this Stretch RAP, Palmerston is seeking to:

  • improve our engagement and increase our partnerships
  • further develop respect through listening, learning, celebrating and honouring cultural protocols and authority
  • develop our leadership, people and in turn our organisational culture, through effective RAP governance, decision making, evaluation and accountability.

In doing so, Palmerston aims to improve our working relationships, and work in different ways to improve the health and social wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with whom we work. Palmerston’s Stretch RAP has been developed with extensive involvement of our stakeholders, in particular through the Elders of our Aboriginal communities.

Palmerston’s RAP vision is for equality and equity, so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people feel comfortable walking through Palmerston’s doors, knowing they will be treated equally, respectfully, in a safe and culturally secure way, and with genuine inclusiveness. At its heart, Reconciliation is about strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, for the benefit of all Australians. Reconciliation activities are aligned with, and embedded in, our strategic and operational planning, and in our day to day activities, demonstrating our core values of Compassion, Acceptance, Respect, Excellence Service.

Our RAP

In 2021 Palmerston embarked on a journey to further enhance Cultural Safety across the Organisation through Djinang (seeing), Kadadiny (understanding) and Wangkiny (talking) about how our governance, policies, procedures, workforce and service delivery was supporting cultural responsiveness as an organisation.

Think Culture were contracted to support Palmerston on our journey to identify current examples of good practice, and document opportunities for improvement.
The recorded panel discusses Palmerston’s learnings and how this has been embraced to improve our engagement and increase our partnerships through ongoing commitment of respect in truth telling, listening, learning, celebrating, and honoring cultural protocols and authority. It is through Karni (Truth) that we embrace Cultural Safety being central to our organisational culture if we are to be responsive to the needs of our Aboriginal staff and Clients.