Ngunnawal Aboriginal elders are preparing for a special ceremony when the Yass Valley’s first Reconciliation Action Plan is presented at the council’s meeting on February 27.
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The ceremony will include a welcome to country and clap sticks to mark the importance of the plan to the Aboriginal community, especially Ngunnawal people, whose land the Yass Valley is built on. The plan is also inclusive of Torres Strait Islanders.
It’s an excellent opportunity for council to form real partnerships with Aboriginal people in the community.
- Brad Bell
The plan outlines agreed initiatives to help the council strengthen its relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) and to ensure ATSI people are consulted on council projects and plans.
Ngunnawal people and members of the committees that helped to develop the RAP – Brad, Craig and Lillian Bell and Karen Denny – said they would be pleased to see the document endorsed and would have full confidence in its purpose once its initiatives were actioned.
“It’s an excellent opportunity for council to form real partnerships with Aboriginal people in the community. It’s also a good opportunity for the community to get back to its cultural heritage and for us to learn from one another,” Brad said, also voicing Craig, Lillian and Karen’s thoughts.
The RAP has been three years in the making and is a living document, which means it will be annually reviewed and updated by the council’s Aboriginal Consultative Committee.
Some of the initiatives are new, while others are existing. The RAP will, for example, encourage local Aboriginal people to apply for positions at the council and see a directory of Yass Valley Aboriginal contacts, services, events and artists made available on the council’s website.
Brad and Karen said they’d like to see a Ngunnawal engagement officer at council to ensure Aboriginal people were fairly represented.
The RAP will also initiate the restoration of three felled scarred trees at the Oak Hill Aboriginal Reserve, an area where many members of the Yass Valley’s Aboriginal community lived until the mid-1950s.
Dixie Byrne (nee Brown) was the last to live at Oak Hill and left with her family on November 6, 1970.
The scarred trees were cut down in 2004 by the developer of Discovery Drive, just below Oak Hill, who ran out of money before completing the final stage of the development’s subdivision and has since left the country.
At the time, Ngunnawal Elders Don and Ruth Bell negotiated with the developer to recover the scarred trees, which were then kept on the reserve, until the council bought the land and the Aboriginal community and council decided to create an interpretative display of them at Oak Hill.
I just wish they were here to see it.
- Brad Bell
The project will cost about $101,000 and the council recently received a $30,850 grant from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage for the project. Funding has also been contributed by the council, South East Local Land Services and TransGrid.
Last week, a peg was placed at Oak Hill by Brad, Lillian and Karen to mark where the display will be built.
The Onerwal Local Aboriginal Land Council is seeking assistance from local schools, the community, Landcare and catchment groups to clear the area of weeds in March to create a place where people can visit and learn.
There are also discussions to create a bush garden of native flowers and plants with healing properties and the Land Council has secured money from TAFE for its members to undertake a land management course.
The Land Council applied for Oak Hill to be returned to Aboriginal ownership through the Crown Land Negotiation Program in 2017. The application was deferred to 2019.
In the 2016 Census, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up two per cent of the Yass Valley population, lower than the NSW average of 2.5 per cent.
Those involved in developing the RAP have included: councillor Michael McManus, Bradley Bell, Denise Bell (nee Merritt), Ken Bell, Lillian Bell, Eric Bell, Pam Bell, Karen Denny, Alyssa Bell, Craig Bell, Cathy Campbell, Katrina Higgins and Laurie Hutchinson; members of the Yass Valley Aboriginal Consultative Committee; and Reconciliation Australia.
Brad acknowledged the work of Denise and Eric, who passed away in April 2017 and December 2015, respectively.
“They should be recognised for all of their hard work. They were both advocates and lobbyists for everything that’s happening now. I just wish they were here to see it,” he said.
