Dear Friends,
As we begin 2025, we look ahead with excitement about the initiatives the Institute team has planned this year. Over the break and into January we have been taking time to reflect and draw inspiration from the thousands of First Nations women, girls and gender-diverse voices that have contributed to Wiyi Yani U Thangani, to inform the Institute's three-year Strategic Plan – which we are excited to share with you all soon
The Plan will set out our three pillars of work—our major priority areas—each area determining the projects we will be launching and working on. We look forward to releasing the Plan soon, but for now we can tell you, it's all about putting the necessary foundations in place to reweave the social fabric.
Central to this work will be our conceptual and practice approach to conflict transformation and peacebuilding. In an era where the globe faces deepening fractures and polarisation, and in the wake of the Voice referendum here in Australia, the need to heal division has perhaps never been more pressing.
While these terms might seem abstract, they speak to the heart of Australia's unfinished business of reconciliation. Our focus on peacebuilding will recognise the ongoing impacts of colonial conflict and the need for national healing to reconstruct our torn social and economic fabric. First Nations peoples have long carried the cultural knowledge and lived experience to navigate these challenges, intuitively understanding how to transform situations of conflict into processes of healing, unity, and social, cultural, ecological and economic reconstruction.
As we develop these initiatives, we begin by sharing a piece from our archives that remains deeply relevant. In this opinion piece, our Chair June Oscar AO reflects on what it truly means to unite as a nation, and the courage required to confront our past while building a shared future...
By June Oscar AO
Published by NITV, 25th January 2021 - access here
I want to celebrate being Australian and I want to celebrate our remarkable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander civilisation. But every year I brace myself for the 26th knowing that it is not the day we can do this.
In the months, weeks, days leading up to this January 26, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to belong to a place, a country and to the culture of a nation. I’ve thought about how a collective belonging can cause us to feel euphoric in our connection to place and one another. I’ve thought of how that feeling has the power to bring us closer together, to see beyond the tensions and fear of difference, and at its strongest can unite us in shared ideals and common purpose.
So, I ask myself, can January 26 ever be the day that Australians, all Australians, unite and rejoice in our sense of collective belonging?
I want to celebrate being Australian and I want to celebrate our remarkable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander civilisation. Because celebrating our living culture and heritage should, of course, be fundamental to Australian identity. But every year I brace myself for the 26th knowing that it is not the day we can do this.
It will always hold too much living pain and trauma for our peoples. It is historically tied to the structural inequalities and harms of the present and that is a truth that the 26th will never extinguish. But in the denial of this history that is so blatant on that day it makes the wounds worse.
Do I believe it is possible to find another day that reflects the spirit of Australia? Absolutely I do. We have all felt those moments, where there is a simultaneous rush of unity amongst millions of us. These are glimpses of what Australia could be—in 1967 when Australians stood up for us to be counted; when we finally achieved marriage equality and partied into the night; and those images from the past before I was born of Australians dancing in city streets at the end of the second world war. Most of all, I felt it, when Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic flame and won the race.
I want to feel that joy that Cathy sparked on a day that actually represents us all. And I believe now more than ever that symbols do matter in taking us on a journey where we can unite in truth without feeling threatened. Symbols can, and should, reflect the best of who we are and hold us true to our ideals. In the hardest of times, they can remind us not to give up, and to be who we want to become.
When we are honest with ourselves, whoever we are, do we truly believe that our Australian symbols—the day, the flag and the anthem—achieve this for us? I know there is much more to Australia, even in the promise of what Australia can become, than what is captured in our current emblems.
At this time in history, where the mounting global challenges we face—pandemics, climate change and poverty—pose such cataclysmic threats, the need to unite, within and across nations, is urgent. As COVID swept the globe it rapidly exposed the fragility of divided nations—where inequalities and injustices have taken root and grown within the deep fault lines of systemic racism and all forms of discrimination, pushing peoples and communities ever further apart. Australia may not have felt the full force of COVID, but it is far from immune to these entrenched underlying issues.
It seems cliched to say that when a large-scale crisis hits, it can be the catalyst to unite us. Still, over the last year we’ve all experienced the support of neighbours, the emergence of communities of care and how Black Lives Matter protesters—so many from such different walks of life—have reached out for each other, longing for the type of connection that can end the brutality that erupts from disunity.
It is not that our current turmoil is any kind of solution to injustice. It has brought unimaginable grief and in so many cases intensified political polarisation. It is why the world is calling out to heal old and open wounds and mend division. And sometimes it is only within crisis that we can see clearly the acts of compassion and inclusivity, grounded in our desire for tolerance, equality and justice that show us who we want to be, which hold the potential for change.
But it takes courage, hard work and commitment to grab and act on that potential, knowing it can set us on a better course. Australia has done this before in its post-war reconstruction, in helping to end South African Apartheid and often becoming one of the first signatories on global human rights treaties. In these moments ideals and symbols can be forged that truly reflect national spirit.
So today I ask that we rekindle that spirit of courage and leadership and consider why the date, the flag and anthem need to change as part of our journey of national healing and unity. Symbols alone won’t bring the changes we need, but they can be the vehicle to confront the injustices and inequalities, with their structural causes so knitted into the history represented by January 26.
When I think of the spirit of my fellow Australians, I know it is only a matter of time before we embark on an inclusive and respectful conversation about who we really are as a nation and the symbols we need to carry us into the future where we have the maturity to accept our history and truly live by the values we treasure.
One of the major outcomes that the Institute is working towards is to become a ‘model’ for First Nations gender just workplaces. As an Institute, we strive to embody First Nations gender justice principles in our workplace culture, employment conditions, and policies and practices. As we develop this approach, we hope to be able to support other individuals, groups and organisations to become safe, non-discriminatory, inclusive, creative and meaningful working environments which enhance wellbeing and drive change.
We know that whether you work directly with First Nations women, girls and gender-diverse people or have an entirely different focus, a gender justice approach can benefit all workplaces.
The way in which we are constructing this model at the Institute is by embedding into our work process, and embodying in our actions, our Ways of Working, MEL and systems change practices.
Over the coming year, through our newsletters, we want to give you an insight into how we are doing this and what we are learning as we go. We are excited to share with you what works and doesn’t, and how these processes and practices change the way we work and do things.
As we embark on constructing this model, we want you to come on a journey with us to learn and possibly even implement some of these processes and practices as we go. We want it to be an active learning journey, so your thoughts and feedback are welcome.
In this newsletter, we hope to form an open archive, where you can delve back in and find methods and ideas that work for you. So, where to begin …
In what feels like an ever more crises driven world, we have decided to push back against urgency and go a little slower. Our motto for the new year is ‘go slow, to go fast’. We are using a range of sense-making and reflecting practices to spend time together as a team to design projects that we plan to launch this year.
In doing this design work, we’ve spent time with our Ways of Working and are actively practicing them to ensure all team members contribute to what our future projects will look like.
Here’s a snapshot of our Ways of Working and a description of a ‘Deep Listening’ practice that we’ve been using in this first phase of design work.
The Ways of Working outlined in our Change Agenda are more than principles—they are living practices that guide how we foster connection, respect, and transformative action. These practices are grounded in the ancestral knowledge, cultural protocols, and lived experiences of First Nations women, girls, and gender-diverse peoples.
For reference, the Ways of Working include (Re)Learning, Lateral Love, Respect and Relationality, Embracing All Our Identities, Deep Listening, Self-Reflective and Aware, Intergenerational Action, Shaping and Keeping Balance and Sense-Making.
As part of our design phase for projects that aim to create meaningful change toward First Nations gender justice, we’ve been focusing on Deep Listening. A simple yet powerful exercise that we’ve embraced involves breaking into pairs to practice Deep Listening, followed by group reflections. Here’s how it works:
This practice not only helps us refine ideas but also strengthens respect, relationality, and trust within our team, it ensures all members have space to share their thoughts.
Niamh (Policy & Research Coordinator) says “The exercise was a great way to take a minute to breathe and JUST LISTEN (seems obvious right?), but sometimes it feels like such a hard thing to do! I’m always one for multitasking, quickly jotting down notes and trying to come up with the next thing to say, but this exercise stripped all that back to a place where we could feel present and connected to each other. Dare I say, it was almost like a meditation.”
Banok (Co-Lead, Impact and Engagement) shares that “sometimes a walk outside, deep breath work or internal reflections of gratitude can play a huge role in grounding you back into the practices of deep listening”.
There are many other fantastic resources about deep listening, a practice used by First Nations people for millennia. Our team recommends engaging with Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann’s work on Dadirri—Inner Deep Listening and Quite Still Awareness.
The Leah Armstrong Scholarship Foundation is currently offering tertiary education scholarships for First Nations women.
Value: Up to $20,000 per annum for three years Eligible
Fields of Study: Economics, Finance, Business, Community Governance
Applications close: 31st January, 2025
All About Women is the Sydney Opera House’s centerpiece talks festival about gender, justice, and equality. This distinguished event has established itself as a cornerstone of dialogue and discourse in the week of International Women's Day.
Dates: 8-9 March, 2025
Location: Sydney Opera House, Gadigal
Further information and registration: Sydney Opera House
The Women’s Climate Congress (WCC) invites women of Australia, in all our diversity, to come together with other women to explore how women are leading a national and international paradigm shift to promote more rapid action on climate change based on compassion, kindness, and care for all life on Earth.
Dates: 28-30 March 2025
Location: Castlemaine, Victoria
This program provides practical training for women from all backgrounds who want to drive change through political leadership. Participation is fully funded. The program prioritises creating a culturally safe and inclusive environment where First Nations women and women from diverse political, cultural and professional backgrounds can thrive, share their unique perspectives, and build their political know-how.
Contact: Pathways to Politics Program
Studying at The University of Sydney, this scholarship provides funding for research on the needs and/or experiences of First Nations people with psychosocial disability (mental illness) and the NDIS. It is part of a broader project that aims to address serious deficits in the operation of the NDIS for one of its largest participant groups: people with psychosocial disability. Working in partnership with the National Disability Insurance Agency, who run the NDIS, this broader project aims to develop new data on scheme outcomes, cost-effectiveness and participant experiences to develop an appropriate and implementable program to improve supports for this group. This Scholarship is funded by Australian Research Council (ARC).
For further information: Contact tahliarosev@fpdn.org.au or jennifer.smirth-merry@sydney.edu.au.
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