Welcome to our website. This site has been prepared by Perthweb, 333b Charles Street, North Perth for the Rotary District 9455’s Aboriginal Reference Group (ARG).
We hope you find the material informative especially if you are planning to engage with a Western Australian Aboriginal Community/ies to assist them.
We plan to up-date our website quarterly so you can fully appreciate the total range of projects that Rotary has undertaken in Western Australia.
If you have suggestions regarding how we can improve our website please contact us
Rosslyn Marshall
Chair of Rotary District 9455’s Aboriginal Reference Group
Reaching the Third Space
The aim is to “Engage with Aboriginal People in Western Australia (WA) through mutual friendship and trust”. This can be achieved by educating people, organisations and our nation about Aboriginal Culture, Identity, History and Issues, so that we understand the diverse impacts of each of these factors on the Aboriginal People belonging to many language groups (nations) in WA. It means investment of time to build trusting relationships and much respectful listening. Rotary’s Aboriginal Reference Group (ARG) not only fosters projects that help resolve symptoms but works to identify the basic underlying causes of the issue and devise projects that address and eliminate them. This extended collaboration we use the shorthand name “the third space”.
Projects
Aboriginal Community
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia is made up of many different and distinct groups, each with their own culture, customs, language and laws. They are the world’s oldest surviving culture. Maps are attempts to represent the language, social or nation groups. They show only the general locations of larger groupings of people which may include clans, dialects or individual languages in a group. Each is based on resources from the eighteenth century to their publishing date. They are not intended to be exact, nor the boundaries fixed. They show the general locations of larger groups of people which may include smaller groups. There are also variations in the way that some language or group names are spelt.
Wherever you are in Australia you are on the lands and waters of Australia’s First Peoples. Only traditional custodians can speak for and welcome visitors too their homelands. Though others can acknowledge their Nation.
Norman Tindale identified 131 Langauge Groups (or Nations) in Western Australia in 1940. Most continue to exist partially or in full today.
Resources for rotarians
The Aboriginal Reference Group (ARG) has identified many resources that Rotarians find both valuable and useful in understanding Aboriginal Culture, Identity, History and Issues, including how to engage with Aboriginal People. Most Rotarians want answers to the following questions
- What is the difference between a Welcome to Country and an Acknowledgement of Country?
- How do we establish collaborative relations and trust, to tailor our plans to an Aboriginal community?
- Is there printed information available to help us?
If you can’t find what you want please telephone, email, text or write to us