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Reconciliation

Reconciliation

The City of Melville is committed to reconciliation within our organisation and community. Our vision for reconciliation is a country that values the living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, embraces truthful reflection of the history and experiences of First Nations peoples, and is dedicated to equity, opportunity and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

An open hand outstretched with the palm holding a small blue shell.

Reconciliation Action Plan

Our current Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) 2025-2028 is an ambitious document that outlines actions for reconciliation across the organisation. This is an organisational document, which strives to embed reconciliation in ways of working for the whole City. Read more about the RAP framework, and what it means to have a Stretch RAP, at Reconciliation Australia’s website

Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan 2025 - 2028

The City worked exclusively with First Nations creatives in designing the RAP document. It features artwork commissioned from emerging artist Iesha Wyatt, design by Nani Creative and printing by Blak Line Industries. Find out more about Iesha Wyatt’s artwork Paving the Way  below

Iesha Wyatt

Paving the Way by Iesha Wyatt

In 2022, the City commissioned Artist Iesha Wyatt, a local resident,  to create an artwork for the Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan to acknowledge key Indigenous sites and to connect communities.

Iesha Wyatt is an emerging Yued Noongar artist working in both painting and digital mediums, with a background in fine art and graphic design.

Iesha started with a map, marking points of significance, roads and the river, but it was only when she removed the hard borders of the map that the piece came to life. She found that the work began to grow around the idea that the roads currently showing on our maps actually follow traditional paths, laid out for thousands of years. These paths not only connect important places but they pull together the past with the present and form a link that will continue long into the future.

The name of the artwork Paving The Way honours those who go ahead, making it easy for others to follow and references the tracks of the Wagyl as it forms the bends of the river. Most importantly, it explicitly acknowledges that bitumen and asphalt have been laid upon paths made by human feet.

Iesha often chooses to work with digital tools to make her art. She finds the nature of the technology, which allows her to constantly update and change her images, colours and layers, mimics the way maps are always changing and being brought into the present.  While a digital image can be constantly changed and manipulated, the evolutionary process that created it remains forever in the process recording data which documents every decision made. giving the work great depth and meaning.

Artwork: Paving The Way (2022) by Iesha Wyatt
 
Two female Aboriginal Elders preparing a Welcome to Country fire for a smoking ceremony on the beach by the river.

Sites of Aboriginal Cultural Significance

We are fortunate to have so many significant sites in our City which boast a rich history of Whadjuk/Noongar culture. These sites continue to have significance today, and it is the role of our organisation and community to ensure that these sites are appropriately recognised for their historical, cultural and contemporary value.

Sites of Aboriginal Cultural Significance in the City of Melville If you would like to know more about the process undertaken to identify these sites please contact us.

A man using a ruler to point at a colourful linen map with numbers marking places in the City of Melville.

Place Names Melville

A visionary, community-led model working closely with local Elders to identify, celebrate and revive Noongar place names across the City. Weaving together community-held knowledge and academic research, Place Names Melville uncovers and unpacks the original meanings of Noongar place names in the City of Melville, and harnesses contemporary art forms to celebrate Noongar language, heritage and culture.

Find out more

National Reconciliation Week

National Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

The week is recognised nationally from 27 May to 3 June and commemorates two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey – the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively. 

Join us to mark National Reconciliation Week in the City of Melville with a month of free events celebrating the history, culture, achievements and stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

See National Reconciliation Week 2025 events

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