Cricket ACT is proud to share its first Reconciliation Action Plan
Our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), endorsed by Reconciliation Australia, demonstrates our commitment to reconciliation and ensuring that as a sporting organisation, we do all we can to learn, create awareness, promote and embed First Nations culture in all we do within our cricket community.
We are proud to join the RAP program and set out our path to advocate for and deliver better outcomes for First Nations peoples and communities within our broad and diverse cricket community. We are committed to driving sustainable change and creating a better future for First Nations players, officials, administrators, volunteers, staff and their families.
This Reflect RAP is the beginning of our reconciliation journey. Through implementing our RAP and actioning the deliverables within it, Cricket ACT (CACT) is working to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Cricket is an international game and is represented by numerous countries and cultures across the globe. It is important that First Nations culture is represented in all we do at CACT.
We celebrate the participation of First Nations peoples, families and communities in our cricket community and recognise their individual, and collective shared connection and history with cricket.
Together with our Clubs we are committed and ready to build more and deeper relationships, to listen and learn from First Nations people about how we better advocate for equitable outcomes, and positive futures for all First Nations communities.
To assist us in our work, we have established an Aboriginal Advisory Committee (AAC). We thank the members of this Committee in advance for the wisdom and knowledge they will share to ensure we deliver our RAP with meaning and impact. This leadership and advisory group will facilitate a partnership between Aboriginal people and communities, and CACT, aimed at enhancing the involvement of First Nations peoples at all levels in our much-loved sport of cricket.
The role of the CACT AAC is to:
- Provide leadership and advice to CACT to inform strategic decision making in line with National Strategic plans including the National Indigenous Cricket Strategy & Australian cricket’s Reconciliation Action Plan.
- View and provide feedback on progress against the CACT strategic plan and initiatives.
- Provide cultural guidance to CACT especially within the reconciliation agenda and in line with our Reconciliation Action Plan.
We are also in the process of establishing a RAP Working Group who will support effective and efficient implementation of our Reflect RAP deliverables.
We encourage our community to take a moment to read our Reflect RAP and walk with us on this important journey.
Our artwork and artist
Our beautiful artwork was created by Wiradjuri woman and Aboriginal artist, Kalara Gilbert. Kalara lives on Ngunnawal country and is a painter, woodworker and pencil artist. Her colourful paintings pay homage to Country; the majority of her art is based on the surrounding landscapes as well as the plants and animals that live there. Kalara has a real passion for painting birds and Gang-gangs are one of her favourites, hence her artistic talent was perfect for our First Nations artwork.
While our artwork was originally created with our ACT Meteors at the fore, each element in Kalara's beautiful design tells the story of our cricket community. Our ACT Meteors proudly wear their First Nations strip when playing at home on Ngunnawal country. To learn more about our artwork view page 4 of our Reflect RAP. More of Kalara's artwork can be viewed on her Instagram account Kalara Gilbert Arts.