Cultural Competency Training a step towards cultural awareness

Published on 30 April 2021

On Wednesday 21 April, Indigo Shire Council hosted a Koorie Heritage Building Aboriginal Cultural Competency training session.

Delivered in collaboration with the Australian Museums and Galleries Association, the informative and engaging session was attended by 17 community museum volunteers and staff from across the North-East.

Educator Bernadette Atkinson from the Koorie Heritage Trust covered aspects of cultural awareness, advice for engaging and collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the types of steps that museums can take to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. 

Attendees praised the open conversation that touched on issues of language, memory and the role of museums in challenging inherited settler narratives and seeing them from First Nations perspectives and recommended the training session to anyone interested in helping increase cultural awareness and fight racism.

After the session, all of the attendees toured the Burke Museum and it was highlighted how the museum’s acknowledgement of country signage captured the kind of awareness and acknowledgement of past actions that the training sessions try to teach.

As a result, Cameron Auty, Projects and Strategy Manager, Cultural Heritage from Indigo Shire Council will be working with a number of the groups to develop their own signage over the coming weeks.

Indigo Shire is grateful to the Koorie Heritage Trust for helping guide this small but important to step in cultural awareness, and looks forward to seeing new signage up at other Indigo museums soon. 

Organisations interested in running similar sessions can get in touch with the Koorie Heritage Trust.