Mayor's Message 7 July, 2023
Hello everyone,
This week is NAIDOC week, an annual celebration that recognises the history, culture, and achievements of First Nations peoples.
By actively participating in NAIDOC Week, we’re demonstrating our commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive community.
It allows us to acknowledge the valuable contributions of First Nations Australians to our local region, and through this recognition and celebration, we can build stronger relationships, deepen our understanding of our area’s culture and history, and work towards reconciliation with our community.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to attend any of our events, we have some still running, including the powerful LORE, screening next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the Yackandandah Public Hall.
LORE features captivating stories, images, and voices of Elders and artists through immersive projection and sound and is described as a powerful celebration of Aboriginal culture that is specific to our part of the world.
This week we also commenced community engagement around our Australia Day review, which is a key action of our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan.
It’s important to stress that this review is specifically about how Indigo Shire contributes to Australia Day functions and to the Australia Day awards process. We’ve appointed a community review committee to explore all options and to also consider the community feedback, which is currently underway via a short survey, which you can find on our new Engaged Indigo platform.
This new platform is where all our engagement opportunities can be found and it offers so many more ways for you to get involved and have input into Council decision making.
This includes forums, ideas boards, guestbooks, surveys, quick polls, mapping and opportunities to share your stories. At present, we’re inviting community members to share stories about what they love most about living here and how they see the future of the Shire.
In addition to our Australia Day review, we’re also seeking input into our Creative Indigo Strategy and the Draft Council Expense and Resources Policy. I encourage you to take a look and to register so that you can stay updated on any new engagement opportunities and continue to provide valuable input.
Take care and be safe
Regards
Sophie Price