We acknowledge Indigenous people as being the original carers of their lands, and we recognise and respect the importance of local customs and practices in preserving their communities and culture.
In the words of Reconciliation Australia, reconciliation is about “strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples for the benefit of all Australians”.
Through our programs, our training offerings and the initiatives we encourage across our business, we encourage all our people to reflect upon ways we can improve Indigenous engagement, foster employment and support Indigenous communities.
Increasing our focus on understanding the nations shared history by truth telling through cultural and historical awareness. And building strong, sustainable and respectful relationships with Indigenous communities and organisations is crucial to ‘closing the gap’ of the impacts of marginalisation of Indigenous peoples.
We believe we can make a meaningful contribution to Indigenous communities by creating long-term and sustainable employment, education and business opportunities.
Improving employment opportunities
We work intentionally with our clients to ensure we’re maximising opportunities for Indigenous participation and engagement on individual projects.
Through our Indigenous Employment team, established in 2015 to facilitate recruitment, employment and retention of Indigenous peoples throughout our business, we have seen over 800 Indigenous men and women join our business, over 50% of whom have now been with us for upwards of 18 months. The team also provide mentoring and support to our Indigenous employees and help them find training opportunities.
Achievements in sustainable procurement
Our holistic approach to engagement sees us leverage our membership of Supply Nation – a non-profit organisation that aims to grow the Indigenous business sector through the promotion of supplier diversity in Australia. We have been members of Supply Nation for over 10 years and have increased our procurement spend with Indigenous businesses year on year.
We were proud to be recognised for our work in sustainable procurement at the Supply Nation 2023 Supplier Diversity Awards, winning both the award for Corporate Member of the Year and the Dr Dean Jarrett Award recognising Outstanding Impact. Read more here.
Our Reconciliation Action Plan
Our commitment to Indigenous Participation and reconciliation is highlighted through our Reconciliation Action Plan, endorsed by Reconciliation Australia in September 2023.
Through our RAP we aim to create and support equitable outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. We are doing this by building strong relationships, respecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in all of our activities, and creating meaningful opportunities. Our actions are guided by the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to preserve and protect cultures and customs.
Indigenous Advisory Board (IAB)
We hold ourselves accountable to Indigenous knowledge systems through the expertise of the Indigenous Advisory Board (IAB), which is now in its twelfth year of operation. The IAB has 12 members and is independent to Ventia. Its core function is to monitor our overall Indigenous Participation Program and our RAP development and implementation, ensuring that we are on track to meet our commitments.
Each of our regions are represented by a Regional Indigenous Steering Committee (RISC). They are there to operationalise our participation programs on the ground and to support our projects with their engagement initiatives.
National Reconciliation Week
Each year, we proudly to participate in National Reconciliation week, and see it as an opportunity for us to show what reconciliation, and the broader conversation around engagement with Indigenous communities and individuals really means to us.
2023's National Reconciliation Week theme is Be a Voice for Generations. It urges all Australians to use our power and our words to create a better, more just Australia for all of us. 'Be a Voice for Generations', encourages all Australians to be a voice for reconciliation in tangible ways in our everyday lives – where we live, work and socialise. For the work of generations past, and the benefit of generations future, let’s create a more just, equitable and reconciled country for all.