News | Gadens celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in NAIDOC Week

Reconciliation is about unity and respect between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenous Australians. The process of reconciliation is an ongoing journey and involves commitment and collaboration, and we believe that reconciliation is important to our people, clients, community and Australia’s future.

As a firm, our strategic focus is on working with individuals and key organisations to build relationships and assist in creating opportunities through education and employment.

Under this year’s NAIDOC Week theme ‘Let’s work together for a shared future‘ Gadens has participated in a number of activities that support participation in that shared future.

A number of our team members attended the 2019 NAIDOC Academic panel held at Bond University, inspired by a panel of speakers who discussed issues of reconciliation and recognition. A thought-provoking discussion was had on the Uluru Statement and truth-telling complemented with soulful music by Budjerah Slab. Though our connection with Bond University, in August, our partner Brad Marland will participate in the Yarning Up 2019 tour of the Torres Straights Islands with the aim to develop a deeper, more personal understanding of Indigenous culture.

We welcomed Noel Niddrie a Kamilaroi Darug man who is dedicated to improving the lives of First Australians to a morning tea this week. Noel is uniquely qualified as one of Australia’s leading Indigenous communications practitioners with almost two decades of experience as an Indigenous communications specialist.

Noel observed that over the 65,000 years of Indigenous occupation of this country, there will be no place in Australia that hasn’t been touched at some time by the foot of an earlier occupant. He challenged us all to take a few moments sometime this week to stop, pause and reflect, as we stand in our garden, or a park, or on the street, and think about someone who may have been there previously and the life they led before the first contact with white settlers.

Neville Jetta is a Melbourne Demons AFL Club player who is passionate about giving back to the community, Neville joined us for afternoon tea, leaving the team inspired by ideas of how we can participate in conversations that drive positive change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Taking us on his journey from Bunbury WA to key defender in the Melbourne Football Club’s backline, leveraging his sense of equality on the football field, Neville spoke candidly of the challenges faced by Aboriginal Australians, and left us all inspired with ideas on how we can use our voices to participate in conversations that support the process of reconciliation.

Work Shadow High School Students, Erica Accoom and Jean Fenwick visited the Queensland Law Society with their mentors Blake Morrow and Kathryn Dorante. The purpose of the visit was to meet with the Reconciliation Action Plan Coordinator at the Queensland Law Society, Josh Apanui, to discuss how the Queensland Law Society and Gadens can work together on the ongoing process of reconciliation.

Later in the month, the team looks forward to the end of winter internship presentations, where Judge Jarro will join us as a guest speaker. Judge Jarro is one of only two Indigenous judges currently presiding over an Australian courtroom.

The team are also attending a family fun day on Friday 12 July at Musgrave Park. The day will showcase aspects of Indigenous Australian culture and heritage across various mediums of performing arts, traditional foods, arts and crafts, to contemporary aspects promoted by Australian Indigenous Entrepreneurs www.musgraveparkffd.com.  

In the weeks leading into NAIDOC Week, Gadens in Brisbane launched its Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan, which was endorsed by Reconciliation Australia on 3 June 2019. Gadens has been a longstanding supporter of the ongoing process of reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and Gadens has now formally implemented that support with endorsement by Reconciliation Australia of a Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan.

The keynote speaker at the launch was Sammy Leone. Gadens provided a contribution to Sammy to assist with the fantastic work that Sammy and his team at The Boss Boxing are doing with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in the north of Brisbane.

Key relationships

While NAIDOC Week is an opportunity to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Gadens has a number of initiatives that work towards reconciliation throughout the year:

Career Trackers

The CareerTrackers Indigenous Internship Program is a national non-profit with the goal of creating pathways and support systems for Indigenous young adults to attend and graduate from university with high marks, industry experience and bright futures.

Gadens has been maintaining its Indigenous internship program for nearly 10 years and became one of the first signatories to the CareerTrackers 10×10 program, which commits signatories to a 10-year partnership with CareerTrackers, and creates internship opportunities for Indigenous students and graduates across the private sector. Since supporting CareerTrackers 24 interns have completed rotations at Gadens.

As part of our NAIDOC Week celebrations, we were joined by these alumni and our current interns for a networking event. In addition, Kathryn Dorante and Blake Morrow mentored high school students during NAIDOC Week as part of the CareerTrackers Shadowing Mentor Experience.

Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH)

Gadens formed a partnership with the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health. IUIH leads the planning, development and delivery of comprehensive primary health care services to the Indigenous population of South East Queensland. IUIH operates the high successfully Deadly Choices program, which empowers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to make healthy choices for themselves and their families.

Former Origin Greats Partnership (FOGS)

Gadens is the Official Legal Partner of FOGS supporting both Indigenous law interns and local Indigenous artists by working closely with the ARTIE Academy run by FOGS. The Academy assists to ‘close the gap’ in educational outcomes between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their non-Indigenous peers.

Gadens Art Challenge

During the ‘Gadens Art Challenge’ held in partnership with the Museum of Brisbane the Museum recording the most donations ever received from a fundraising campaign. In addition, Gadens has matched dollar-for-dollar all appeal donations up to the total value of $20,000. As a result, the Museum purchasing artwork by leading Indigenous artist Judy Watson’s (Water Dragon 2011), which beautifully maps the Brisbane River flooding and explores its impact on the contemporary city, but also the memory of water and its connection to Country.

Many Rivers Microfinance

Gadens partners with Many Rivers, a not-for-profit organisation that facilitates micro-enterprise development for marginalised and disadvantaged people, and who concentrates on remote, regional and rural areas and 25% of their current client base are Indigenous.

Many Rivers has supported 1656 new or expanding businesses to September 2018, including 314 new businesses in the 18 financial year, and 54% of businesses supported to date are currently operational. The survival rate of Many Rivers supported businesses is identical or higher than to the national average for small businesses.

First Nations Media Australia

Gadens has partnered with First Nations Media Australia (previously called IRCA) – the peak body for First Nations not-for-profit broadcasting, media and communications. We are proud of the support we have provided to them as they protect and celebrate Indigenous stories, languages and voices.

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News | Gadens puts action into reconciliation