Reconciliation action plans in Australian organisations: A decade in review — Australian Historical Association annual conference hosted by The Australian National University

Reconciliation action plans in Australian organisations: A decade in review (83)

Charlotte Lloyd

The history of the Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) program since its founding in 2006 is short but remarkable. Despite uncertain funding, the program has managed not only to survive but expand to 655 organizations within its first decade, with its membership charted to surpass 1000 organizations in 2018. It attracts participation from an impressive range of organizations from large financial institutions to churches, from iconic cultural institutions to small community service providers, from rugby teams to retailers. It has touched the lives of roughly 3 million people, over 25% of workers in Australia, who are employed by a RAP organization. This paper poses two questions. First, where did this program come from? This paper undertakes the first attempt to document the origins of the RAP program in 2006 and trace its evolution over the first decade of its existence, drawing on numerous primary sources, including documents from the program’s history as well as original interviews with the program’s founders at Reconciliation Australia. Second, what does the RAP program suggest about the trajectory of more than 25 years of reconciliation in Australia? The paper contextualizes the RAP program within the history of reconciliation and Indigenous politics and comments on future directions.

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