ACHAA at Yarrawarra

Warning: Images of deceased persons may appear | See the Yuwaalaraay / Gamilaraay pronunciation guide here

DEG crew travelling through Grafton to the ACHAA gathering

DEG travels twice a year to meet with the other members of ACHAA NSW. DEG is a founding member of ACHAA which is the peak body for NSW Aboriginal-controlled cultural and knowledge centres like ours. In May 2023 an ACHAA gathering was held at Corindi Beach in Gumbaynggiirr Country. Our gathering was hosted by Yarrawarra Aboriginal Cultural Centre

whose Chairperson is the Treasurer of ACHAA. At the gathering we took the opportunity to learn about how our sister organisation operates and discovered that their establishment benefitted from the now-cancelled CDEP program, and more recently from a hard-won NSW Government infrastructure opportunity. Their centre was trully impressive - with large indoor gallery, accommodation and conference facilities and outdoor dance and yarning spaces. Knowledge holders took their guests on some really great walking tours on their beautiful Country, and we all benefitted from the chance to get together, catch up on each other's achievements and plan together ACHAA's future projects, advocacy and other member supports.

Since 2020, the building and centring of Aboriginal community capabilities and control in Yuwaya Ngarrali’s work has been a key enabler of all other areas as well as an area of significant achievement in itself. During the 2020-2023 period evaluated here important DEG-led efforts resulted in 32 outcomes relating to ACCO capability and control, with a further 51 outcomes associated with community-led emergency response and community troubleshooting. Walgett Elders and community voices have been prominent in national media stories on topics as varied the government’s response to COVID, food and water security, floodplain harvesting and homelessness. DEG and YN’s agenda-setting on food and water security in particular has led to Ministerial visits to Walgett and commitments to long-term solutions to safe drinking water that is having systemic impact. Within our team we have embedded important learning about how to recruit, develop and retain Aboriginal staff members that provide a model that could be shared. And we are developing an ACCO capability unit that could provide an innovative model enabling ACCOs to flourish and lead change in communities across NSW nationally, thereby contributing significant progress in Closing the Gap targets and self-determination.