Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) partnerships can make a profound difference in how well strategic initiatives achieve their aims. These partnerships allow organisations and businesses to collaborate with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to ensure their approaches are created on principles of listening, cultural respect, and relationships.

Working together with partner organisations and community representatives through RAP partnerships helps ground this work in community development and self-determination without the potential for key focuses and cultural needs to be overlooked due to strategies and plans being created in a silo.

Let’s take a look at the role of RAP partnerships in promoting Indigenous cultural literacy, how successful alliances work, and some of the priorities to consider when thinking about the ideal partnership or approach for your business or organisation.

What Are Reconciliation Action Plan Partnerships, and How Do They Work?

RAPs are strategies that set out actionable steps, activities, measurable targets, and ambitions that organisations and institutions commit to following in order to strengthen relationships and communications for Aboriginal people and communities. They may aim to support improvements in equality, the removal of embedded and institutional bias, recognition of the hardships and traumas colonisation created within First Nations communities, and movement toward parity and cultural respect.

Working in partnership makes sense, given these overarching aims. Designing a RAP in isolation and making assumptions about the work needed to achieve reconciliation often leads to incorrect presumptions. These programs usually fail to meet the needs or wishes of Indigenous people or prescribe corrective action that falls short of the mark.

The spirit of reconciliation is founded on inclusivity, celebrating diversity and difference, and creating a more accepting and respectful future. Partnerships work perfectly against this backdrop to ensure strategies are designed and deployed by and for the communities they are intended to support.

Sourcing Partnership Contributions When Developing a Reconciliation Action Plan

Of course, the practicalities of finding organisations, community groups, and Elders who are comfortable sharing their experiences and cultural beliefs may mean that some partnerships are created between organisations and non-profit groups, and others rely on direct dialogues. When we talk about partnership and reconciliation plans, this relationship must be equitable and beneficial for both sides. 

While the responsibility to consult, listen, and learn exists, it remains vital that organisations use culturally respectful processes when attempting to find partners to work alongside. The work, after all, is not for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to do, which means that organisations may need to foster goodwill and initial dialogues to develop relationships before a partnership becomes viable. 

How Are Partnership-Based Reconciliation Plans More Effective?

Reconciliation is all about collaboration, listening, respect, and relationships, and embedding partnership working into the heart of the process is undoubtedly a great way to demonstrate this depth of communication in action. Partnerships ensure that organisations and communities seek meaningful dialogues rather than creating RAPs that are perceived as beneficial but designed according to assumptions.

The Benefits of Partnerships and Consultation in Reconciliation Planning

RAPs developed in partnership with community groups or representatives of First Nations peoples can help to:

• Drive toward economic equity, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have the same access to resources, wealth, employment, and business opportunities as every other community
• Support self-determination, ensuring that Indigenous people are welcomed to contribute to and steer how they are consulted and respected, and play a vital part in designing RAPs that facilitate culturally safe, appropriate, and sensitive approaches or services
• Improve accountability, where senior leadership engages in real-world discussions and clarifies the work they intend to complete and the expected outcomes

RAP partnerships are relevant in all educational, community, and commercial settings but are also known to be beneficial across a wider scope of purposes. For example, The Benevolent Society, Australia’s oldest charity, published its newest RAP following a framework created to affect change through partnership. It has noted that this approach has helped the charity establish successful, genuine relationships with organisations representing and run by First Nations people.

While this is just one illustration, the benefits of partnership are well-known. Discussion and acknowledgement of the contributions that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities can bring to the table will help empower organisations to deliver RAPs that are fully cognisant of the aspects of equity, equality, integrity, unity, relations, and acceptance that matter most.