Our Reconciliation Journey

In 2022 we started our reconciliation journey using the resources provided by Narragunnawalli: Reconciliation Australia / Reconciliation in Education. As a team we reviewed our reconciliation values, created a reconciliation vision, and built a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). The Sandgate Kids RAP was published in August 2023, the RAP is an evolving document, containing small achievable deliverables that move us forward each day to achieve our reconciliation vision.

Using the Spice and Weave Cards method– Conversations for Cultural Shift, the team identified the following elements as important for reconciliation at Sandgate Kids:

Learning – Putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes, looking at other perspectives, how we commit to and enact ongoing learning, and reflecting on what a cultural shift would look at each service.
Communication – Sharing stories and experiences through relationship, building trust. Reflecting on how we communicate, with images, symbols, words, ensuring all voices are heard.
Community – Acknowledging and engaging authentically with diverse people, places, and perspectives.

Family – Understanding the connection of kinship and family to enhance our practices, what can make Sandgate Kids feel like home for first nations people.
Connection – All living things are connected, enhancing our program with connection to nature and to each other to enhance learning.
Strengths – Acknowledging the strengths of individuals, and our community to strengthen our service offering.
Water – We are surrounded by water, the ocean, and freshwater lagoons. We continue to respect the role First Nations people took to care for our river systems, by instilling sustainable practices and caring for our environment.

Sandgate Kids Reconciliation Vision

Sandgate Kids Early Education reconciliation vision is to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into the early education curriculum, ensuring it is a living embodiment of our everyday actions as educators, committee members, parents, and carers. This will be done through connection to community, ongoing personal and professional learning, family and kinship, connection to all living things through sustainability, strengthening programming through reflection, connecting to the ocean, and a continued respect and acknowledgement of Sandgate’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history.

Residing in Meeanjin, on Turrabal Lands, it is our vision to respect the connection to the ocean, sea life, wildlife, native trees, and freshwater lagoons.

Sandgate Kids Early Education acknowledge and respect the past, present, and future perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their cultures. We are committed to reconciliation, and a society that embraces quality, dignity, and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It is at the forefront of our actions and will always be taken into consideration.

Acknowledgement of Country

We remain inclusive and agile in our approach to our Acknowledgement to Country. We have created an Acknowledgement to Country for the Association, and for each service, based on the location of the service, children, families, and staff, ensuring meaning, purpose, and individuality. The service Acknowledgement to Country are on display in each service.

Acknowledgement of Country – Sandgate Kids Association

We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and pay respect to the past, present, and future traditional custodians and Elders of the nation, in particular the Turrbal people, as the first Nations owners of the Land where we now stand.

We recognise the important role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people play within the Sandgate Kids community and we wish to understand how reconciliation can become a part of all we do. We recognise Aboriginal and Torress Strait Islander people’s continuation of cultural, spiritual, and educational practices and their connection to country.