Reconciliation
Reconciliation
We recognise the history and value the knowledge, experience and contribution of the world’s oldest living continuous culture, and the unique relationships Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have with the lands and waters where we work, live and learn.
Our vision for reconciliation is for healthy communities, sustained by integrating Aboriginal knowledge, culture and rights into our long-term planning and everyday work practices.
We are taking action to enable our Aboriginal customers and communities to prosper, and ensure a culturally safe and respectful workplace for our people.
Our 2024-27 Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) outlines our commitments to reconciliation and how we will continue to embed practical actions throughout our organisation; provide our people with the ability to collaboratively achieve these actions; and leverage our position as a state-wide essential services provider to increase understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, knowledge and skills in the South Australian community.
This is our third Stretch RAP and sixth overall, and was developed with input from Kauwi Miyurna (our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander network group), key people from across SA Water including those with direct relationships with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customers, stakeholders and communities, and several similar organisations at various stages in their RAP journey. Our RAP aligns with our corporate strategy and Reconciliation Australia’s framework of relationships, respect and opportunities. Some examples of our current reconciliation-focused initiatives include:
"Connection through Culture"
This artwork for our new Reconciliation Action Plan has been developed from a piece of work designed by members of the Kauwi Miyurna group (Bree Ah Chee, Kenny Wright, Holly Aldenhoven and Nellie Hirschausen) for our custom TradeMutt shirt to represent our connections as human beings. The purpose of TradeMutt high visibility shirts is to capture attention and enable an opening for conversation.
It helps us understand the importance of mental health awareness, in both the workplace and beyond, and its influence on how we work and relate to each other.Specifically, the ochre-coloured circles with the ‘U’ symbols represent our expression of thoughts, feelings and experiences as we create lasting connections with each other by simply sitting down and having a yarn. It is an expression of how connection with other human beings provides a safe space for all types of conversation.
The blue circle in the middle represents SA Water, with the green circles amongst the flowing water representing the 22 remote communities we provide services for.Bolder lines represent the River Murray, a water source we reply upon to provide much of South Australia with safe, clean, drinking water, and within, you’ll notice the Murray Cod ‘Pondi.’ The Murray Cod holds great significance to Aboriginal people within South Australia, not only as a food source but as an important part in Ngurunderi culture, in a dreaming story of how the river and surrounding landscape was created.
The opportunity to further develop this design for the RAP has led to even further discussions on how this design can truly represent our people and our organisation of and we look forward to future collaboration to continue to evolve the design and encourage its use.
Our Aboriginal Connection Branding
We recognise and appreciate the connection that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have with the land and water. Our Aboriginal Connection Branding (ACB) is a way for us to visually demonstrate that appreciation and represents the Aboriginal peoples of South Australia.
Our Aboriginal Connection Branding guidelines uses the beautiful artworks created by Paul Herzich, a Kaurna landscape architect and visual artist, to demonstrate Aboriginal people’s connection to land and water. The individual artworks allow people to walk in the ancient footsteps of Aboriginal people from around the state, enabling them to learn, feel and visualise aspects of their culture, and in particular, waterholes. For Aboriginal people water is more than just a resource, it plays a significant role in their traditions and cultural practice. The sustainability of water sources means the continuation of cultural connection for generations to come.
The five circles represent Adelaide, Western Desert, Far West Coast and Eyre Peninsula, North East Corner and, Riverland and South East Corner and in the artist, Paul Herzich’s words, they depict the following:
Adelaide
Emu and Kangaroo visit a centuries old waterhole on Kaurna Country. Large stands of stringy bark trees form the eastern border of Kaurna Country while tufts of kangaroo grass grow westerly across the plains. The Ibis is a significant cultural icon of the Kaurna people that can be found around wet areas. Cultural icons from neighbouring groups radiate out from the flames of the seasonal fires that burn brightly on Kaurna Country to regenerate the landscape.
Western Desert
Bush tomatoes blossom and set fruit in abundance throughout the APY Lands and Western Desert region. Bush turkey tracks walk across the hot sand. Kangaroo and Emu come together at a desert waterhole to share fresh, cool and clean water.
Far West Coast/Eyre Peninsula
Known as the home of the whale and the shark, the wedge-tailed eagle circle above the tall coastal cliffs and over the native vegetation which shelters the sleepy lizard, while the wild dog makes its way to a deep rockhole in the seemingly flat landscape, which contains fresh, clean water for people and animals to drink.
North East Corner
Amongst the rippled sand dunes, a mound spring continuously bubbles water to the earth’s surface. Sturt’s desert pea spectacularly displays an iconic carpet of red blooms across the landscape, while poached egg daisy flowers glisten in the morning sun near the Queensland border.
Riverland/South East Corner
The pelican circles high above the River Murray, while the hawk flies low to warn the people. The waterholes and interconnected caverns of the south east travel for many miles below the earth’s surface. Wood engravings shine under the moon light and the Southern Cross constellation.
The fixed position when using all five waterholes is represented on the right. Each waterhole is geographically positioned in relation to the state of South Australia.
