This week we are proud to announce that Reconciliation Australia has officially endorsed our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan or Innovate RAP for short.
What Does This Mean?
This means that we here at Orterra are ensuring that we continue to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We are strengthening our existing relationships, and creating new ones. Reconciliation Australia talks about the Innovate RAP below.
“An Innovate RAP outlines actions that work towards achieving your organisation’s unique vision for reconciliation. Commitments within this RAP allow your organisation to be aspirational and innovative in order to help your organisation gain a deeper understanding of its sphere of influence, and establish the best approach to advance reconciliation…”
How will we do This?
We are committed as a company to ensuring that all people are acknowledged, respected, and heard when we design spaces. Orterra is not just a company that wants to say the right things, we want to be doing something about it. We understand change is not about just having the policies, it is about living, breathing, and designing with them. It is about creating a safe place of understanding. Of accepting that we are limited in our understanding. It is about having open hearts and minds and creating a place of growth, respect, and change.
We have developed as a company in many ways since the implementation of our first Reflect RAP. We have grown in office space, team members, and creativity, and during the process of writing Innovate RAP we as a team have come together often to discuss creative ways we are going to make a difference. Some of our key commitments for this stage of Reconciliation are:
- Relationships with a focus on inclusivity. Establish and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders and organisations.
- Respect with a focus on learning and understanding. Increase respect and recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories, through our design practice.
- Opportunities with a focus on education. Increase supplier diversity to support improved economic and social outcomes, investigate local and forge connections with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander business networks.
We are proud of the work we have done so far and are excited to embark on the next chapter of our reconciliation journey. We can learn so much from First Nations and Torres Strait Islander People and are excited to be taking this next step.
If you would like to read our entire Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan you can find it here.
