Others Magazine

Relationships are key to reconciliation, says Lucy Davis.

In 2015, The Salvation Army made a bold move to join the journey of reconciliation and develop a Reconciliation Action Plan, also known as a RAP.

A RAP is a formal statement of commitment to reconciliation. The hope is that organisations will journey through the four stages of the reconciliation framework: reflect, innovate, stretch and elevate.

We have completed the first stage – ‘Reflect’ – which involved building cultural capability throughout The Salvation Army. A key learning was recognising that First Nations people sometimes had a fear of faith-based organisations due to past failed government practices.

Another key step was demonstrating respect through developing our understanding and deepening our relationships, achieved by acknowledging and celebrating NAIDOC and National Reconciliation weeks. Salvation Army Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministries have developed resources, materials and activities that can be accessed through mysalvos.org.au/toolkit for all corps and social programs to use during these weeks.

As the ‘Reflect’ stage of the RAP comes to an end, a new journey now begins – the ‘Innovate’ stage – developing and piloting creative strategies to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Embedding ‘cultural competency’ into the Army included officer training cadets experiencing a week of cultural activities towards whitefellas when our stories have been silenced? That day changed me forever. The Holy Spirit has given me the greatest gift of all and that is to start again, and the beginning for all of us is ‘truth telling’.