Our new Reconciliation Action Plan
30 May 2024
Yesterday Peter Mac's second Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) was launched at a special event celebrating National Reconciliation Week.
The new plan, which you can read here, sets out strategies and actions for 2024-2026. Building on the first RAP, it will guide us in improving cancer care and experiences for all First Nations people who come to Peter Mac.
New actions outlined in the plan include:
- Opening a new space at the Parkville campus where First Nations patients, families and staff can meet and express culture
- Deepening relationships with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations to help us reach and care for more First Nations people
- Developing new research ethics standards to improve our researchers’ awareness of cultural appropriateness and knowledge development
- Implementing the First Nations Employment Strategy and making sure First Nations staff feel safe, welcome, and empowered to succeed in their work
Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officer Andrea Casey hosted the launch and Chief Executive Professor Jason Payne shared achievements resulting from the first RAP and outlined plans to move forward.
To formally launch the RAP, Professor Payne joined Andrea and Uncle James Williams, Co-Chair of Peter Mac’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee.
Guest speaker Professor Jacinta Elston, a well-known public health advocate and First Nations woman from Townville, shared her own experience of cancer, and the First Nations focus in the Australian Cancer Plan.
In delivering a stirring Welcome to Country, Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Colin Hunter Jnr thanked Peter Mac for providing excellent, compassionate cancer care to the community.
Designer of Peter Mac’s popular possum skin cloak artwork Marcus Lee explained the meaning of his work, which represents the care and healing Peter Mac provides as well as the five language groups of the Kulin Nation.