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Fairfield Indigenous Flora Park, Christie Street, Prairiewood NSW

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Fairfield Indigenous Flora Park, Christie Street, Prairiewood NSW

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Fairfield Indigenous Flora Park, Christie Street, Prairiewood NSW

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Moon Shop, John Street, Cabramatta Fairfield, NSW

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Moon Festival, John Street, Cabramatta Fairfield, NSW

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Moon Festival, John Street, Cabramatta Fairfield, NSW

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Aboriginal Dance Performance at Cabramatta Moon Festival 2018

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Prairiewood Youth and Community Centre, Restwell Road, Prairiewood NSW

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Prairiewood Youth and Community Centre, Restwell Road, Prairiewood NSW

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Prairiewood Youth and Community Centre, Restwell Road, Prairiewood NSW

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During NAIDOC week in 2000, Fairfield City Council signed a Local Government Commitment with the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council. Council committed to developing partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities to meet their needs and promote reconciliation in the City. This RAP provides the foundations for our work with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

Before Covid, in 2019, Naidoc was held to share the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture through song, dance, didgeridoo, storytelling, weaving baskets, art and native planting.

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Cabramatta Community Centre, Cabramatta NSW

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Cabramatta Community Centre, Cabramatta NSW

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Cabramatta Community Centre, Cabramatta NSW

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Fairfield Local Aboriginal Access Group (FLAAG), convened by Cabramatta Community Centre and Woodville Community Services, offers cultural awareness training and workshops for members of the non-Aboriginal community and workers from agencies with Aboriginal clients.

FLAAG also supports agencies and workers to devise action plans aimed at developing more culturally appropriate services.

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Fairfield City Museum & Gallery, The Horsley Drive, Smithfield NSW

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Fairfield City Museum & Gallery, The Horsley Drive, Smithfield NSW

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Fairfield City Museum & Gallery, The Horsley Drive, Smithfield NSW

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The Fairfield City Museum and Gallery developed relationships with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and held a number of events and exhibitions showcasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, art and artefacts. In 2011, Council celebrated the artistic talents of Susan Grant, a local Aboriginal artist, who used the gallery as the sight of her first exhibition as an artist. Council proudly made local Elder and long-time Mount Pritchard resident the late Dr Aunty Mavis Robinson the 2013 Fairfield City Citizen of the Year for her contributions to the education and the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

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Bonnyrigg Town Centre Park, Elizabeth Dr, Edensor Park NSW

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Bonnyrigg Town Centre Park, Elizabeth Dr, Edensor Park NSW

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Bonnyrigg Town Centre Park, Elizabeth Dr, Edensor Park NSW

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Council undertook the ‘Bushtucker Trail’ project at the Bonnyrigg Town Centre Park in 2005. This included creating an Elders and Aboriginal community garden at the park, as well as giving the park the Aboriginal name, Dungabi Badu Wari (‘thick woods near water’). This was the first dual naming of a park in Fairfield City. The park continues to be a place of significance to the Elders of the Fairfield City community, who regularly visit the garden and have used it as a meeting place.

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In the 1990s, Council ran a series of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific events and training for families in the Bonnyrigg area. The suburb was a focus of Council for many years due to the numbers of Aboriginal families residing there. Aboriginal experts were engaged to teach children and families about their culture, including arts and dance, and a number of events were organised to showcase Aboriginal culture to the public, including: NAIDOC Week celebrations, Bonnyrigg ‘Bigg Rigg’ Festival, Youth Week and Children’s Week.

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Centrelink and Medicare, Barbara Street, Fairfield NSW

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Centrelink and Medicare, Barbara Street, Fairfield NSW

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Centrelink and Medicare, Barbara Street, Fairfield NSW

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Fairfield Council will work towards increasing the Aboriginal workforce to be consistent with the proportion of the general population.

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The Opportunity Choice Healing, Responsibility Empowerment Taskforce 2013 identifies the need for healing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to overcome inter-generational trauma and loss and improve social and cultural wellbeing. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have identified that community development and empowerment are imperative to this healing process. The process of reconciliation, however, is also the key to creating an environment in which healing and empowerment can be achieved.

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Bonnyrigg Early Learning Centre, Bonnyrigg Avenue, Bonnyrigg NSW

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Bonnyrigg Early Learning Centre, Bonnyrigg Avenue, Bonnyrigg NSW

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Bonnyrigg Early Learning Centre, Bonnyrigg Avenue, Bonnyrigg NSW

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Cultural awareness learning sessions with local schools focused on ensuring the next generation understands and embraces reconciliation. The Council’s Early Learning Centres have also been including activities and education about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. Council engaged an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander expert to deliver a cultural awareness staff training program, Ngroo (‘walking together’). The training was designed to equip staff to better engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families to ensure these families are comfortable in placing their children into preschool.

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Fairfield City Council, Avoca Road, Wakeley NSW

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Fairfield City Council, Avoca Road, Wakeley NSW

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Fairfield City Council, Avoca Road, Wakeley NSW

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Fairfield City Council endorsed a Statement of Commitment between Council and the Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council to; acknowledge the history that has occurred between Aboriginal people and European settlers in the area; make a commitment to advocate on behalf of Aboriginal community members to implement culturally appropriate service provision; and develop, promote and support Aboriginal involvement in local events and celebrations conducted by Council. The Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) articulates our vision for a future where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have equitable access, inclusion and opportunities; and where the diverse cultural backgrounds, experiences and needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are understood and valued. RAP sets purposeful targets to achieve over the coming years as we work toward embedding reconciliation into our business. Fairfield City Council signed a Local Government Commitment that both acknowledges and recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of Australia. Council has dedicated itself to developing a partnership approach with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to address local needs and celebrate their culture.

This Commitment acknowledges their loss and grief caused by alienation from traditional lands, loss of lives and freedom, and the forced removal of their children.

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Mount Pritchard was originally home to the Cabrogal people who occupied much of the greater Fairfield area. Land in this area was allocated for settlement by convicts who had been transported to Australia for their part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, one of whom was Joseph Holt. He was the first of many to establish farming which continued here until the 1960s when Mt. Pritchard was included for development as part of the Green Valley housing development project.

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Carramar, a nearby suburb in south-western Sydney, takes its name from an Aboriginal word meaning 'shade of trees'. Its name indicates the area was once covered in forest. In 2017, Council commissioned an Aboriginal Heritage Study, documenting the cultural heritage and history in the area. The study aimed to identify and record places and items of Aboriginal cultural significance and archaeological potential, explain why those places and items identified were significant and recommend ways of managing and conserving them. Based on carbon dating of collected evidence, it is believed that Aboriginal people are likely to have resided in Fairfield for many thousands of years (Fairfield Aboriginal Heritage Study 2017). A piece of wood found submerged in a layer of sediment along Prospect Creek at Carramar was identified as coming from a stone axe from around 1,700– 2,050 years ago (Richard Gillespie, Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong). The study developed a list of sites identified as having cultural significance.

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Canley Vale was once a woodland area and was originally part of the Male Orphan School Estate.
Aboriginal people from the Cabrogal tribe, a sub-group of the Gandangara tribe, have lived in the Fairfield area for over 30 000 years.

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The suburb Cabramatta and the creek that flows through it derive from the name of the local Aboriginal tribe, the Cabrogal. The Cabrogal Clan were known as the "wood clan".  The name was first recorded for the 100 acre grant to Irish political prisoners, one of whom was Joseph Hole, who were the first colonists to settle here by the creek. The Cabrogal clan takes its name from the ‘cobra grub’ a staple food for the clan, which can be found in local creeks and estuaries in the area.

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Fairfield City Council acknowledges the Cabrogal people as the traditional custodians of the Fair- field City local government area and pays its respects to its Elders both past and present. Deerubbin and Gandangara are the names of the Local Aboriginal Lands Council’s within the Fairfield City Council LGA.