About Us

Our group arose from the experience of the 2023 Voice Referendum. We are a movement of people in the Shoalhaven, with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people walking together to support and advocate for greater respect, recognition and justice of First Nations Peoples in Australia.

The Shoalhaven Walking Together Alliance Inc is incorporated as a not-for-profit association under the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 (NSW). Walking Together in the Milton Ulladulla District is a part of the Alliance.

How?

We support the initiatives and priorities of First Nations Peoples and local Aboriginal communities and seek to build long-term relationships.  We recognise that the process of understanding and accepting the adverse impacts of colonisation on First Nations Peoples begins with non-Aboriginal members of the Alliance, and moves out into the broader community, with non-Aboriginal people learning and unlearning the lessons of colonisation in the process.

Why?

After the loss of the 2023 Voice Referendum, we are not walking away. Our group seeks to build understanding of, and support for, First Nations Peoples, so that the next time that substantive institutional change is on the table, it has a greater chance of succeeding.

Our Aims

1. To work towards achieving justice for all First Nations People in Australia by supporting the implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and its call for Voice, Treaty and Truth, and the provisions of the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
2. To support the initiatives that are led by local Aboriginal communities of the Shoalhaven and Jervis Bay Territory.
3. To promote a culture of anti-racism among the non-Aboriginal membership of the Association, and in the broader Shoalhaven community, by understanding and acknowledging racism, white privilege and white fragility in ourselves and in Australian society; and to promote an environment where racism is actively challenged and addressed.
4. To make our local communities in the Shoalhaven and Jervis Bay Territory more safe, loving and inclusive for First Nations Peoples.
5. To work towards an historical understanding and acceptance by non-Aboriginal people of the ongoing impact of colonisation on First Nations Peoples in the Shoalhaven and Jervis Bay Territory through First Nations led local truth-telling and education.