Ashwood Childrens Centre

The community of Ashwood Children’s Centre is committed to our journey towards reconciliation and demonstrating authentic and respectful implementation of First Nations peoples’ perspectives in early childhood education and care.  We acknowledge that First Nations peoples are connected to the oldest surviving cultures in existence, that this connection has never been broken, and that they are the Traditional Custodians of Lands across Australia.

As educators, it is our responsibility and privilege to embrace opportunities for all children to learn about the histories, perspectives and practices that respectfully reflect First Nations’ cultures, languages and perspectives, both past and present.  We are also compelled to ensure that inclusivity and respect for diversity are apparent in all decision making that occurs with our Centre community.  We aim to promote this through creating awareness of bias and stereotypes in both formal and informal situations; role modelling and promoting language for children to use to describe and understand situations of bias, racism and prejudice; and, actively work to support children and adults with the language and tools to respond appropriately to such situations.

We acknowledge that as a community we are all at different stages of developing our knowledge, awareness and understanding of First Nations’ histories, cultures and contributions.  Yet we will walk this journey together as we grow and develop a strong, resilient community, advocating for reconciliation and recognition of First Nations’ peoples, and supporting positive and sustainable changes in attitudes and practices employed within our Centre community.

We commit to this vision for reconciliation through the continued development, reflection and implementation of our Reconciliation Action Plan, which works to adopt practical strategies to reduce tokenism or offensiveness, and aims to embrace authenticity, equity and respectfulness through our daily practices.