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HESTA Early Childhood Education and Care award winner Rachael Sydir’s opening young minds to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.
Rachael brought her early childhood service Explore & Develop’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) to life as a resource for colleagues to understand, and feel confident to teach, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture.
In 2016 we recognised Rachael’s inspiring work with an Outstanding Young Graduate Award and a $10,000 development grant.
“Introducing the RAP has resulted in significant changes to the curriculum and professional development by our teams, as we wanted to move beyond tokenism and develop an approach that provided deeper meaning and learning,” Rachael said.
We want to keep going and continue developing the program — we’re not going to stop.
This year, Rachael plans to use her development grant to visit remote communities in Australia to learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, and share those learnings across Explore & Develop’s 24 services across NSW.
You'll be hearing more from us about how Rachael is taking the next steps towards reconciliation, but in the meantime, have a look at the work she's already doing with Explore & Develop!
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A story worth celebrating?
Health and community services is full of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, day in, day out, across Australia. That's why we came up with the HESTA Awards Program.