Listening on Country: Cultural Capability Beyond the Script

There's a moment that happens sometimes in our work at Lyrebird Dreaming, and it always stops me in my tracks. It’s not when someone delivers a polished Acknowledgement of Country. Or when a strategy gets approved. It’s when a group of Australians sit down on Country in a circle and something shifts - from “we’re here to be seen doing the right thing” to “we’re here to listen, learn, and improve how we live and work”.

That’s what this photo captures. A clear winter sky. A wide open patch of grass. A circle of people from the NSW Reconstruction Authority, rugged up in camp chairs, leaning in. Not in a boardroom. Not behind laptops. On Country in Sydney, where the place itself does a lot of the teaching if you let it.

One of the things I value most about this work is that it’s not theatre. It’s a disciplined practice. It’s simple but not easy. It requires humility, psychological safety, and the willingness to sit with discomfort without rushing to fill the silence.

And it works. This is why I value working with the NSW Reconstruction Authority. There’s a seriousness inside the Authority about what cultural capability actually means. Not a tick-box. Not a “nice to have”. Not a glossy statement that sits beside business as usual. The Authority understands something important: if you are doing disaster preparedness, recovery, adaptation, and mitigation in New South Wales, you’re working in places where Aboriginal communities carry deep knowledge, deep authority - and too often, deep trauma from systems that have ignored them. So cultural capability isn’t optional. It’s part of the job.

In the Northern Rivers in particular, the Authority has shown leadership through its place-based approach. The Northern Rivers Connecting with Country Framework is an example of government doing something still too rare: starting with Country and community, not with internal assumptions. It's grounded. It's practical. It's not just about language - it's about behaviour. How we show up. Who we listen to. How we build trust. How we close the loop. How we avoid extraction.

Michelle Guthrie has been central to this shift. As a Gomilaroi and Wiradjuri woman and a leader within the Authority, Michelle helped lead the development of this Framework and has been deeply invested in doing it properly - with cultural integrity, practical accountability, and real community grounding. And that matters, because frameworks don’t implement themselves. Capability is built person by person, conversation by conversation, and relationship by relationship. It also depends on internal champions like Michelle - people who are prepared to hold the line when timelines tighten, when discomfort rises, or when the system tries to slip back into performative habits.

I was proud to work with Michelle to deliver this work alongside Dharug woman Lauren Moore, Gomilaroi man Maliyan Blair, and Gumbaynggirr woman Fiona Dann. Each of us brought strength through: cultural authority, lived experience, sharp insight, and a way of holding the room that invites people in while keeping the work accountable. When Lauren speaks about Country and protocols, people don't just “learn”, they recalibrate. When Maliyan shares perspectives as a young Aboriginal man, it brings forward what too many systems still struggle to make space for: truth, continuity, and the future that is already here. And when Fiona speaks, there is a grounded clarity that reminds everyone that cultural safety isn’t an abstract concept. It’s felt. It’s practical. It’s present in the room, or it's not.

This is the heart of cultural capability work: the shift from information to relationships. Once you understand that Country is not a backdrop - that it's living, it holds story and identity and responsibility - then the work changes. At the NSW Reconstruction Authority, disaster recovery is clearly more than infrastructure and assets. It's about people, cultural continuity, governance, healing, and the practical conditions that allow communities to recover in ways that make them stronger, not just “back to normal”.

And here's where I will quietly challenge any organisation - including those I care about. Inclusion isn’t an Acknowledgement of Country or Aboriginal people at the start of a meeting, followed by business as usual. Inclusion is the willingness to listen deeply, to be guided by cultural authority, to do the relational work, and to change behaviour when the feedback is hard to hear. It’s choosing circles over podiums. It’s making time for truth, not just timelines.

That’s why I keep coming back to days like this one. They’re simple, but they are not soft. They're a disciplined practice of respect. Lyrebird Dreaming exists to support that shift. The Reconstruction Authority, at its best, is helping lead it.

Participants from the NSW Reconstruction Authority join the Lyrebird Dreaming for a day on Country.