What Building Aboriginal Relationships Really Looks Like
- Gregory Andrews
- Feb 5
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 5
Everything every now and again something we do at Lyrebird Dreaming really stands out. Not just for what we learned or contributed, but for the lives and Country that are genuinely improved. Last year, one of those highlights was collaborating with the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure to develop and publish the Caring for Country Aboriginal Relationships Framework and Toolkit.
Over almost a year, we facilitated more than 40 yarning sessions with Traditional Custodians from Darug, Dharawal and Gundungurra Country and other Aboriginal peoples with connections across the Cumberland Plain. At every stage - from early thinking to testing, reflecting and revising - the work was shaped by deep listening, cultural insight and shared understanding.
We built something that enables more effective, respectful and meaningful relationships with Aboriginal peoples. Relationships that aren’t transactional. A central insight of the Framework is that respectful, reciprocal relationships have to come before outcomes - not as a luxury but as the foundation of how non-Aboriginal organisations engage, plan and deliver work that affects Country and communities. That’s why the Framework and its Toolkit deliberately use the language of relationships rather than “engagement”. We wanted to capture this cultural truth.
What we developed with the NSW Government isn’t just a policy document. It’s a practical, action-oriented set of tools to help people walk together. The summary, the full Framework, and the Toolkit are now available for anyone who wants to build meaningful, respectful, culturally safe relationships with Aboriginal peoples. They include:
Core principles grounded in mutual respect, reciprocity and cultural safety
A five-step relationship process - Think, Plan, Prepare, Connect, Evaluate - with “Listen” embedded across all stages
Detailed checklists, templates, planning tools and meeting protocols
A capability matrix to help organisations reflect and grow
Practical insights on issues like engagement fatigue, youth inclusion and respectful resourcing of cultural knowledge.
For Lyrebird Dreaming, this is one of our most significant achievements to date. And the fact that the resources are not just on a shelf but now being used within the Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan and are available globally for anyone to access, is something we want to celebrate and share widely.
If you’re part of an organisation seeking to meaningfully engage with First Nations peoples, these resources are for you. They represent months of listening, the generous sharing of cultural knowledge, and the deep commitment of Traditional Custodians and community members who expect - and deserve - relationships that are genuine, respectful and ongoing.
Access the full suite of materials here:
Thank you Greg for providing the links and the explanation of relationships vs engagement. I live on the Cumberland Plains (Schofields), and have worked with the Darug community for almost 30 years with women's groups for diabetes education, using indigenous foods, caring for land, cold burns for bushfires and story telling, and enjoyed it so much. I have downloaded the files and will be using the Toolkit especially with the kids around here and on the south coast. I'm slowing down a bit physically now so appreciate finding gentler ways of contributing via education. Thanks for keeping me up to date with this I appreciate your efforts so much.
Many thanks, Greg, for providing information from those links. In early 1990s, I was fortunate enough to have attended a Dreaming Camp with an Indigenous Yuin elder and other non-Indigenous participants. That fortnight of camping and hearing the stories told by Guboo was one of the most emotionally rewarding events I have ever engaged in. Many of us have not received authentic historical accounts within the mainstream education system. (These days, there is plenty of information available online.) I have reengaged, ever since that Camp, attending lectures, discussions, field trips and rallies, including Black Lives Matters and Change the Date, and felt connection and unity at those meaningful gatherings, through the understanding that comes from listening to first-person accounts. In…