Acknowledging NSW's First Custodians

“We, the NSW Environment Protection Authority, acknowledge Aboriginal peoples as the enduring custodians of the land, sea, waters and sky of New South Wales.” 

So starts the EPA Statement of Commitment to Aboriginal People of NSW, which is now beginning to appear in our corporate documents and at outreach activities. 

The Statement is our commitment to work with, learn from, listen to and respect Aboriginal people. It was developed in late 2021 by the EPA Executive, Aboriginal consultancy Thirriwirri, and the EPA’s Aboriginal Peoples Knowledge Group set up to provide Aboriginal perspectives for the 2021 NSW State of the Environment report.  

“This is a high-level, strategic statement,” says the EPA’s Lead, Aboriginal Initiatives, Kylie Jacky. She describes it as a first step ahead of other actions to build Aboriginal perspectives into our work. 

The Statement of Commitment follows on naturally from Our Place on Country: Aboriginal Outcomes Strategy 2020–23, which was developed by the then Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (now DPE) and the Department of Regional New South Wales in 2020. That strategy was aimed at increasing the departments’ understanding of Aboriginal communities, integrating this knowledge into their work, and creating collaborative partnerships with Aboriginal people. 

The EPA’s Senior Leadership Team has identified more than a dozen concrete steps that can be taken to implement the Statement of Commitment, ranging from the redesign of current programs to changes in legislation, building relationships with specific groups, and growing the EPA’s Aboriginal workforce. 

The EPA has already taken one of these steps – establishing an Aboriginal Peoples Knowledge Group to provide Aboriginal perspectives for the NSW State of the Environment report.  

“We can now roll out that lens to other policies and programs,” Kylie Jacky says.