Reconciliation Action Plan

‘Decolonising White’ (2016) © Deanne Gilson. Permission granted for use to VATE.

At VATE, the student is at the centre of all that we do and developing this Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) is an important step in strengthening our commitment to enhancing visibility, promoting inclusivity and striving for equity of access to rich and responsive teacher and student learning opportunities. Creating this RAP has allowed us to focus on the positive actions we can embed into our work recognising the importance of the work we do as a subject association to encourage a fair, equitable and just society for the young people in our care. This begins with the right to an education that develops essential, critical and creative literacy and English skills. Subject English plays an important role in fostering a climate of reconciliation and providing a space for the voices of our First Nations people to be heard, understood and amplified. We look forward to making more deliberate actions toward our commitment to reconciliation illuminated by the development of our RAP.

Read our Reconciliation Action Plan and more about our commitment to the principles of reconciliation here.

About Dr Deanne Gilson
Dr Deanne Gilson is a proud Wadawurrung woman and an award-winning visual artist who lives and creates from her ancestral Country of Ballarat in Victoria. Her multidisciplinary art practice interrogates the colonial disruption of her family and explores ways in which contemporary art can create a platform towards healing, acceptance and re-claiming back cultural identity, often drawing upon traditional knowledges of her ancestors. She recently completed her PhD at Deakin University, looking at defining Aboriginal women’s business through contemporary art.

Instagram: @deannegilson
Website: www.deannegilson.com