Water is Life Traditional Owner Forum

September 2026

Water is Life: Traditional Owner Access to Water Roadmap is the Victorian Government’s commitment to increasing Traditional Owner decision-making, resources and access to water. Each year, Traditional Owners from across Victoria come together to oversee how it is being implemented. As at 31 August 2025, 9,778 megalitres of water was held by Traditional Owner and Aboriginal organisations, of which 7,160 megalitres had been returned to Traditional Owners through government commitments.

In September 2026, Professor Kerry Arabena was Master of Ceremonies for the Water is Life Traditional Owner Oversight Forum, a two-day statewide gathering held at Larnangurrak in Bendigo, on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. The Forum brought together Traditional Owners from Nations across Victoria, alongside staff and decision makers from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, to oversee the implementation of the roadmap. Kerry opened the Forum with a single question for the two days: what rights does the water have in your Country? She designed a culturally grounded process in which rules of engagement were given as cultural protocols, every Nation had equal time to respond to the government’s progress report as a group, and Traditional Owner-only sessions gave Nations space to set their own direction. The result was a forum where hard truths were told safely and turned into clear priorities for action.

Read more about the Water is Life roadmap

OCHRe Convocation

October 2026

In October 2026, Professor Kerry Arabena was Master of Ceremonies for the OCHRe Convocation 2026, held over two days at ZINC at Federation Square in Naarm (Melbourne). The venue sits on the banks of the Birrarung, on the Country of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. The OCHRe network is hosted by the First Nations Cancer and Wellbeing Research Program at the University of Queensland, and its Convocation brought together researchers, community partners, sector leaders and stakeholders from across Australia to share knowledge, celebrate achievements and strengthen the partnerships behind Indigenous research. Kerry opened the Convocation with remarks that drew on the Birrarung, under the theme ‘Empowering Voices and Deadly Futures’. Across the two days she held the program together, from discussion of the network’s draft Cultural Safety Framework and Indigenous Knowledge Framework to the Three Minute Thesis presentations from researchers. The 2026 OCHRe Convocation highlights the importance of self-determination, cultural strength, and collaborative action to create futures that are not only healthy and sustainable, but deadly: strong, vibrant and led by communities.

More information: OCHRe network

Victorian Safer Children CCOPMM Review: Holding our children at the centre

Speaking about the deaths of Aboriginal women, babies, children and young people asks something of everyone in the room. On 24 September 2026, on Wurundjeri Country, the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) hosted a gathering with the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity (CCOPMM) and Safer Care Victoria to talk about how an Aboriginal Advisory Group could guide the Council’s work. Aunty Dr Jill Gallagher AO chaired the day and I had the honour of facilitating.

CCOPMM reviews the deaths of mothers, babies and children across Victoria, and its statewide data shows that Aboriginal families carry an unfair share of that grief. The people who came together that day held this knowledge with great care, and brought with them deep experience in Aboriginal community controlled health, in paediatrics and child health, in maternity care and in community leadership. They came to imagine a way of working where Aboriginal people hold authority in how these deaths are understood, and where the lessons from each loss return to communities and services as action.

We began with a cultural safety protocol agreed by everyone present, so that the conversation could hold sorrow and hope together. A social and cultural determinants checklist, grounded in the cultural determinants domains I set out in Country Can’t Hear English (Arabena, 2020), gave the group a way of asking what connection to family, community, culture and Country meant in a child’s life, and how the systems around that child strengthened those connections or let them fall away.

The direction that emerged was Aboriginal-led solutions, self-determination, accountability and meaningful action. Participants proposed a working group that will meet online with support from the CCOPMM secretariat, so the design of the Advisory Group can keep moving between formal meetings, and a report from the day is being prepared with VACCHO.

I am grateful to VACCHO for hosting, to Aunty Jill for her steady and generous leadership in the chair, to CCOPMM Chair Professor Mark Umstad AM and the Council members who made space for this work, and to every Aboriginal leader who shared their knowledge and vision so freely. There is much work ahead, and this felt like a step taken together toward a future where every Aboriginal child grows up safe in community and strong in culture.

More information: CCOPMM resources, Safer Care Victoria

Disrupting the narrative at the Australian Homelessness Conference

In October 2026, the Australian Homelessness Conference hosted by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) was held in Darwin. Opened with a Welcome to Country from Edwin Fejo and traditional dance, Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter called on delegates to act on what we already know about young people, homelessness and to place people with lived experience at the centre of how decisions get made on issues affecting them. I had the privilege of leading a panel with Tina Ugle and Leonie Pickett from Noongar Mia Mia and Alkira Williams and Layla Campbell-Cook from the Foyer Foundation. Two young women with lived experience of homelessness sat alongside service leaders and spoke with great courage and clarity about what young people need to thrive and what services need to deliver it. Alkira reminded the room that ‘one opportunity can really change the trajectory of a young person’s life’, and those words stayed with many of us long after the session closed.

The following day I joined Rebecca Pinkstone from Homes NSW and Associate Professor Catherine Robinson from the University of Tasmania for a plenary hosted by Natasha Mitchell and recorded by ABC Radio National. We spoke about homelessness prevention across the whole of life, from unaccompanied children and young people to people growing older without secure housing, and the many working families living only weeks away from housing stress. I brought the understanding that guided my work on Reimagining Indigenous Housing, Health and Wealth: a home is the ground on which health, culture and family can flourish, and First Nations leadership and self-determination belong at the heart of every solution we build. My thanks to AHURI, to Anglicare NT for sponsoring the session, and to every panellist who shared their knowledge and their stories so generously.

For more information, listen to the ABC Radio National recording

Ramahyuck District Aboriginal Corporation Governance Audit

Summary

Karabena Consulting was engaged by Ramahyuck District Aboriginal Corporation to undertake an independent audit of its board governance. Working with the board and staff on Gunaikurnai Country in Sale, the team reviewed a year of board decision-making against national governance standards and delivered a governance report with tiered recommendations and a set of practical tools the board can use from meeting to meeting.

Project aims

• Assess the board’s governance practice against the ORIC Corporate Governance Principles and the ACNC Governance Standards
• Strengthen the contribution of working directors (employee directors) at the board table
• Give the board clear, prioritised actions to build strong cultural and corporate governance

Methodologies

• Site visit with the board and staff in Sale in September 2026
• A minutes-based audit instrument tracing decisions across thirteen board meetings
• Review of the Rule Book, policies and committee arrangements
• Benchmarking against ORIC and ACNC governance frameworks

Methodological outcomes

• A reusable audit instrument the board can apply to future meetings
• Governance conversations held with directors and staff, building shared understanding of roles and responsibilities

Outputs

• Nine major deliverables, including guidance on working directors and conflict of interest, director responsibilities and remuneration, and committee architecture
• A governance instrument set
• A governance report with twenty-nine tiered recommendations

Project outcomes

• A sequenced pathway for the board to act on immediate priorities and build toward longer-term reform
• Stronger foundations for self-determination through accountable, community-controlled governance

Keywords

Aboriginal community controlled organisation; governance audit; board governance; cultural governance; working directors; conflict of interest; ORIC; ACNC; Gippsland; self-determination

Strategic Planning with Annamila First Nations Foundation

In May 2026, Professor Kerry Arabena facilitated two days of strategic planning for the Annamila First Nations Foundation, gathering its majority First Nations Board and leadership on Bunurong Country at Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula. Annamila’s vision is ‘a people at home with their identity and place’, and its work to promote and support the sovereignty of Australia’s First Peoples flows through three streams: Country and Culture, Healing and Wellbeing, and Truth and Justice. The days opened with a Welcome and smoking ceremony, and Kerry held the conversations as yarns, working from an agenda the Foundation framed as a menu, so that the Board could follow what mattered most to them in the room.

The planning brought together the Foundation’s founder, Co-Chairs and CEO to reflect on how Annamila contributes, convenes and influences, and on how it can best back Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led organisations and projects into the future. The work now informs the Foundation’s internal planning phase. For Karabena Consulting, it was a privilege to walk alongside a philanthropic partner whose commitment to self-determination, cultural governance and relational accountability shapes every part of how it gives. www.annamila.org.au

Review of the Koorie Kids Shine Program

Summary

Karabena Consulting was engaged by the Victorian Department of Education to review Koorie Kids Shine, the Department’s campaign encouraging Koorie families to enrol in kindergarten. Drawing on a literature review, a parent and carer survey and consultations with Aboriginal community, early years services and Department staff, the review considered how the program speaks to Koorie families and the role it can play under the Best Start, Best Life reforms.

Project aims

• Review the relevance and cultural safety of Koorie Kids Shine for Koorie families and communities
• Understand how the program supports kindergarten enrolment and participation
• Advise on the future role of Koorie Kids Shine within the Best Start, Best Life reforms

Methodologies

• Literature and document review
• Survey of parents and carers across metropolitan and regional Victoria
• Consultations with Aboriginal community, the early years workforce and Department staff
• Human Research Ethics Committee and Department RISEC approvals

Methodological outcomes

• Families and communities shared what cultural safety looks and feels like in kindergarten
• Community voices placed at the centre of the program’s evidence base

Outputs

• Koorie Kids Shine Consultation: Final Report, with full survey analyses as appendices
• Recommendations set out as immediate, mid-term and long-term priorities, distinguishing what sits within the program’s current scope

Project outcomes

• An evidence base for the program’s next phase, aligned with our Koorie Communications and Engagement Strategy for the Department
• A direction for keeping Koorie Kids Shine culturally safe and trusted by families

Keywords

Koorie Kids Shine; kindergarten; early childhood education; Koorie families; Best Start, Best Life; cultural safety; parent and carer survey; Department of Education; program review; self-determination

Cultural Learning Session for the Australian Institute of Company Directors Board

In June 2026, Professor Kerry Arabena facilitated a bespoke cultural learning session for the Board and executive of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), held during the Board’s meeting in Naarm. AICD asked for a session that would move beyond foundational cultural training and lift the thinking of a highly experienced governance audience to a current and future-focused level. Kerry led a conversational, strategic session on the state of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander economic empowerment, the Closing the Gap economic targets, what world-class governance means in a First Nations context, and the value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people bring to boards. Directors were invited to reflect on Treaty and what it may mean for organisations like AICD and for directors more broadly, and on the history of Coranderrk as a story of Aboriginal self-determination and governance on Wurundjeri Country.

The conversational style created space for thoughtful reflection, and since the session there has been genuine interest among Directors in applying what was shared in their roles. To support this, Kerry provided the presentation for Directors’ personal reference and a board paper on First Nations governance, offering prompts for AICD to carry the learning forward through its leadership and influence. AICD plans to return to the conversation in a follow-up session, building on this work and exploring where AICD fits and what comes next.

Australian Institute of Company Directors

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