How our environmental, engineering design consultancy has taken first steps towards acknowledging traditional owners in projects

This is a short blog describing our first steps towards including a reference to the lands of the traditional owners in every single project we do. You’ll now see the traditional owners for each of our case studies where relevant.

Indigenous recognition is a huge issue for Australia and all Australians

At Wave Consulting, we wholeheartedly support the Uluru Statement (have a read of it if you have time).

We decided it was long overdue that we include a reference to the traditional owners in all of our projects. It is a small step to learning and recognition.

While we work closely with councils, we often see Naarm (Melbourne) through the prism of local government area boundaries, not traditional owner regions.

Despite wholeheartedly believing that we work on and occupy land that “always was and always will be Aboriginal land”, we weren’t too sure exactly whose land that was.

Researching and learning about the traditional lands our projects are based on

And so, the team at Wave spent some time researching and learning a bit more about the five Aboriginal nations that form the Kulin Alliance. We then had a look at where our past projects were in relation to these traditional lands: 75% of our projects are in Victoria and mostly metro Melbourne, so we are starting there. 

The process was very informative and where we can, we acknowledge these lands in past projects and have set up internal processes to ensure we are recognising the traditional owners of the lands on all our future projects.

Sustainability for Naarm’s future

We are in the business of promoting and advocating for sustainability, to ensure that Naarm can be enjoyed by generations to come.

And going forward we would like to make a greater effort to learn from and acknowledge the monumental role played by this country’s first people in ‘caring for country’ over tens of thousands of years as custodians of the land.