AUSTRALIA. Heinemann Oceania today announced its first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), describing it as “a significant milestone in its journey towards reconciliation with Australia’s First Nations peoples”.
The move makes Heinemann the first travel retailer to have a RAP endorsed by Reconciliation Australia.
Under its Reflect RAP, Heinemann Oceania commits to establishing respectful ongoing relationships with First Nations peoples and stakeholders within its sphere of influence and local area.
It pledges to promote positive race relations, increase cultural learning among team members, and improve economic outcomes for First Nations peoples and communities.
Heinemann’s Reflect RAP builds upon the implementation of the company’s reconciliation actions to this point.
Its programme to date has included participating in annual celebrated First Nations events such as National Reconciliation Week, NAIDOC Week, and recognising other annual commemorative dates and their significance.
Heinemann Oceania also includes an ‘Acknowledgement of Country’ in daily business, exemplified by the travel retailer having engaged a First Nations Elder to perform a ‘Welcome to Country’ at the opening of its new Gold Coast Airport domestic store.
Additionally, the company has partnered with Evolve Communities to continue its competency development.
“I am immensely proud to take this step towards reconciliation as a signifier of our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging,” commented Heinemann Oceania Managing Director George Tsoukalas.
“This is also an advancement of Heinemann’s vision of becoming the most human-centric company in travel retail.
“We recognise that our stores and our team members are often the first and last touchpoint of international visitors to Australia, and we believe we have an important role to play as a platform for First Nations diverse cultures and businesses.
“I look forward to realising our RAP commitments together with our team.”
As part of the RAP development process, Heinemann Oceania commissioned ‘Coming Together’, an original artwork by Joanne Stanford, a proud Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay, Yuin and Wailwan Yinarr (Women in Gamilaraay) who currently resides on Dharug Country, to illustrate its aspirations for its reconciliation journey.
The artwork interweaves symbols representing a meeting place and coming together, a journey, and Australia’s diverse natural landscapes.
An overarching motif is a representation of the Cooks River along which Heinemann Oceania’s Sydney headquarters sits. The river is also a nod to Heinemann’s long heritage as a ship supplier and its global headquarters by the Elbe River in Hamburg.
The RAP was developed by a working group of Heinemann Oceania and Heinemann Asia Pacific team members who volunteered their time to usher the RAP through the drafting and approval process, along with the advice and guidance of First Nations consultant Maria Watson-Trudgett.
The working group reports to the RAP Steering Committee made up of Heinemann Oceania’s senior leadership team and chaired by Tsoukalas. The RAP Working Group is chaired by Carol Nazha, Head of People and Culture at Heinemann Oceania. ✈
The Moodie View: This is a profoundly important and welcome step by Heinemann Oceania, particularly as a company cast so visibly in the public limelight in a country that has had a tortured past in terms of race relations.
As the admirable George Tsoukalas so eloquently articulates, the company recognises that it cannot truly fulfil its frontline role within the nation’s travel industry without simultaneously embracing a responsibility for reconciliation and First Nations self-determination.
The Reconciliation Action Plans (RAP) programme, introduced in 2006, is built upon three core pillars: relationships, respect and opportunities, values the global travel retail community surely also holds as its own.
RAPs are not about noble words (though noble words they do contain) but about taking meaningful action to advance reconciliation. Through its own almost two-and-a-half-year reconciliation, Heinemann Oceania has demonstrated an unrelenting and impressive commitment to that end goal. ✈
