Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

Armidale Regional Council prides itself on its strong, positive relationship with the local Aboriginal Community. 

Aboriginal Advisory Committee

The Armidale Regional Aboriginal Advisory Committee has been restructured to extend its community representation to Guyra.

Previously known as the Gayinyaga Aboriginal Community Consultative Committee, the restructured group comprises two subcommittees - one each for Armidale and Guyra – to consider local issues and feed recommendations to a regional committee.

The regional body will comprise delegates from each subcommittee and community members.

Each subcommittee meets every second month, with the regional committee to convene in the months in between.

The revised advisory committee was formed following community engagement in 2018, to look at a restructure of the Gayinyaga committee to represent the whole Armidale Regional Council area.

The advisory committee is the key forum to enable Aboriginal community members to liaise directly with Armidale Regional Council.

See this page for future meeting dates, agenda, minutes and other advisory group information.

The Gayinyaga committee has a long history with Council and is one of the longest-standing Aboriginal advisory committees for a council in NSW.

Aboriginal Action Plan

Aboriginal Community Development Officer Cyril Green facilitates Council's Aboriginal Action Plan 2015-2019 (PDF 821.8KB), as well as coordinating the local Aboriginal Inter-agency meetings, annual NAIDOC Week activities and other Aboriginal community events. Cyril can be contacted on (02) 6770 3936 or emailed at cgreen@armidale.nsw.gov.au

Armidale Regional Council is committed to Closing the Gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the general population. Armidale Regional Council's Community Strategic Plan identifies a range of services and infrastructure which will help the whole community to achieve its long term vision, but Council acknowledges additional programs, resources and services are required to achieve better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In particular, these services and programs should focus on:

• Health and wellbeing

• Employment and education opportunities

• Programs, activities and pathways for young people

• Programs to support older members of the community

• Programs to share Aboriginal culture with the wider community and visitors

• Opportunities to work collaboratively with organisations, individuals and communities to identify areas of need and develop effective solution

To achieve these aims Armidale Regional Council is developing a Reconciliation Action Plan