We know that we’ve got some work to do to become a culturally safe environment for First Peoples.
The first step is to understand where we’re at in our cultural safety journey.
To help us, we’re using the Conscious Competence Learning Model. The model sets out ‘the four stages of learning a new skill’.
We don’t know our own inability, but using the model helps us to understand our gaps and what we need to unlearn and learn.
By applying this model, we’ll eventually be able to use culturally safe practices without thinking about them. When we’re able to do this, we’ll reach the ‘unconsciously competent’ learning stage.
Where we are on our journey
From the results of our research, our Department of Transport and Planning Portfolio is moving between the ‘unaware’ learning stage of our journey, towards ‘emerging’.
To progress, we need to understand how unaware we are. We’ll do this by looking at the potential impact of our workplace and individual culture.
When we can do this, we’ll be able to recognise our:
- unconscious biases
- behaviours
- attitudes
- assumptions
- stereotypes
- prejudices.
We’ll then be able to see the effect they have on our people and community.
To help us to do this, we’ll all need to:
- Be aware of differences
- Consider power relationships
- Use reflective practice
- Question our own biases.
To measure our progress, we’ll need to:
- Provide our First Peoples transport users with a way to tell us if they feel culturally unsafe on the transport network
- Ask our First Peoples employees if they feel culturally safe at work.
We’ll also use employee surveys, like the People Matter Survey, to measure our progress.
Our journey won’t be linear either. Sometimes we’ll jump back and forth on the Conscious Competence Learning Model.
As we become more competent, we’ll likely uncover more things that show us our incompetence.
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