A recent meeting between the Nambucca Shire's three Local Aboriginal Land Councils and the Nambucca Valley Council was the first of its kind and hopefully not the last.
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Nambucca Heads LALC CEO, Michael Donovan, said a number of issues were raised, in what is planned to be an ongoing dialogue.
"The meeting was a good opportunity to start a dialogue with the council. It gave us time to talk about how we can work together because there are lots of programs that can be run in conjunction with the council," Mr Donovan said.
Mr Donovan said arrangements for January 26 were discussed with the suggestion the Nambucca Valley host the next available Saltwater/Freshwater Festival.
"There may be the opportunity to negotiate to have the festival in the valley ... it would be great if that could happen."
UNKYA CEO Michelle Donovan said the LALC s were keen to work with the council to make that happen.
"Locally, it is a day that Aboriginal people don't tend to participate in, so having the festival here would be a positive move and one we can all work on together," Mrs Donovan said.
She said it was good the council wanted to find a way to make the day more inclusive.
"We'll see how things go."
Phil Hall from the Bowraville LALC said the meeting was long overdue and a real wake-up call to the council.
"This is the first time in the 10 years I've been here that we've had a meeting like this," Mr Hall said.
"We raised the matter of the Cultural Heritage Management Plan, which is a long way out of date ... it has not been reviewed since 2008."
The document contains "information about sacred sites around the shire", Mrs Donovan said, "and is very important to ensure the protection of Gumbaynggirr cultural heritage around the valley."
The Nambucca Valley Council's general manager, Michael Coulter, said a consultant would be employed to review and revise the document.
The mayor, Rhonda Hoban, said the meetings, which will be held quarterly, were a chance for the council to hear what was needed.
She said the urgent need for social housing was top of the list for all three LALCs.
"The demand is there, some people have been on waiting lists for decades," she said.
In his report to the council, Mr Coulter wrote the Land Councils had waiting lists going back to 2006 with 20-30 people waiting in Bowraville. He noted the last public housing stock that was built and transferred to the Land Councils was in 2006.
The Roads to Home program, which has seen both Bowraville and Nambucca Heads receive funding for infrastructure at the Mish and Bellwood, was discussed at some length (see separate story).
At their meeting on July 16, Nambucca Valley councillors voted in favour of finding funds to update the Management Plan in the 2020/21 Operational Plan and to formally seek a proposal from the Saltwater Freshwater Board to hold the festival locally.