Riverina Murray Regional Alliance held a Men’s Gathering at Sandhills Artefacts on Wiradjuri Country in Narrandera recently.

It was a powerful day where men came together to have important yarns, practice culture, reflect and connect.

The vision of the Alliance is to align, unify and strengthen communities to ensure effective localised responses to identified service gaps and priorities.

RMRA is comprised of representatives of each of the Community Working Parties (CWPs) from member communities. They are: Albury, Cootamundra, Cummeragunja, Deniliquin, Griffith, Hay, Leeton, Narrandera, Tumut​ and Wagga Wagga.

RMRA aims to:

• Build and strengthen the knowledge and ability to create opportunities within communities to work in partnership with government

• Build and strengthen the knowledge and ability within government to work in partnership with communities

• Enable communities to define issues and priorities which drive negotiated local responses

• Build strong partnerships between government and non-government sectors to deliver effective localised responses

• Hold government accountable for appropriate service delivery to Aboriginal communities

With the reduction of government services, in particular the Aboriginal Affairs office closure in Wagga Wagga, concerned community members saw the need for a regional governance structure to coordinate the provision of services across the Riverina Murray region.

While RMRA has been operating since 2015, it was formally launched in 2016 as a regional mechanism through which Riverina Murray communities can collectively identify priority issues and engage with government and key service delivery stakeholders to develop targeted service responses and solutions and directly influence how those services are delivered.

The establishment of RMRA also provides an opportunity for Riverina Murray communities to engage with, and benefit from, the NSW government’s OCHRE Plan (Opportunity, Choice, Healing, Responsibility, Empowerment).

This plan provides a policy framework for advancing the capacity of NSW Aboriginal communities to participate in local decision making focused on improving education, employment, service delivery and accountability outcomes.