Page 570 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 February 2020
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in the UK, is recognised globally as a leader in restorative practices, and I was keen to hear stories of these practices in action in all areas of life, not only in the justice system but as part of Canberra’s progress toward being a restorative city.
What I heard is that while there is no single, easily encapsulated definition of a restorative city, it is ultimately a way of life that puts people and respectful relationships at the core of everything—the justice system, schools, workplaces, hospitals and family life—everything. Where people are heard, conversations are respectful and conflicts are dealt with in ways that focus on healing and moving forward, we can build a community where everyone is valued, welcomed and can participate.
Building restorative cities takes time, time to embed truly relational approaches in our daily lives, to innovate or dismantle legislative barriers to restorative practices and to address power imbalances of gender and culture. But it is a journey worth taking and I am committed, more than ever, to helping lead this change in the ACT.
While I was in Whanganui, I also had the pleasure of visiting the New Zealand Glassworks, the new national centre for glass art. I was delighted to be given a tour of the facility by manager Scott Redding, who has also previously worked out of the Canberra Glassworks hot shop. Although the facility is on a smaller scale than our facility here in Canberra, the quality of the work that is produced is indeed impressive.
It was great to hear about the growing relationship between the Canberra Glassworks and the New Zealand Glassworks. For example, the New Zealand Glassworks hosted the CoLab Conference in February 2019, which was a joint conference of the New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass and the Australian Association of Glass Artists. A number of staff from the Canberra Glassworks and local artists flew to Whanganui to participate in the conference, which I believe was very successful. I have no doubt that the relationship between local and New Zealand glass artists will continue to strengthen in coming years.
I also spent three days in Wellington, primarily focusing on the arts portfolio. My first meeting was with the Honourable Grant Robertson, Associate Minister for the Arts, Culture and Heritage, who is also New Zealand’s Minister of Finance. I first met with Minister Robertson in 2018, when I was the Chair of the Meeting of Cultural Ministers. At that meeting, Minister Robertson gave a presentation on New Zealand’s wellbeing framework. This meeting in Wellington was to discuss how the implementation of the living standards framework and the wellbeing budget was going, and to also discuss how the arts and culture have been incorporated. We also discussed the work that Creative New Zealand is currently undertaking in relation to career sustainability in the arts and creative industries, an issue that is also relevant for us here in Australia.
I also met with officials from Wellington City Council, our sister city, where I caught up with Ana Iti, the Wellington artist who took part in the recent Canberra Wellington Indigenous artist exchange pilot with local Aboriginal artist Dean Cross. Ana informed us about her upcoming exhibition at the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt and how she had invited Dean to submit a work for the exhibition. I also undertook a
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