Groups unite to ‘Close the Gap’
Goolum Goolum Aboriginal Co-operative has joined forces with other Wimmera community organisations to recognise National Close the Gap Day.
National Close the Gap Day is an annual awareness event that aims to close the health and life expectancy gap between the indigenous and the non-indigenous communities in Australia.
More than 50 people from across the region gathered at the newly reopened community garden at Horsham Showground on Thursday to celebrate and acknowledge the day.
Goolum Goolum health and wellbeing manager Dean O’loughlin opened the event by acknowledging the vast amount of work by partnering support services in the region to enhance health outcomes in the community.
“A prime example of working together is the launch of the Goolum Goolum mobile wood-fire pizza oven, which catered for the event,” he said.
The project is the result of a partnership between Goolum Goolum, Wimmera Primary Care Partnership, Wimmera Uniting Care and Grampians Community Health.
The mobile oven will be used at future Goolum Goolum community events.
“Goolum Goolum has also taken up a plot at the GJ Gardner Community Garden, which will be used by the local Koorie community to plant and look after indigenous plants as part of Goolum’s service delivery,” Mr O’loughlin said. Guest speakers at the event included Wimmera Uniting Care out-of-home care manager Phil Yew, Horsham Rural City Council community development officer Martin Bride and Horsham Agricultural Society secretary and garden co-ordinator Andrea Cross.
Wimmera Catchment Management Authority’s Rae Talbot hosted a workshop centred on identifying regional indigenous plants and gardening tips. “A prime example of working together is the launch of the Goolum Goolum mobile wood-fire pizza oven, which catered for the event”
– Dean O’loughlin
Closing the Gap is a government strategy that aims to reduce disadvantage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with respect to life expectancy, child mortality, access to early childhood education, educational achievement and employment outcomes.
It is a formal commitment made by all Australian governments to achieve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within 25 years.
Closing the Gap was developed in response to the call of the Social Justice Report 2005 and the Close the Gap social justice campaign.
In March 2008, Australian governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people agreed ‘to work together to achieve equality in health status and life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-indigenous Australians by the year 2030’ when they signed the Indigenous Health Equality Summit – Statement of Intent.