Here are the photos as promised from our recent Yarra Neighbourhood House Network volunteer lunch.

Thanks to everyone who came along. We hope you had a great day!

For the enthusiastic volunteerers in our community (you know who you are). St Mary’s House of Welcome needs some regular help with its good relief service … and reception!

Leanne here. When I went to Timor-Leste 🇹🇱 for work a couple of years ago one of the museums in Dili was an old Portuguese prison that was used by the Indonesians to hold dissidents. It had an exhibition called Chega!, named after the truth telling report that investigated and outlined the atrocities and deaths from the Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste.

It was confronting - but very interesting to see how truth telling enables communities to move forward and onward with a shared understanding of the past that is openly acknowledged.

So I have been super interested in the glimpses that we have seen here in Victoria in our everyday media of the Yoorrook Justice Commission that has been set up under/alongside the First Peoples’ Assembly as part of our State’s commitment to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart (voice, truth, treaty).

Did you see the acknowledgements and apology of Shane Patton talking on behalf of the Victoria Police a month or so ago? And the accompanying apology by Daniel Andrews as Premier?

Here are two links you can read if you missed them:

• A news report from the ABC on Shane Patton at the Yoorrook Justice Commission

• A news report from the Shepparton News (because it won’t have a paywall and outlines the apology that Daniel Andrews made with some context).

The ongoing disproportionate structural discrimination that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face in Victoria today is also quite confronting isn’t it?

Our garden has been spruced up by a delivery of compost. And we’d like to thank the volunteers who moved it into place, spreading it out across our site. And thank Darebin Council for the delivery. This year again we are receiving the FOGO compost - which is the compost made from our green waste bins … so … it’s entirely possible that your carrot peelings and cauliflower leaves (if you put them in your green waste bin) are now right here in the garden at ACC! Isn’t that a nice thought.

We’re about to (well in the next month we hope) plant more indigenous plants 🌱 out in our front corner garden that has been looking a little sad … we will give them the chance to settle in over winter and be ready to burst into life in spring! Fingers crossed.

If you are keen on gardening we have a lovely group of garden enthusiasts here on a Friday morning from 10am who help weed, rake leaves, save seeds, plant out beds, thin seedlings … and all the things. And anyone is very welcome to come along and help us improve our outdoor spaces, help grow community food and meet nice people! We’ll reward you with a delicious morning tea at 11.30am (catered by our CWA friends) to thank you for your contribution!

We were very excited to see that the State Government election commitment of $100,000 to support all the programs we run here at ACC, as announced by our local member Kat Theophanous, was in the budget this week! Hooray.

We always have a long wishlist of projects and programs that are just awaiting funding … and so we’re thrilled that we’ll be able to get cracking with them. Thanks Kat.