Royal Life Saving Society – Australia is proud to launch our first Reconciliation Action Plan, taking the challenge to learn, listen and commit to reconciliation with our First Nations people.

Royal Life Saving acknowledges the Traditional Owners of our national office in Ultimo, Sydney are the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. We pay our respects to Australia’s First Nations cultural and spiritual connections to water, and acknowledge the land where we work, live, and play always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

Our Reconciliation Action Plan marks the start our formal journey that we hope will contribute to positive contributions across Australia. We look forward to learning from our successes and failures and seeing the outcomes that come from this journey.

It is hoped that this journey will influence our staff, volunteers, member organisations and partners to make positive contributions to reconciliation in their communities across Australia.

We aspire to ensure that children have access to swimming pools and swimming lessons. That youth learn lifesaving skills, and we provide opportunities to viable careers both in aquatics and those leadership lessons into other jobs and other elements of life.

We aspire to harness the transformative power of the local pool as a venue for social cohesion, for community connections and for health benefits that extend beyond childhood and across all life stages.

The rivers, lakes, pools billabongs and dams in Australia bring life to communities. They are places for play, social connection, and recreation. They can also be spaces of danger and tragedy.

We note the long-term lifesaving skills of coastal and freshwater nations. Those skills helped to keep communities safe in seasons of floods and cyclones.

Our ambition is to continue partnerships that actively engage and encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to access, design, participate in, and lead water safety programs for safety, fun and employment.

As part of our Reconciliation Action Plan, Royal Life Saving is committed to the principles of relationships, respect, and opportunities. We celebrate the resilience, survival, wisdom, deep connection to water and land that continues in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and communities.

Royal Life Saving thanks Reconciliation Australia, Murawin Consultants and Sahba Delshad for guiding us through this process.

Enhancing Cultural Connection to Water for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Royal Life Saving, in partnership with Guunu-maana (Heal) at The George Institute for Global Health, is proud to present Enhancing Cultural Connection to Water for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

This report recognises the deep cultural, spiritual and community connections Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have with water. It highlights the importance of embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems, leadership and lived experience into water safety and drowning prevention strategies.

Grounded in research and community engagement, the report calls for culturally informed, community-led approaches that support self-determination and strengthen equity in drowning prevention outcomes.

The accompanying video shares reflections and insights that bring this work to life - reinforcing why cultural knowledge must sit at the centre of water safety policy, research and action.

Royal Life Saving remains committed to ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices and leadership guide our collective efforts to eliminate drowning.