Community Outreach

We get out and about as much as possible to relevant community events, especially those where we can have contact with gay men, sistergirls and people with HIV. We aim wherever possible to partner with Aboriginal community organisations to do this. Our community outreach activities include:

• Gadigal Information Service’s Mardi Gras season Klub Koori
• Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative’s Mardi Gras season show
• World AIDS Day events at the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern

If you have an idea for outreach or would like to volunteer to help, please contact us here or via (02) 9206 2024.

HIV in the NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Population Paper

In 2019 we launched a policy paper to highlight the challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in relation to HIV and sexual health. Titled HIV in the NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, the paper outlines key issues and sets out recommendations to improve health outcomes.

You can downloaded the paper here.

Performance and Creative Arts

First Australians and Mardi Gras

Each year we help organise the First Nations float in the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. Participants gather at two community meetings to work together to design the parade entry, developing new skills and creating activities the whole community can enjoy.

This culminates in the Mardi Gras Parade, raising awareness and visibility of sexual and gender diversity in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

Planning for the performance and creative arts program begins in October. For more information or to get involved, please contact us: jstrang@acon.org.au | (02) 9206 2042

Creative Arts Workshops

From time to time we also offer activities such as music or photography as a way for community members to express themselves, tell stories, learn new skills, meet new people and celebrate culture.

If you have any suggestions for activities, or would like to register your interest, please contact us here or via (02) 9206 2024.

‘Us Mob and HIV’ Resource

Better to Know

‘Better to Know’ is a sexual health website for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including information on STIs, the ability to search for local clinics and AMSs for testing, a partner notification service and a testing reminder service.

The site has been produced by the Anwernekenhe National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HIV/AIDS Alliance and the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations.

Access the site here

ACON Reconciliation Action Plans

ACON is proud to continue walking the national reconciliation journey with the release of the second iteration of its Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

The Innovate RAP 2023-2025 adds to our organisation’s ongoing commitment to ensuring First Nations people of diverse genders and sexualities can live their healthiest lives, as well as celebrate the longest living culture on Earth, acknowledge history, build closer relationships, and to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The development of the second Innovate RAP was overseen by ACON’s Reconciliation Working Group, the organisation’s internal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory committee made up of staff and community representatives.

Access a public copy of ACON’s Innovate RAP 2023-2025 as a PDF here.

ACON’s Innovate RAP 2023-2025 artwork was created by Wiradjuri and Birpai man Wayde Clarke, and is titled ‘Rainbow Pride, Rainbow Strong’.

ACON launched its first RAP in 2018, committing ACON to create a strategic, collaborative, and whole-of-organisation approach to its work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Across each of ACON’s RAPs, the organisation has worked with Reconciliation Australia to develop a formal framework to ensure its work supports the national reconciliation movement.

With the implementation of its second Innovate RAP, ACON will continue to foster a more strategic, collaborative and whole of organisation approach to our work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

If you have any feedback or would like to join the RAP Working Group, please fill out this short form or contact RAP@acon.org.au

ACON acknowledges and pays respects to the traditional custodians of all the lands on which we work. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

Keep updated with our RAP e-news. Sign up here:

ACON Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement Plan

An important recommendation of ACON’s Reconciliation Action Plan was for ACON to develop an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement Plan to strengthen how we work with, listen to, and are accountable to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, including sexuality and gender-diverse mob, Sistergirls, Brotherboys, and trans mob. The ACON Reconciliation Action Plan Advisory Committee, the ACON Board and Senior Leadership Team, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities we work with have endorsed the development of an Engagement Plan. 

The Engagement Plan will respond to the need for more genuine, community-led engagement that recognises culture, lived experience and self-determination. It will guide how we design programs, build partnerships, support culturally safe services, and advocate for investment in community-defined priorities – helping shape: 

• Our programs and services: making sure they’re designed with community, and that they’re accessible, affirming and culturally safe. 

• Our community partnerships: with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQA+SB people, to shape responses that reflect real needs and priorities. 

• Our partnerships with other Aboriginal organisations: genuine, equitable relationships that strengthen referral pathways, workforce and advocacy. 

• Our advocacy to government: using our voice to advocate for community-led, culturally responsive models of care and investment. 

Our Commitment 

We know that serving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is not the same as being accountable to them. Too often, engagement has happened on our terms. We want to change that. 

The Engagement Plan is a shared commitment: to listen first, to share decision-making, and to be guided by community priorities and community-defined measures of success. It is about ACON working differently and being held to account for it. 

We recognise the strength, resilience and leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including sexuality and gender diverse mob, Sistergirls, Brotherboys and trans mob. We acknowledge the ongoing impacts of colonisation and systemic racism, and we commit to supporting community-led responses and solutions. 

What We’re Hearing 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will shape this plan. We are starting with conversations, listening and building trust before we formalise anything. What we’ve heard already is that this work needs to: 

• Be led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, centred on their perspectives, priorities and ways of working 

• Build relationships and trust first, before structures and processes 

• Be genuinely shared, co-designed, not consulted on after decisions are made 

• Be properly resourced, culturally safe and appropriately remunerated 

• Be followed by real action, not just words on a page 

How We’ll Work 

An Advisory Committee will guide the Engagement Plan with shared decision-making authority. The majority of members will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including Elders, young people, community leaders and LGBTQA+SB mob. We will invite community members through an open process, and respect and remunerate their time and knowledge. 

Together, we’ll map what’s working and what’s not, hold community-led yarning circles and listening sessions across the process, and shape a plan that reflects what community tells us matters most.  

What Happens Next 

• Now, establishing the Advisory Committee and beginning community conversations 

• Late 2026 into 2027, reviewing what already exists and gathering community ideas and priorities, and working with community to prioritise what matters most 

• Late 2027 into 2028, finalising the Engagement Plan and reporting back to the community 

We’ll report back openly and regularly. This is the beginning of a longer commitment, and we want to walk it with you.  

If you’re interested in finding out more about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement Plan or the Advisory Committee, please contact: policy@acon.org.au

Artwork: ‘Community Coming Together’, Bindi Bindi Art

ACON’s Statement on its First Nations Listening and Truth Telling Project and Our Pathway Forward Following the Referendum

ACON has released a statement announcing the beginning of its First Nations Listening and Truth Telling Project as a pathway forward, towards reconciliation, following the outcome of the referendum on a Voice to parliament for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  

This project is designed to instil a culture of meaningful listening within our organisation, in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities feel their voices are being heard, and that their needs are being prioritised. 

ACON will be taking time to meaningfully consider our role in the process of reconciliation, and the actions we need to take, to further this objective. We know that reconciliation can only proceed when we are ready to accept the truth of our history. Our First Nations Listening and Truth Telling Project will help us to clearly identify ACON’s ongoing role working alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of diverse sexualities and genders to achieve better health outcomes for these communities. 

Download our full statement here.

ACON’s approach to the referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice

ACON has released its approach to the referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

This approach is informed by consultations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of ACON’s Reconciliation Action Plan working group and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ACON staff, and is guided by our firm belief in First Nations’ self-determination and that First Nations people’s voices and truths should inform all Australian policy that affects them.

The approach outlines our commitments to First Nations LGBTQ+ communities, now, and ongoing after the referendum. 

Download the Approach document here

Pride in Diversity Report: LGBTQASB+ Mob and Work

First Nations LGBTQA+ people, sistergirls and brotherboys, are critical parts of our community at large. Their contribution to social justice, culture, social and family life is undeniable and significant. All of this is work.

There has, however, been limited research attention given to LGBTQASB+ mob’s contribution to and experience within the formal paid workforce. Building this knowledge is critical. Access to safe and just workplaces contributes directly to how LGBTQSB+1 mob survive and sustain themselves, their families and their communities.

Two large surveys have measured equity in workplaces for LGBTQA+ and Indigenous communities – the Jumbunna Institute and Diversity Council of Australia’s Gari Yala survey (of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at work) and Pride in Diversity’s Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) Employee Survey. The gap in the data risks misunderstandings and inattention to how First Nations LGBTQASB+ people experience the formal paid workforce. It also risks how the employment community approaches them – from union campaigns and bargaining, to workplace supports, to initiatives promoting diversity, equity and justice within the formal paid workforce. It is not enough that workplaces understand the experiences of LGBTQA+ people and First Nations people separately.

This project came from discussions between ACON’s Pride in Diversity and the Indigenous People and Work Hub at the UTS Jumbunna Institute (Research), led by Professor Nareen Young and was then lead and executed by First Nations LGBTQASB+ mob. We note that it addresses long-held discussions within our community about the safety of workplaces and the material living conditions of LGBTQASB+ mob.

Download the full publication as a PDF here.