As National Reconciliation Week (NRW) 2026 draws to a close, Belgravia Leisure is preparing to officially rollout CultureWise to more than 8,000 team members across its aquatic, tourism, wellness, sport and health and wellbeing venues nationwide.
Ahead of the official launch to staff on June 9, over 325 Belgravia Leisure team members with early access – including 100% of all senior leaders – have already completed the digital cultural awareness program, reinforcing the organisation’s deep commitment to reconciliation.
Developed in partnership with Belgravia Foundation, and through extensive consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and organisations, CultureWise is designed to strengthen cultural awareness, safety and capability across the sector. The free online training was launched to the broader leisure, aquatics, recreation and fitness industry at the 2026 Diversity and Inclusion in Leisure Forum in March.
Belgravia Leisure Group Manager Access & Inclusion Damian Gorman said the initiative reflects a clear commitment to action, innovation and sharing to support the entire leisure sector to welcome, support, and include all people, so no one missies out.
“The theme for National Reconciliation Week 2026 is ‘All In’, which is a call for all Australians to commit to reconciliation every day. In light of this, it’s encouraging to see so many of our team members and all of our senior leaders already go ‘All In’ and complete CultureWise as part of our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP),” he said.
“This is one important step in the ongoing work we are doing to extend the impact and reach of our RAP and strengthen culturally safe and inclusive experiences across our venues and communities.”
Damian said the organisation is also seeing positive progress in workforce representation.
“As of 2026, 4.0% of our team members identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. This is an increase from 3.5% and 3.8% in previous census rounds and above the national average.
“This reflects our continued focus on creating meaningful employment opportunities and welcoming environments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across our venues,” Damian said.
On Friday 22 May at the Aboriginal Advancement League, Belgravia Leisure further strengthened its commitment through expanded participation in the Be Deadly Jobs Expo. Damian said attending events like the expo helps turn the organisation’s RAP commitments into meaningful action.
“Providing representation from a leisure service management company reinforces our commitment and helps lead the way for others in the sector to support employment pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” concluded Damian.
The organisation also equips team members with practical resources to support culturally respectful engagement, including guides such as ‘Delivering an Acknowledgement of Country’ and ‘Welcoming All’. Through these initiatives, Belgravia Leisure is embedding reconciliation into everyday operations across its Australian venues.
Belgravia Leisure is also demonstrating leadership through its upcoming participation in Reconciliation Australia’s 2026 RAP Workplace Reconciliation Barometer, an independently run national survey measuring employee attitudes and perceptions of reconciliation.
By participating, the company is gaining data-driven insights across the five dimensions of reconciliation: race relations, equality and equity, unity, institutional integrity and historical acceptance. The findings will help inform future actions, strengthen accountability and guide tangible improvements that support culturally safe venues, programs, services and employment pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
CultureWise will roll out to all Belgravia Leisure team members via the organisations internal learning platform, Lenny, from 9 June and is also available for the public to complete here.
Learn more about Belgravia Leisure’s social inclusion efforts here, or for more information, visit the Reconciliation Australia website.
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