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Wellington Shire Council’s ‘Our Culture, Our Place’ Strategy is about who we are
Issued: 
January 13, 2023

Wellington Shire Council is working with the community to bring together new ideas about ‘Our Culture’ and to show how it is supported by Wellington’s diverse and creative communities. Culture is experienced and enhanced through libraries, sporting clubs and societies, schools, churches and in the places where we live and enjoy life.

Wellington already has exciting arts and culture facilities housing fine and contemporary art, staging quality performances and events, and delivering extensive library services to communities across the municipality, but we need to recognise just how broad culture is and talk about the many creative ways we show what is important to us.

There are many different groups in our community that meet to talk about what they have in common and to contribute to our culture, whether at a Men’s Shed, Car Club, Book Club, Arts Group, Youth Group or Parents Club. The events we support and the places where we enjoy our environment also contribute to who we are.

We are using five key ideas to help form the Our Culture, Our Place Strategy, help the community to participate in upcoming events, and to provide feedback.

  1. Discover Cultural Beginnings so we can recognise our heritage, identity, and place in Wellington, as well as understand the beginnings of others
  2. Create Cultural Expressions so that we can be part of and enrich the life of the Wellington community
  3. Share Cultures and Creativity so that our lives are enriched by the exchange with others
  4. Enjoy Cultural Resources and Spaces so that we can be inspired, educated, and refreshed
  5. Protect Cultural Resources so that we can benefit from them, today and in years to come

Wellington Shire Council Mayor Ian Bye said that Our Culture, Our Place is an important next step for Council to take.

“The Our Culture, Our Place Strategy will guide the next phase of arts and culture in Wellington, and we hope to reinvigorate the community and work closely together to ensure that individuals and groups have access to the places and opportunities that will enrich their lives, create community connections, and lead to diverse cultural experiences for everyone” Cr Bye said.

Wellington also has a rich creative community - arts is a way of expressing that creativity, especially that which reflects our diverse cultures, and explores both our common understandings and important differences.

We celebrate our Aboriginal community as holders of a creative heritage that has shaped the land and continues to encourage us to think about a shared love of our environment and the places we hold as important. Aboriginal communities also have a spiritual connection to the land just as many of us have a spiritual community that is part of our culture.

All of these examples and many more tell us who we are and help us to identify our place in the broader Wellington culture, and how that changes over the years and in different places.

We are asking the community to be active in how Our Culture, Our Place develops over the coming months. The first step is a survey that will gather information about how we think about the five key ideas and opportunities for specific groups to talk about their contributions to arts and culture.

The survey and more information is available at https://your.wellington.vic.gov.au or hard copies can be collected at library branches and Council’s Customer Service Centres in Sale and Yarram.

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