City of Fremantle
Coastal Charm
The City of Fremantle acknowledges the Whadjuk people as the traditional owners of the greater Walyalup area and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still important to the living Whadjuk people today. And respect the Whadjuk people’s spiritual relationship with their country.
We pay our respect to Elders past, present and future.
The City of Fremantle in consultation with its RAP group, and larger community, continues its program of Truth Telling focused on the Truth aspect of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The program aims to give the community the opportunity to understand and acknowledge the truth about Walyalup | Fremantle’s past so that we can walk together towards a better future.
The City has and will continue to draw upon its internal resources as well as collaborate with external organisations and community members to develop the program.
The program is designed for mass participation and aims to open people’s minds to the cultural history that exists in Walyalup | Fremantle by recognising and understanding First Nations people’s connection to country and contribution to Fremantle’s development.
The program was launched with a smoking ceremony at Manjaree | Bathers Beach on Sunday 24 March, 2024. Attendees heard from local Elders, guest speakers, joined weaving circles, went on cultural tours and shared their thoughts on how they’d like to learn about the truth of our shared history.
The City of Fremantle, in collaboration with the Centre for Stories, hosted a series of Backyard Truth Telling sessions in late 2024. These took place in backyards across the Walyalup | Fremantle area.
This series showcased the stories of emerging and established storytellers from in and around Walyalup | Fremantle who shared their first-hand experience of the often untold truths of our past.
It gave Indigenous and non-Indigenous people the opportunity to share their difficult truths and hopes for the future, with an audience of allies and those who wished to learn, in backyards around Fremantle.
Stories were shared safe and supportive environment and included topic like being part of the Stolen Generations, what it feels like to experience racism, as well as other thought provoking lived experiences.
Adopted by Council in August and subsequently endorsed by Reconciliation Australia, the RAP contains 17 actions and 95 deliverable outcomes to be achieved over the next three years.
There is focus on relationships, respect, opportunities, governance and for the first time, a focus on truth-telling.
The truth-telling program has continued with a First Nations Film Festival held at Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre across the 2025 Australia Day long weekend which included three feature length films, a short film, and Q&As with one of Australia’s top filmmakers, Tom Murray, who specialises in truth-telling documentaries.
The City also hosted a special First Nations edition of the Art Centre’s regular Sunday Music program on the 2025 Australia Day long weekend.
