Strategic Planning with Annamila First Nations Foundation

May 2026

In May 2026, Professor Kerry Arabena facilitated two days of strategic planning for the Annamila First Nations Foundation, gathering its majority First Nations Board and leadership on Bunurong Country at Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula. Annamila’s vision is ‘a people at home with their identity and place’, and its work to promote and support the sovereignty of Australia’s First Peoples flows through three streams: Country and Culture, Healing and Wellbeing, and Truth and Justice. The days opened with a Welcome and smoking ceremony, and Kerry held the conversations as yarns, working from an agenda the Foundation framed as a menu, so that the Board could follow what mattered most to them in the room.

The planning brought together the Foundation’s founder, Co-Chairs and CEO to reflect on how Annamila contributes, convenes and influences, and on how it can best back Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led organisations and projects into the future. The work now informs the Foundation’s internal planning phase. For Karabena Consulting, it was a privilege to walk alongside a philanthropic partner whose commitment to self-determination, cultural governance and relational accountability shapes every part of how it gives.

Key words

Strategic planning, board facilitation, philanthropy, cultural governance, relational accountability, self-determination, Country and culture, healing and wellbeing, truth and justice, Bunurong Country