Merri Merri Wayi is a community-led collaboration
to enable our natural and urban worlds to thrive along the Merri Creek.
Merri Merri Wayi - meaning Merri Merri (and) Us - is the Woi-wurrung language name granted to the collaboration by Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Gail Smith and formally registered with the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation.
Speaking to the heart of this initiative, a collaboration where all of ‘us’ can get involved to create regenerated, safe, thriving and healthy places for communities to connect to each other and to the Merri Creek.
The Merri Creek is an iconic and important ecosystem with more than 40,000 years of human interaction and Traditional Ecological Knowledge from the Wurundjeri peoples. This initiative acknowledges the past, present and future role Traditional Owners have on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples.
It also acknowledges the thousands of people who volunteer and continue to work to protect Merri Creek, notably the Merri Creek Management Committee and the Friends of Merri Creek.
Acknowledgements
About
Merri Merri Wayi is a community-led collaboration to enable our natural and urban worlds to thrive along Creek. Its purpose is to to build safe, connected and welcoming places along the Merri Creek, learning from the culture of Indigenous peoples, and supporting the environmental health of the creek.
Cultural Partnerships
Merri Merri Wayi has worked with the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation in a cultural consultation process since 2021 to name the collaboration in Woi-Wurrung language and through an ongoing partnership in the Merri Merri Wayi Reference Group.
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Community Engagement
Merri Merri Wayi is being shaped by the community. Between 2021 and 2023, community consultations were held following the model of the Collective Impact framework in line with Council’s Community Engagement Policy in the Collaborate and Empower range of the IAP2 public participation spectrum.
6 main priorities in the realms of social, cultural and environmental were identified during those consultations. More details on the results of these consultations can be found in the Merri Merri Wayi Community Priorities Report.
Nature Connections
The beauty and the uniqueness of the Merri Creek is testament to the thousands of volunteers that as part of the community, Merri Creek Management Committee and the Friends of Merri Creek, have brought the creek back from pollution, weed infestation and neglect.
The work of Meri Meri Wayi of creating a safe, connected and welcoming place along the Merri Creek is being built on Safety Survey Report results that visbilized the need of community initiatives, and improving communication, engagement, infrastructure and maintenance.
Other key actors in this porcess were CERES, Newlands and East Coburg Neighbourhood Houses, Joe’s Market Garden, the Men for the Merri Community and the Fawkner Food Bowl that answered to the call of community proposals.
Merri Merri Wayi has worked with the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation in a cultural consultation process since 2021 to name the collaboration in Woi-wurrung language and through an ongoing partnership in the Merri Merri Wayi Reference Group.
This project was possible to thanks to our partners. Click on their logos below to connect to their website and find many ways to get involve, from planting to clean ups to education.
CERES Consulting was appointed in 2021 by Merri-bek City Council to undertake community consultation and provide a framework within which relevant community collaborations could flourish in line with the Merri Creek Coburg Safety Survey Report. The work aimed to recognise the involvement of the community in determining goals, objectives and priorities for the future care, management and use of the Merri Creek & Surrounds.
It was proposed that the visioning exercise be focused on community consultation and engagement modelled on the Collective Impact framework in line with Council’s Community Engagement Policy in the Collaborate and Empower range of the IAP2 public participation spectrum. As part of its approach, CERES engaged Think Impact as subject matter experts in the Collective Impact framework to collaborate on the facilitation and synthesis of community consultation workshops.
