The latest round of the Regional and Remote Festivals Fund has provided a financial boost to eight regional organisations to deliver arts and cultural activities at regional festivals in Western Australia.
The Regional and Remote Festivals Fund is part of the Regional Arts and Cultural Investment Program (RACIP). It is open to groups, organisations or individual artists, WA regional local government authorities and Aboriginal communities to support the costs associated with delivering arts activity that is part of a festival in regional Western Australia. 
Initiatives receiving grants through the program are:

1. Esperance Community Arts for the Kaddatji Nyungar Boodja Community Sculpture project which will be displayed at the Esperance Wildflower Festival in September 2021;
2. City of Greater Geraldton for the artistic program behind the Big Sky Festival 2021;
3. Shire of Yalgoo’s Open Air Sculpture Gallery, part of the Emu Festival 2021;
4. Shire of Mount Magnet for SciArt & Astro-Photography Activities, drawing on local Indigenous artists and culminating in an Astro-Photography Exhibition;
5. York Arts and Events for presentation of the 7th annual York Festival;
6. Shire of Merredin for War Stories Illumination Projections, part of the inaugural Memorial Festival;
7. Big hART Inc for Songs for Peace 2021, a month-long series of events featuring song writing workshops, community feasting and intimate acoustic performances; and
8. Annette Nykiel for the We Must Get Together Sometime exhibition and related events.

 
Media statement 
More information

WAITOC, in partnership with Breakaway Tourism has developed the Aboriginal Tourism Academy (ATA).
The ATA is a customised program for tourism business development and professional development for staff. It aims to meet the needs of new and existing Aboriginal tourism operators across Western Australia, including training/skilling, strategic marketing assistance, product/service development, and mentoring.
This follows from the success of previous programs where WAITOC partnered with The City of Perth.
WAITOC encourages all interested individuals, businesses and organisations to work together to help grow Western Australia's unique Aboriginal cultural tourism industry. Through committed partnerships, all stakeholders will benefit and communities in our state will begin to prosper.
Learn more about partnering with WAITOC by downloading the Local Government Prospectus: WAITOC Partnership Packages 2020

The McGowan Government has announced funding for the construction of new state-of-the-art training facilities at North Regional TAFE's Broome and Kununurra campuses.
As part of the Rebuilding our TAFEs plan, $10 million has been allocated for a hospitality training centre in Broome, and $6 million has been allocated for a health and hospitality trade training centre at the Kununurra campus.
The new centre in Broome will provide students with a contemporary training environment and will be home to a new live works training restaurant and alfresco café. The centre will ensure students are job-ready and equipped to take up local employment opportunities in the hospitality and tourism industry as well as in the wider region such as catering in mine sites.
Live training restaurants add vibrancy to local communities and foster better industry partnerships while delivering industry-standard training.
The upgrades at North Regional TAFE's are part of the $167.4 million investment in capital works projects.
Read the full ministerial media statement.

As part of the WA Recovery Plan, the McGowan Government has announced a world-class hospitality and tourism training centre will be built at South Metropolitan TAFE's Mandurah campus.
The $9.17 million centre will replace an ageing home economics-style room to enable training of apprentice chefs in the Peel region. The centre will also focus on engaging local secondary students, young people and the long-term unemployed in vocational education and training.
The centre is set to improve the Peel region's capacity to train job-ready, highly skilled chefs, as well as front of house staff, event coordinators and tourism workers.
Read the full ministerial media statement.

The state government has made several announcements recently related to projects in the South West, including a $4.4 million investment into tourism initiatives in Collie. Funding will go towards town upgrades, wayfinding, and tourist amenity, as well as business development and new visitor infrastructure at Wellington Dam, which is set become the centrepiece of the $1.5 million Collie Mural Trail.

The Collie Mural Trail will feature a number of smaller murals throughout the Collie township, with work currently underway to finalise the location of murals and appointment of local artists. The lead artist for the Wellington Dam mural has been announced as Australian artist Guido Van Helton.

Other visitor attractions in the region, Lake Kepwari’s recreation hub and the Arklow mountain bike trails, are also due to open this year. Media statements:

• $4.4 million to Collie tourism injection as world-renowned artist selected to paint Wellington Dam
• Adventure awaits with new Collie mountain bike trails

Tourism WA will extend the deadline for applications for the Tourism Business Survival Grant to 4pm Monday July 13, 2020.
Applicants who have already submitted an application can re-open, review, amend and re-submit their application if they would like to.
Full details on the Tourism Business Survival Grant, including the Grant Guidelines and Frequently Asked Questions, can be found on Tourism WA’s corporate website.

Sport and Recreation Minister Mick Murray has released a 10-year WA Hiking Strategy to ensure Western Australians continue to enjoy the great outdoors in a safe and sustainable way.

The strategy is the first of its kind in the country and complements other trail strategies developed over the past 25 years in WA that focus on areas such as mountain biking and horse trails.

It will focus on traditional bushwalking and the emerging growth area of trail running, and will guide industry in the funding and development of hiking and trails for the next decade.

The State Government has allocated $250,000 over the next three years to encourage participation.

The strategy was developed by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC) and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), along with significant community input.

As part of the WA Hiking Strategy, a Hiking Implementation Reference Group has been formed to prioritise initiatives and guide its implementation.  Read more

Download:  WA Hiking Strategy: Bushwalking and trail running in Western Australia 2020 - 2030

The Aboriginal Tourism Academy (Round 1), developed by the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council (WAITOC) and Breakaway Tourism, and funded by program partners Indigenous Business Australia, City of Perth and the City of South Perth, is launching in July 2020.
The Aboriginal Tourism Academy is seeking expressions of interest from established ‘Emerging’ (operating less than 2 years), ‘Market Ready’ (operating for more than 2 years), and ‘Export Ready’ (operating over 3 years, contracted to international trade markets) Aboriginal tourism businesses in Western Australia that aspire to access the support, business/professional development, mentoring and industry networks required to operate successfully in the domestic and international Western Australian tourism industry. Applications close Friday, 19th June 2020. For more information, contact:
Rob Taylor, CEO WAITOC at ceo@waitoc.com or P: 0419 921 946
Michelle Sidebottom at michelle@breakawaytourism.com.au or P: 0419 904 691
Application form 

Revive WA is a community initiative designed to help WA’s post-Covid economic revival. It started with an online video encouraging people to ‘do their bit’ and support their tourist towns, but Revive WA is bigger than that.

The Revive WA logo will soon be free for all WA businesses to use, to remind their customers to ‘shop local’.

The film and the initiative were created free-of charge, by a collective of over 40 of WA’s advertising, film and production professionals to raise awareness that the ‘Buy Local’ message also extends to local creative and production services. "We see the work we’ve created for this initiative as a great way to highlight the incredible creative and production talent we have right here in WA."

"In recent years, many WA brands have shifted some of their production and creative strategy over to advertising agencies and production companies based on the East Coast. We’d love the Revive WA idea to inspire big WA businesses and government departments to support local suppliers in terms of using WA creative and production agencies and freelancers whenever possible, rather than spending their budgets interstate."

Regional Arts Australia have announced the details of The Recovery Boost funding scheme for individual creative practitioners and organisations in regional, remote and rural Australia. The funding is a one off investment provided by the Commonwealth Government which recognises the central role the arts play in supporting cohesive, thriving communities in regional Australia.  The funding which is designed to meet immediate, medium and long term activity through Relief, Recovery and Renewal stages includes a broad range of criteria including professional development and training programs.  Further information can be found here.