Our Story

Welcome to Cape York/Gulf RAATSIC (Remote Area Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Corporation), formally RAATSICC. 

We are a community controlled Not for Profit organisation delivering human services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Far North Queensland.

RAATSIC began in 1990 when a small group of concerned women from the 5 communities of the Northern Peninsula Area (NPA) met in Bamaga to talk about issues around childcare and domestic violence. 

At this time, there were no dedicated childcare services in the Cape and Gulf. In taking their concerns up with government representatives, the women discovered that they were unable to access any of the mainstream childcare services funding. 

Shortly after, another meeting was convened in an old tin shed and attended by 60 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women committed to establishing childcare services and facilities for the benefit of their children.

RAATSIC’s philosophy views childcare in a holistic way and includes programs that encourage the personal, social, developmental, recreational and cultural wellbeing of children, encompasses child protection, and youth and family services, as well as childcare.

Our network now operates across the communities of Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf of Carpentaria. 

RAATSIC embraces a wide range of local community approaches to childcare and family services, and its success relies upon community participation and decision making.