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Last week, I was offered the opportunity to present at the third Torres Strait Economic Development Summit on Waiben, Thursday Island alongside our general manager, April. We offered to run our learning experiences with the young leaders while we were there. And we had a blast! Across the three days, we worked with 20 or more Port Kennedy Association (PKA) vacation participants each day, aged between four and twelve years old, sharing our robotics, online gaming and 3d printing experiences with the community.

The Torres Straits are definitely beautiful. But when we finally arrived on the Sunday 27th, I realised just how far away the communities are and how difficult it is to get resources there. We had 3 cases between the two of us, holding a 3D printer, 6 LEGO Mindstorm EV3 robots, 12 surface pros and all of the extra bits and pieces. It took 3 flights and a ferry before we reached our destination.

"I was so excited to finally meet some of the Thursday Island community. I was so thankful for the opportunity." - Zoe Betar, Learning Experience Designer

The sense of community and pride in culture was so strong that you couldn't help but notice.

seaside footpath

The first day, we shared online gaming. Learners built a canoe race game and animated their programs. They really enjoyed playing with the surface pros.

"... They didn't want to go home..." Miss Leah Lifu, Coordinator of PKA vacation care

The most impactful learning experience was of course, the robots which was run the following day. They were so excited about it and for young leaders that hadn't seen or used them before, they were naturals.

"They had them driving through obstacles, turning, reversing, racing and battling each other with little help from me! What was more special, was how the older students stepped up naturally, to help others with their robots. They worked together as a team and it was simply magical." -Zoe Betar

The young leaders were able to use the 3D printer on the last day, and printed their names or words of importance for them. There were so many questions about it and how it works, the excitement at seeing a 3D printer work was obvious.

At IDX, learning experiences with a Cultural focus in communities are our core business. And we're proud of doing them well. But as a team and initiative, we never stop learning. Each community will have a lesson for us. Each location will test the technology that we have and the way we teach it. There is nothing more rewarding for us as an initiative than seeing the excitement, the joy and the ability that the young leaders we've had the priviledge of working with so far, exhibit when they use the technology for the first time. There is so much potential. Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been innovating for at least 70,000 years and we will continue to do so.

This generation have constantly surprised us in a lot of ways. They constantly reinvigorate the what and the how we do what we do. It comes from them, and their desire to learn, and hopefully how we inspire them to think outside the box and explore different careers and opportunities for them in STEM related fields.

9 year old Tura, one of the inspirational young leaders from the TI community stood up to help others, shared his discoveries with them and had this to say about his experience with us.

"I've been playing with robots, helping other kids, making a video game, writing my name ona 3d printer. I found it extraordinary. I never thought I could do that. When I grow up I want to be an inventor. I want to make a big robot that can help the world."

It was a priveledge to be a part of the community for a week.

We have officially launched our Flint program that sparks the interest, ideas and talent of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in making digital technology. It provides $25,000(AUD) worth of in – kind support from the IDX Initiative for regional communities through hands on workshops for young people, skills development for local facilitators as well as equipment and educational resources.

So if you would like to have our learning experiences in your own community, click the link and send through your expressions of interest.

Before I wrap up, a special thanks to the TSRA The Port Kennedy Assocation Vacation care Program, Miss K and Miss Leah and the Thursday Island community for having us. Miss K and Miss Leah were wonderful supports for us.

As part of our commitment to digital and social innovation, we are so thrilled to be hosting a workshop in the IDX Hub (Redfern) as part of the national Changemakers Festival on Thursday, 23 October 9:30am–12pm.

The Changemakers Festival is a nationwide celebration of the great work happening in our community, an exploration of the ideas, techniques and technologies that are driving this change, and an invitation for everyone to get involved in creating a better future for our communities and our world.

The good folks at Value Machine had a great idea for a session that really resonates with our work here at the IDX Initiative, especially in relation to the Innovation Lab. And the workshop is FREE!!!

But we’ll let them explain:

The Lean Canvas, the Business Model Canvas, the Value Proposition Canvas and the Javelin Board—great tools that can be applied to social enterprise but they have their shortcomings in this context...

If you’ve had experience of using these—or similar—tools in a social enterprise context and feel the need for something better, join us for a hands-on, high-energy co-design workshop.

Anthony Quinn and Ben Pecotich of Value Machine will guide you through a process to create a fit for purpose tool for modelling a social enterprise on a page.

Our goal is to develop a tool that will enable social entrepreneurs, their advisors, supporters and stakeholders to invent, design and implement social enterprise business models.

You are guaranteed a sense of creative satisfaction, a copy of the published outputs and automatic invitation to future Value Machine events.

And you’ll probably have fun doing it and get to know some like-minded changemakers.

Indigenous excellence comes in all different forms, and at IDX we get to see it almost daily. With a more digital focus, we promote, research and discuss things that are happening in communities across the nation, and in the realm of the world wide web. But recently, we ventured to the Macquarie University’s Mana Allawah community day, where numerous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups gathered to inform, enlist and engage our mobs in the local area with their services and opportunities. Mana Allawah is Darug for “Get Together”.

There were powerful yarning circles where everyone was invited to take part in discussions around education, health, employment and housing led by Community leaders—Simon Jovanovic, Sue Pinkham and Jan Perret. These yarns looked at what was working, what wasn’t and were then followed with strategies and options of what we could do as a community to help fix the problems.

While these were happening inside, the stalls with brochures, giveaways and smiling faces were buzzing in anticipation of the members of community coming through that day. One thing that stood out, was the fact that so many different organisations, companies and people were all there for the one reason, to help our communities in one way shape or form. It was a great opportunity to connect and reconnect with people and the traditional food was DELICIOUS!

Throughout the day, interviews were being done by Koori Radio and speakers such as Aunty June Riemer and Aunty Diane Brookes gave a powerful speech on our struggles with the right assistance, and knowledge regarding those with disabilities. They had a strong call to action for our mob to have a yarn and to go to the right places for answers. Their website is Aboriginal Disability Network NSW.

From the very beginning, a key aim of the Community of Excellence has been to connect as many Indigenous men, women and jarjums with each other as possible. The month of April has seen us reach 1000 members from across Australia join up and start the conversations we’ve been missing.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, the strongest link you can have is between kin and with the land. Throughout Australia’s history, we have held onto our culture as much as we could, and have begun restoring what was lost in the torturous years of settlement, wars, pillages and dehumanising of our race and of our culture. We have survived. But not without a heavy price.

Australia’s shared history with Indigenous people was a hard one. We lost language, we lost kin and our young ones through stolen generations and massacres, and for many, there was a huge loss with the land and our sense of Belonging.

In this day and age, I have seen much and heard of much more. I don’t know my traditional Bundjalung language, I cannot tell all of the Bundjalung stories, as they weren’t told to me. Raised by my non-Indigenous mother, all I can tell you, is that the blood that runs through my veins is drawn to the rivers and the ocean. It is drawn to the land and the mountains that covet the Bundjalung Nation. My heart sings when my feet touch the sand and the water ripples through my fingers.

Moving from Tweed Heads to Sydney for school and then uni was both the hardest, but best choice I have made for me. In Sydney, I have had the privilege to meet and work with numerous Indigenous Aunties and Uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces. Leaders in their own rights and strong culture bearers and wearers. These people are who led me to my current role as Community Catalyst at the NCIE. Prior to this, I was inspired on a daily basis working with the young Indigenous kids in schools along the east coast in the Australian Indigenous Mentoring experience (AIME) Program. I was able to see Mickey Kovari work to create the platform for the Community of Excellence (CoE) in its earliest stages. Originally being open to a small close-knit group of people in its beta stage, to expanding the team behind the scenes in 2013, where opportunities, events and blogs were posted and conversations really started to stick. And the present year, April 2014, has seen the membership grow to 1000 and it’s only going to reach bigger numbers.

This is something we can be proud of.

You might be reading this thinking, “What the heck does the start of this blog have to do with celebrating 1000 members?”

Well, let me tell you…

With such a history as we’ve had, both negative and positive, Indigenous people across Australia have regained a lot of equality, reconnections, and have demonstrated inspirational movements and leadership through adversity. From our young men and women fighting in civil and international wars, movements such as the Freedom Rides with Charlie Perkins, Mabo fighting for his people’s land, the Tent Embassy, silent protests that spoke volumes across the world. These historical moments and people built platforms for future generations to take their own lives in their hands and do what they will with it.

The CoE is aiming to connect our peoples in an online forum so that connections can be made and kept without the bull. An Indigenous only space, we aim to facilitate the conversations around tough issues, to link Indigenous professionals with others wanting to get into the field. Where generations mix and mingle and where we can promote the Indigenous events around the country so all of our members are aware and can connect in the physical realm.

In the lead up to the 26th of January, with the life changing event for Australia and its Indigenous Peoples in 1788, it seemed only natural to theme this week’s blog on history.

On that fateful day in 1788, life as we had known it was forever changed, but we didn’t know at the time how much we would lose or how much would be sacrificed in the name of survival. This last week, I have learnt a lot about the history of Indigenous Australia and the degradation of a proud people in a land that we belonged to. I wasn’t brought up in culture, I don’t know the Bundjalung peoples language and I only know a few of our stories. For me, January 26th had always been ‘Australia Day’. It wasn’t until I came to Sydney that that changed at all. For the first time I had heard it being called “Invasion Day”, “Day of Mourning” and “Survival Day”. With this in mind, I thought I would ask other community members what they thought of it. I had very strong and different responses.

A brother told me:

“History plays a massive role in the creation & reinforcement of a nations’ identity, builds a framework that governs much of the way we interact through the establishment of dominant cultures/thinking/status, the fabric of society.

The way Australia treats Black history reflects much of the way Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mob have been disempowered throughout the years with their history/identity been dismissed. Looking at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, the oldest living culture that is now tied to a young nation of a few hundred years, there is a unique opportunity to create a new national identity and framework that shifts our thinking.

The 26th of January does not need to be a day tied to guilt or shame but a day of reflection like other war dates tied to Australia. It should be a day for all Australians to reflect on the sacrifice of many standing & falling for the values and beliefs they valued through the frontier wars. Through the understanding history can tell different accounts of the same event we can create the space to tell multiple histories and create a more inclusive Australia, an Australia that celebrates and engages in a direct line through tens of thousands of years of excellence.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself! Through networking and meeting community members over the years, I have discovered that we are in a time of drastic change. Communities are stepping up to build brighter futures for themselves and their communities. We hear the stats, and it is no longer just Indigenous people fighting to change them, but non-Indigenous people are now joining in with the fight to change this nation to one of equality, support and cultural strength.

“Personally, I have a very strong negative reaction to "Australia Day" in principle. I don't think it's a day to be celebrated, and my view on that just gets stronger every year. I have been expressing that on my blog for many years, and every time I post I find that it's a sentiment that is shared by many of my friends. I feel that a unified "Australia Day" can only be celebrated on a different date. I don't know what date it should be. And if 26 Jan is to be "celebrated", it should begin with a solemn reflection on lives lost and the cost of invasion and colonisation since. It is not the same, but for white folks, something akin to ANZAC day (obviously far from a perfect analog), which "celebrates" in a far different way to how Australia Day is most often presented.”