Partnerships: Malabugilmah: Turning wastewater into resource water
Presentation by Roy Hatfield, Institute Aborignal Coordinator, North Coast Institute
The achievement
The Malabugilmah Aboriginal community and its partners were told, “you’ll never get anywhere with that mate. Well they were wrong”
The team turned around environmental problems such as:
- dangerous septic tanks, poorly built infrastructure, old leaky flood prone ponds, leaky pipes and water shortages
- rubbish in play areas, polluted swimming holes and nowhere to play football or run around; and
- lack of education, training, and unemployment.
They did this by creating the necessary partnerships, providing skills and training which enabled the Aboriginal residents to replace the old leaky flood prone ponds with constructed wetlands, and create a new football field, reusing waste water for irrigation.
The wetland cells were created on site by trainees from the community. Now, no longer trainees, but qualified workers, residents can maintain the wetlands cells.
Roll Call
There were many many partnerships involved in the project, but on the other hand, its hard yakka, very difficult working in isolation.
Apart from Malabugilmah Aboriginal community and the Aboriginal Education Unit and staff of the North Coast Institute of TAFE NSW, Dr Keith Bolton and Dr Jim Byrne of Southern Cross University explained the technology and leant expertise. Yabba Yulka Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) provided and employment framework.
Premier’s Department co-ordinated the government agencies involved including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and subsequently by the Indigenous Coordination Centre at Coffs Harbor. The NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs contributed funding as did the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Workplace Relations, and NSW Health.
Success
Of the 14 original participants, ten completed after four years. These graduates are all in employment. From the beginning TAFE teachers realised a standard Certificate III or IV program was not going to work. Participants were enrolled in one unit at a time within Rural Operations according to the skill needs at that time. This arrangement meant that payments to participants had to be negotiated over and over again with Centrelink and Abstudy.
Skill sets were identified and modules were taught as required. All teaching was on the job including OH&S. The biggest task was getting it all together so that it formed a Certificate!
The educational process encompassed two way learning, requiring constant critique of projects and resources by TAFE teachers involved as well as experiential learning by the participants.
Outcomes which cannot be measured
Malabugilmah community developed independence as a result of the project. The community elected their own representative to Land Council, began making their own decisions, and developing good networks to manage the community.
People found work based upon the skills they had learnt, working on the construction of the correctional centre, and within OTG Environmental Solutions, travelling all over the country.
As Alan Boota, the CDEP supervisor told us:
TAFE has learnt how to do this thing… We were a bit frightened before…didn’t know much about them (but we)learnt all about them (and) picked up certificate. Lot of culture there, building up that rapport… it takes time sometimes.
We were sitting in our village going no where. (The project) help our people get off the ground. .help our kids.
Click here to listen to the Session
See Also
Department of Education, Science and Training, and the Australian National Training Authority, 2004, Getting’ into it. Working with Indigenous Learners. Australian Training Products Ltd., Melbourne.
MILLER, Cydde 2005, Aspects of training that meet Indigenous Australians aspirations. A systematic review of the research NCVER, Adelaide.
Jill Gientzotis is an independent researcher and consultant in vocational education and training and organisational development. She is currently working on a Capacity Building project in an Indigenous community in Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjara Land