CAPE YORK JUNE 2017
empoweredcommunities.org.au
VOICES OF COMMUNITY
Empowered Communities Empowered Communities is not one-size fits all.
Empowered Communities.
It’s us fellas.
It’s a way to move issues that have become motionless in the community.
You have to come together and swim up the river, that’s what an empowered community is.
Go for it! 1 |
We only recently opted in, but in the short time have seen some success.
It’s about getting the funding directly to the grass root people.
It’s about getting everyone together and making sure their voices are heard.
Note from the desk 2017
has seen Empowered Communities grow in strength in the eight regions across Australia. In Cape York, people have been working steadily with Empowered Communities Cape York (EC CY) to move the power back into their own hands. EC CY has been busy making information available to people thinking about opting in. Mossman Gorge, Hope Vale, Coen and Lockhart River have been discussing their own ideas to grow income and employment in their communities. Some communities have been working with Jawun volunteers and policy experts to create their own agendas for childcare and housing and homes. Mossman and Hope Vale Communities have opted in, and Mossman Gorge have now held negotiation tables with government partners to ensure projects deliver Mossman Gorge priorities.
EMPOWERMENT For you and future generations
In February, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull endorsed Empowered Communities in his annual Closing the Gap Report to Parliament. The PM also confirmed his commitment to keep working with communities to build a new way of doing things in Indigenous Affairs. Here in Cape York, local Indigenous people continue the journey towards an empowered future that previous generations of Cape York people worked so hard to create for us. I look forward to seeing more great strides in 2017 and seeing more Cape York leaders at the table working to shift the power back into the hands of Cape York people at all levels. Fiona Jose
NATIONAL EC LEADER
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FAREWELL Doreen Hart has tirelessly engaged with Cape York communities since the launch of the Empowered Communities initiative in late 2014. Two and half years and thousands of kilometres later, Empowered Communities processes are being used by the Cape York communities of Mossman Gorge, Hope Vale, Lockhart River and Coen to progress their own agendas for employment, income, housing and homes with their government partners. As the EC Engagement Officer, Doreen has engaged and supported Cape York communities with fearless frankness and realism. Her relentless encouragement and optimism will be missed. We wish Doreen all the best as she returns to Hope Vale to commence work with Apunipima Cape York Health Council.
WELCOME Renee Williams, joins the team as Executive Officer
for Empowered Communities Cape York. With a background in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander data, policy and information management, Renee has previously worked at Apunipima Cape York Health Council and other Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations.
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Melissa Sinclair, started with the Empowered
Communities in October 2016. Melissa has worked in media and advertising, community engagement and planning for Indigenous management of homelands, economic development and community projects in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.
THE TIME IS NOW… Have
YOUR SAY Mossman Gorge and Hope Vale have opted in. Now they are selecting two local members to sit at the Regional Leadership Group.
Attend an EC meeting and have your say! If your community wants to be able to influence the decisions made about what programs should have priority in your community and regionally, make sure you invite EC to your community to find out more and opt in.
Is your community ready to hold the power?
We must be the ones to empower our community. Since 2015, Empowered Communities Cape York (EC CY) has been informing Cape York communities about how Indigenous Affairs is changing. The Empowered Communities approach commits government to shifting power back to Indigenous leadershipof communities that opt in. By opting in you and your community agrees: • EDUCATION is important for your children and they will go to school every day. • GOOD HEALTH is a GOOD LIFE and your family should have access to both. • A HOUSE by itself doesn’t create a home and provide security. • SAFE PLACES AND SPACES – Everyone deserves to live in places and spaces free of fear and abuse. • JOBS WITH A PURPOSE giv e people and families safety, security and self-esteem.
Putting the power back into Indigenous hands Once your community agrees to opt in, Empowered Communities Cape York (EC CY): • SUPPORTS you and your community to create Local Development Agendas. • CONVENES NEGOTIATION TABLES for the Regional Leadership Group of representatives of communities that have opted in. The Regional Leadership Group negotiates with government about where they invest money in their communities and region. • ADAPTS & EVOLVES with the Regional Leadership Group to champion Indigenous leadership in Indigenous Affairs. | 4
EMPOWERED COMMUNITIES
We must be the ones to empower our families Failing to plan is planning to fail. So, the first step of the Empowered Communities process is to make our plans.
Everyone come together
STEP:
We need all our leaders and all our families at the table because if it’s not us fellas doing it, it’s not Empowered Communities. We must be the ones!
Talk and draft
Everyone needs to have a say about their plans for the future and how to make things better. This stage of the process is to enable community to come together and talk and draft our plan.
Seeing, sharing and reflecting on our plan
Everyone needs to share and keep improving our plan. Ideas change as we spend more time making them clearer.
Refine and finalise our plan
If we feel that; we understand our purpose; we know who the important partners are, and we are ready to share our plan and take action, then we know we have successfully completed Step 1. 5 |
Step 1 is about getting to the point where:
üWe understand our purpose üWe know the important partners for our plan üWe are ready to share our plan üWe are ready to take action
The power in community How is this different? This partnership requires all involved to play a different role and have an open mind to think about things differently. It is not about Empowered Communities Cape York (EC CY) or government telling you what to do. EC CY is there to support your community take control of your destiny. EC CY is there to enable you to guide government and service providers to support your future.
Who is involved? Empowered Communities is currently in Cape York and seven other regions around Australia. Communities in the eight regions are commencing their planning in ways that suit themselv es, and parts of government have also started to get ready for this new way of doing Indigenous Affairs. The National Leadership Group champion Indigenous leadership and responsibility and support their communities to take the lead.
How do I get involved? How can my community opt in? What can I do? • Sign a declaration of support for the Empowered Communities process • Gather all local families within your community for a discussion • Arrange a meeting with EC CY to learn more • Determine your Local Alliance • Help form the local agenda on what you want to change • Represent your community as a local leader What can a group of people do? • Invite EC CY to your community to explain Empowered Communities and discuss the steps of the process and assist you to develop a local development agenda of what your community needs. • From these meetings, you can choose how you will come together to opt in, develop your plans and start putting them into action locally. • After you have started working on your local plans, the Empowered Communities Regional Leadership Group provides a way for communities to connect with each other and consider whether there are any issues that everyone is united in advocating and addressing. | 6
EMPOWERED COMMUNITIES
IN ACTION
Dreams do come true‌ working towards success together Since 2016, Empowered Communities Cape York (EC CY) have been meeting with a group of Mossman Gorge people to discuss how local people can get more jobs. Through a number of meetings, the group spoke about how unemployment impacts the wellbeing of their fellow brothers and sisters and the wider community of families. Over time, the group outlined 12 ideas for how the Mossman Gorge community could change for the better. Through the Empowered Communities process, they also decided to form the Mossman Gorge Alliance to work with EC CY to develop their 12 ideas into strategies that address the current issues of their community.
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Of the 12 ideas, the Alliance agreed that one important idea is that young, local Mossman Gorge people have the opportunity to be employed at the Mossman Gorge Centre. The Mossman Gorge Centre was the dream of Mossman Gorge people, particularly Roy Gibson, for many years. Now that the Centre has been opened for a few years, the group felt it was time to discuss with partne rs the issue of employing young, local Mossman Gorge people at the centre. The Alliance called a meeting with partners, Indigenous Tourism Australia (ITA), Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) and Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) to discuss their ideas for the future of their community.
Empowered Communities, it is us fellas. In preparation for the meeting, the Alliance worked together to make sure everyone felt they could speak openly in a respectful space and keep building strong relationships. At the meeting, Alliance members spoke on behalf of their community. They outlined the impacts of unemployment on their community and shared their local plans that focused on development and sustainable employment. The Mossman Gorge Alliance yarned about their 12 ideas for how to change the community for the better. By the end of the meeting each party agreed to a plan of action to make these ideas a reality. The Mossman Gorge Alliance plan includes; fortnightly and monthly meetings; making a recruitment and training strategy for employment; community engagement projects to celebrate joint success; and support for future funding.
Great change doesn’t happen overnight The Mossman Gorge Alliance didn’t just get to this moment overnight. They put in the hard work to finalise their ideas, refined their presentation approach and style, arranged for all stakeholders to be in the room at the same time and navigated through community criticism. Through all this they were supported by Empowered Communities Cape York. “Empowered Communities, it is us fellas. We signed up for it. We want to be in the position to make changes, so we have a responsibility to help make those changes.” Empowered Communities Local Champion, Karen Gibson said, “Empowered Communities, it is us fellas. We signed up for it. We want to be in the position to make changes, so we have a responsibility to help make those changes”.
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NATIONAL EC NEWS Empowered Communities leader appointed to Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council
Prime Minister gives us the thumbs up! “Greater empowerment of local communities will deliver the shared outcomes we all seek. So, my government is reforming the way the Indigenous Affairs portfolio operates, moving away from transactional government to enablement. From paying for services to linking funding to outcomes and from a one-size fits all mindset for program design to local solutions.
Empowered Communities is now in 8 regions across the country, I met their leaders last month, and it is clear that this approach is generating strong Indigenous governance and empowering Indigenous people.
Congratulations to Andrea Mason on her appointment to the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council. Andrea is one of the leaders of Empowered Communities (EC) National Leadership Group and is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjartjara Yankunytjatjarra (NPY) Women’s Council. NPY Women’s Council works across 350,000 square kilometres of Central Australia helping empower women and their families. As well as advocating for women, the Council aims to create employment opportunities, support health and wellbeing, and tackle domestic violence and other social challenges. In 2016, Ms Mason was named the Northern Territory’s Australian of the Year.
Empowered Communities acknowledged at the 10 th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Empowered Communities has been discussed at the United Nations 10th anniversary of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. “As part of Australia’s commitment to enable Indigenous leaders to develop local solutions, we have a responsibility to measure the success, or otherwise, of our policies and programs, and adjust where needed, and sharing this knowledge and evidence with communities enables local decision making. For example, we are supporting the Empowered Communities initiative, developed by Indigenous leaders, which aims to strengthen local leadership and governance to build prosperous and safe communities”, said Rachel O’Connor of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
REGIONAL EC NEWS
Indigenous families and communities must be at the centre of this approach.” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Closing The Gap Speech 2017
NPY Lands move forward on emerging priorities Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Lands, like Cape York, have many diverse communities and the NPY EC Secretariat are starting to see some emerging priorities for local communities in economic development and jobs, impacts of domestic violence, and children and family support. “It is about Anangu and Yarnangu taking back responsibilty for ourselves, our families and our communities: leading our own plans for change and making the important decisions about our future and the future of our children.”
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LOCAL EC NEWS
Team Coen moving to extend child care services Empowered Communities Team Coen have moved towards extending local child care services. Through the Empowered Communities process, where Team Coen sometimes had to juggle the meetings with baby duties, the team identified a need for longer day care hours. Through the EC process, Jawun secondee Dianne Cannon worked with Team Coen to implement a community-wide survey of childcare needs and develop a Coen Child Care Feasibility Assessment which is now being used to help secure more child care to meet the needs of the Coen community.
Celebrating International Women’s Day in Lockhart River Lockhart River Women’s Group were joined by the Empowered Communities Cape York team and family and friends to celebrate International Women’s Day at the Women’s Shelter in March. It was a great chance to celebrate the power of women to create change and discuss Empowered Communities. The discussions with the women of Lockhart River prompted more discussions within the community about Empowered Communities.
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PROFILE
CHASING DREAMS LINC PORT
Source: The Cairns Post
Linc Port’s #1 Fan Within a stadium full of screaming supporters, Tammy Gibson whistles, and her son Linc Port turns and waves to his number one fan. This demonstration of love is normal for the Gibson family, as Gary and Tammy have built deep, lifelong connections with their two children, Linc and Duane.
Strong foundations With such strong foundations, they have ensured their children recognise the importance of family , culture, community and language but at the same time understand what it means to be empowered. When asked what empowerment means to their family, Tammy responded “it is about giving yourself strategies to be successful outside of community but at the same time remembering where you come from”. This idea of taking
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control of your own destiny through self-empowerment and cultural connection has truly been embraced by Linc Port.
From Hope Vale to Melbourne During his school days at Hope Vale, and through to St. Theresa’s College in Abergowrie, Linc was mesmerised by all types of sport including athletics, soccer and rugby league. It was only during a rugby league game in Coen, whilst playing for an Aurukun side that he was recognised for his prowess and skill on the footy field. Over the next several years, Linc worked incredibly hard to ensure he was picked for many representative sides including the Australian and New Zealand under 20’s, the West Tigers, the North Devils, the Northern Pride and the most recent East Tigers which is a feeder club for the Melbourne Storm.
Empowerment starts with me Balance between education and sport As a young fella, he was disciplined by putting time aside to focus on his studies, read books and learn his cultural language. As he puts it “My mother Tamara (Gibson), and my nan Dora (Gibson) are both teachers and they made me very aware growing up how important is was to read books from a young age”. As Tammy puts it, with this dual focus he didn’t have to “put all of his eggs in one basket”. Instead, Linc chose to have a back up plan of being a PE Teacher just in case the footy dream didn’t work out.
Ambition, courage and sacrifice Through self-empowerment, Linc built his confidence, skills and knowledge on the field, in the classroom, and now in his sporting profession. Along the way he had to make sacrifices and tough choices to follow his dream. Whilst transitioning into the bright lights of the game, Linc knew he had to be disciplined and responsible otherwise he wouldn’t make it onto the field. Even until this day, Linc still comes back to country, language and community as often as he can to “fill up his cultural cup”.
Empowerment starts with us “We need Empowered Communities here. We need to help one another to make Mossman a better place.” KATRINA DOUGLAS – MOSSMAN GORGE
“Empowerment means giving yourself strategies to be successful outside of community but at the same time remembering where you come from.” TAMMY GIBSON – HOPE VALE
Recognition of support Linc acknowledges that he wouldn’t be where he is today without the support of his family, teachers and community. He knows he was fortunate to have access to a range of leaders, but also have parents by his side. Right now, Linc is stoked to have Billy Slater (Melbourne Storm full back) as his club mentor, who helps him build confidence on the field.
“Empowerment means becoming educated, working hard, and focusing on bettering myself on the footy field.” QUINLYN CANNON – HOPE VALE
Recipe for success Linc knows that he isn’t perfect, and some days he has to pinch himself as he can’t believe he has made it this far. Linc recognises his recipe of success is a combination of hard work, focus, humility, courage, confidence, family, culture and education. Nobody knows how hard sports people train. It takes a toll on your mind, body and spirit. Linc will continue to have a positive outlook on life, and with confidence and encouragement from his family he feels he can do anything! With this support and recognition of his roots, he will continue to chase his dream and develop himself along the way.
“Indigenous people have the plan and the solutions. We are the only ones in fact with the solutions and its time to tell the world.” FIONA JOSE
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Empowered Communities
LO C A L C H A M P I O N S
KAREN GIBSON
Mossman Gorge
BRUCE GIBSON Hope Vale
ALLAN CREEK Coen
COULD THIS BE YOU?
Empowered Communities Cape York Empowered Communities Cape York is the team of people working to help communities learn more about the Empowered Communities approach to Indigenous Affairs and put the power back into Indigenous hands.
RENEE WILLIAMS
Executive Officer P: 07 4042 7228 E: rwilliams@cyp.org.au
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MELISSA SINCLAIR EC CY Team P: 07 4046 0617 E: msinclair@cyp.org.au
ELLIE AUSTIN
EC CY Team P: 07 4046 0625 E: eaustin@cyp.org.au
Still have questions? Call us for a yarn about Empowered Communities.
VOICES OF COMMUNITY Mossman Gorge Champions of Change Karen Gibson, Emma Burchill and Katrina Douglas
As local champions, we are here to spread the word of the Empowered Communities approach to local community. Sometimes we feel that we are banging your head against the wall but we don’t give up.
The community is excited about what is going to happen next, as we have the support of many people.
It has helped us put our feet back on the ground as leaders, and share the load with our fellow brothers and sisters who feel the same as us.
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WE
must be the ones who
EMPOWER our community
If we want to put the power back into Indigenous hands, we must be the ones to: • Come together • Consider this new approach • Decide if we agree to OPT IN and CREATE our own Local Agenda • COLLABORATE and unite on regional issues