People and Culture

In 2021, NIDA employed 160 full-time and part-time and 600 casual employees to deliver our vast educational offering. NIDA also supported individuals and businesses across the broader creative industries through 713 contractors and suppliers to service NIDA activities and operations. This combined NIDA team of dedicated and expert teachers, practitioners, support staff and leaders bring to life our purpose in unlocking the power of the creative industries. Following on from last year’s NIDA Board of Directors Statement of Principles, NIDA continued the work of building a more inclusive and supportive culture for both staff and students with a range of initiatives introduced throughout 2021. This included representation on selection panels for staff and student recruitment, waiving of student application fees, provision of significant student scholarships to remove financial barriers to participation, and a revised marketing strategy aimed to attract a broader demographic of potential students and staff, including promotion in publications like the Koori Mail. Curriculum changes included providing a wider variety of texts and experiences, an increased diversity of talented creatives contributing to the learning, and priorisation of diversity within a larger curriculum reshaping. Greater psychological support was provided with employment of onsite counsellors and through the Director of People and Culture’s guidance. NIDA also held several special events to create a more inclusive and culturally informed community. NIDA’s NAIDOC Week Annual Lecture featured Elaine Crombie in conversation with Dr Sandra Phillips, and National Reconciliation Week was celebrated with Auntie Rhonda DixonGrovenor who ran a short language session to teach us some phrases in her language. The In Conversation series was curated by great artists from diverse backgrounds and offered an impressive line-up of guests exploring their roles in impacting and changing Australian culture through the arts. In the second half of the year, NIDA welcomed Rhoda Roberts AO as First Nations Consultant, who brought her years

Images, this page: Gods Country (Photo: Patrick Boland) Technical Stage and theatre Production students Opposite page: Mr Burns (Photo: Lisa Maree Williams) of performing arts experience to provide NIDA with insight and expertise to influence First Nations strategies and actions. We also appointed Tasnim Hossain as Artistic Associate as a key contributor to the artistic planning, play production seasons and to participate in leadership discussions regarding a range of topics including increasing representation and inclusiveness across our educational programs and productions. The lockdown brought many challenges and required a sharp focus on staff and student wellbeing, particularly in the psycho-social space. Many staff undertook Mental Health First Aid training and students attended a Wellbeing Workshop led by Ben Steel who specialises in wellbeing in the creative industries. We will continue to make this a focus in 2022 and beyond. More flexible workplace practices were introduced with an increase in staff working from home when work output allowed. This trend continues and we commenced a workplace planning process to enhance our physical working environment which we will enact in 2022.