Meet the savvy corporation closing the gap on educational achievement in Australia and around the world.
Sydney, New South Wales: Forget Facebook. For young Indigenous people in Australia and young marginalised people around the world, there’s a far better way to engage with peers and the world beyond school.
Bunya Mountains, southern Queensland: 250 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, Bunya Mountains—or Booburrgan Ngmmunge as this Country has always been known to Aboriginal people—hosts the world’s largest stand of bunya pines (Araucaria bidwillii) as well as natural grasslands, wet and dry rainforests, and many rare and threatened plants and animals. For Aboriginal people from near and far, it’s a sacred, nourishing place.
Canberra, Ngunnawal Country: Leaders bring people together and catalyse positive change within families, communities, corporations and society. With that process in mind, in May 2020 Kerrie Tim and 2 others founded the Leadership Institute for Positive Futures Indigenous Corporation. The corporation aims to inspire leadership for social change, positive societies, improved professional performance, and strengthened identity. And they’ve been working to those ends—without any funding—for nearly 2 years.
Djarindjin, Western Australia: Another helicopter lands at Djarindjin Airport and 19 passengers head for the air-conditioned terminal nearby. Meanwhile, the chopper’s engine roars and its rotors spin as the ground crew begin their 10th ‘hot fuelling’ for the day; a tricky and specialised task that involves refilling the aircraft’s tank without shutting it down. It requires a highly trained team to get it right every time.
ANKA works hard to build and sustain the skills of its directors and the performance of its board—and it shows.
Top End: First incorporated in 1987, Arnhem Northern and Kimberley Artists Aboriginal Corporation—ANKA—is the lead support and advocacy body for Aboriginal artists and Aboriginal-owned community art centres in over a million square kilometres of country across northern Australia. ANKA represents close to 50 art centres and 6000 artists, and its strategy is clear and openly expressed on its website:
Lithgow, New South Wales: In late 2019, members of the Mingaan Wiradjuri Aboriginal Corporation near Lithgow were worried. The mega-blaze known as the Gospers Mountain bushfire was roaring towards them, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake.
Elder Helen Riley, one of 4 directors of the corporation, received a phone call from a local member of the Rural Fire Service: ‘The fire is heading our way and we don’t know if we can save Maiyingu Marragu.’
Through art, Erub Erwer Meta Torres Strait Islander Corporation is raising global awareness and sustaining Erubam Le people's connection to land, sea, and sky.
Cultural and artistic traditions have long enriched community life in the Torres Strait. On the island of Erub (Darnley) in the north east, Erub Erwer Meta Torres Strait Islander Corporation, trading as Erub Arts, is supporting those traditions while sustaining the unique identity of its people and their deep connection to the land, sea, and sky around them.
Wilinggin Aboriginal Corporation has been awarded the 100 millionth carbon credit.
Derby, Western Australia: North Kimberley is stunning country: steep mountains, limestone gorges and thousands of acres of savanna woodland. Ngarinyin (Wilinggin) people are combining traditional fire management knowledge with contemporary scientific practices, they are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and—at the same time—earning money for their people and their communities.
Ngunnawal country, Canberra: Yerrabi Yurwang Child & Family Aboriginal Corporation was established in 2019 with objectives to improve health and wellbeing among Aboriginal children and families living on Ngunnawal country. In 2020 it won a local government grant under the ACT’s ‘new and emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations program’ (NEO).
Tech-friendly Mamabulanjin Aboriginal Corporation is leading an alliance of Aboriginal community-controlled native food producers in the Top End.
Broome, Western Australia: Having partnered with 7 other Aboriginal-owned enterprises to form the Northern Australia Aboriginal Kakadu Plum Alliance, Mamabulanjin Aboriginal Corporation is innovating to benefit Aboriginal growers and global consumers of Kakadu plums.
