RAA Newsletter - Issue 4, May 2008,

Unique approach pays off teaching business skills to Indigenous Australians

Seven Indigenous women in Ceduna are now preparing for, among other things, a hunting and cooking event, an oyster festival, a fishing competition and a visual arts exhibition, using skills they have just learned through a training program being trialled by Regional Arts Australia (RAA). The program is based on RAA’s highly-successful Creative Volunteering course and the Indigenous pilot is being delivered on the basis that not everyone will have good English literacy skills. Course evaluator and observer, Lyn Leader-Elliott from Flinders University, says the seven women, aged from mid-30s to their 60s, all came to the course with practical ideas for projects that would benefit their communities. Some of these are scheduled to happen during NAIDOC week in July.

“The mood of the women was very committed. Although the course had an informal feel, they all worked really hard and said they had learned a lot. It helped them be more confident, and they’ve now got skills that can be used in a range of cultural and community organisations,” Leader-Elliott says.

“For instance, one woman is planning a series of events around traditional Indigenous foods. Another is helping to run a local oyster festival in October – Ceduna has about the best oysters in the world. “

“While we used our usual training books, the delivery was much more visual with the participants encouraged to learn through sharing information with each other. It’s the same course, but delivered in a more flexible way and it was really exciting to see how well it worked,” says Leader-Elliott.

A second pilot course was run for seven Indigenous women and men from Mungalla Station near Ingham in Far North Queensland who are about to launch their station as a tourism venture. The course offered business planning and event skills training to help them with their opening launch, which will focus on hunting and cooking with bush tucker.

The course is nationally accredited with participants receiving a Statement of Attainment for each module completed.

Once the pilot course has been evaluated, a decision will be made as to how and where they will be implemented nationally. National training for cultural workers in regional, rural and remote Australia has been undertaken by Regional Arts Australia since 2003 and is funded through the Federal Government’s Regional Arts Fund.



Unique approach pays off teaching business skills to Indigenous Australians Seven Indigenous women in Ceduna are now preparing for, among other things, a hunting and cooking event, an oyster festival, a fishing competition and a visual arts exhibition, using skills they have just learned through a training program being trialled by Regional Arts Australia (RAA). The program is based on RAA’s highly-successful Creative Volunteering course and the Indigenous pilot is being delivered on the basis that not everyone will have good English literacy skills. Course evaluator and observer, Lyn Leader-Elliott from Flinders University, says the seven women, aged from mid-30s to their 60s, all came to the course with practical ideas for projects that would benefit their communities. Some of these are scheduled to happen during NAIDOC week in July. “The mood of the women was very committed. Although the course had an informal feel, they all worked really hard and said they had learned a lot. It helped them be more confident, and they’ve now got skills that can be used in a range of cultural and community organisations,” Leader-Elliott says. “For instance, one woman is planning a series of events around traditional Indigenous foods. Another is helping to run a local oyster festival in October – Ceduna has about the best oysters in the world. “ “While we used our usual training books, the delivery was much more visual with the participants encouraged to learn through sharing information with each other. It’s the same course, but delivered in a more flexible way and it was really exciting to see how well it worked,” says Leader-Elliott. A second pilot course was run for seven Indigenous women and men from Mungalla Station near Ingham in Far North Queensland who are about to launch their station as a tourism venture. The course offered business planning and event skills training to help them with their opening launch, which will focus on hunting and cooking with bush tucker. The course is nationally accredited with participants receiving a Statement of Attainment for each module completed. Once the pilot course has been evaluated, a decision will be made as to how and where they will be implemented nationally. National training for cultural workers in regional, rural and remote Australia has been undertaken by Regional Arts Australia since 2003 and is funded through the Federal Government’s Regional Arts Fund.	Back to main newsletter

Many of the projects in this newsletter have been supported by the Regional Arts Fund, an Australian Government initiative supporting the arts in regional, remote and very remote/isolated Australia. Regional Arts Australia promotes the development of the arts for the one-in-three Australians who live in regional, rural and remote parts of the country. Our members give country Australians access to outstanding cultural experiences that are either home grown or tour from other towns and cities. In this way, Regional Arts Australia gives a voice to artists and puts culture at the heart of community life across country Australia.