“Handri and I are both from NAB in Melbourne but work in different areas of the bank so we didn’t meet until we were at the airport! Handri is a business banker and I am a graduate in human resources, so we have very different skill-sets. We applied through NAB to go on the Jawun program which involves a 6-week secondment in an Indigenous organisation. Jawun are a fantastic organisation, a middlemen between the corporates from the capital cities and Indigenous organisations. They operate in many regions around Australia and match up the skill sets of the secondees with projects that organisations need. At KSGAC our project was to market the Stolen Generation /Sorry Day flower.

 

We were matched with both KSGAC and Nirrumbuk and have split our time between the two for the last 6 weeks. On the weekends we have been exploring the West Kimberley, travelling to Fitzroy Crossing, Barred Creek, Willie Creek, Kooljaman and Eco beach as well as doing lots of fishing, crabbing and shelling around Broome. We’ve loved getting immersed in nature and learning about Aboriginal culture from elders.

We have been working closely with Consultant, Andrew Horan, to create a plan to increase sales. We have been exploring what we are going to sell, who we are going to sell it to and how we are going to sell it. It has been a great experience working together to achieve this goal. First, we brainstormed everything we could think of that we should consider, then we broke up the ideas into tasks and assigned due dates and a person to each task. We used an online program called Trello to systemise the tasks so they we could keep organised and on-schedule. We were well-supported by the KSGAC team to get the information we needed. We are excited to see awareness for the Stolen Generation increase as a result of this work as well as more funds to help support the programs at KSGAC.

You can look forward to seeing new KSGAC products.

We have loved working here at KSGAC. Everyone has been very welcoming to us since we first arrived. We have loved meeting all the staff and Stolen Generation members, yarning with visitors and doing healing art on Wednesdays.

We feel very lucky that we got to participate in the Marumali workshop in our first week, speak to Mary G on her radio show and attend the staff Christmas party.

We have learnt so much during our time here about the Stolen Generation, your stories and your lives. Thank you very much for having us here at KSGAC and for all the stories you shared. We will take our knowledge back to Melbourne and carry the memories with us for the rest of our lives.”

We thank Jawun and NAB-Melbourne for supporting Katie Sawford and Handri Tjhia to work with us at the KSGAC.