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Welcome to my blog site. This is where I will be posting regular updates of my Jawun Secondment. I have been given the opportunity to leave my role at the University of Melbourne for six weeks, to go to Alice Springs and work with the NPY Women's Council. 

 Until my first actual post is ready, please have a look at the Jawun website for some background information about the internship program, and the NPY lands!

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Learning about culture

As a crown on our first full day in Alice, we were lucky to have Deanella Mack, who runs the business Cultural Connections , come over to have a cross-cultural fireside chat with us.  She is an Arrernte woman, born and raised in Alice Springs, and an Auntie to my colleague Lea! Dee and I say "hi!" to Lea Dee shared stories about the history and culture of her people. Time was limited which was unfortunate, because she is a great storyteller. It was great to have her bridge traditional customs and thinking to western thinking, and challenge our own understanding of our traditions and cultures. I am sure that the time we got to spend with her will help us connect better with the people we will meet and work with.     Something that really resonated with me, was learning more about Indigenous people’s families. I already knew they are so much more structured and organised than European ones. But hearing more about the very specific purposes that these s...
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Reeling a little bit from all the impressions, it’s good to sit down and organise my thoughts and learnings of the past two days. I’ve travelled from Melbourne to Alice Springs, where I’ve embarked on an adventure that I don’t feel I can fully classify yet. So I will not yet append epithets like challenging, rewarding, scary, or intimidating, but I’m sure some of these will turn out to apply. And if I’m entirely honest, I am a little daunted by the tasks ahead, so perhaps we can pencil in ‘intimidating’. The University of Melbourne is a program partner to the Jawun organisation, and I was lucky, and very proud, to be selected as one of six UoM secondees for 2018. Jawun, which means ‘friend’ in the Kuku Yalanji language, works with Indigenous-led organisations in ten regions throughout Australia, placing employees of Australian companies or government agencies to work on projects that suit their specific skill-sets. These secondees are given the opportunity to leave their jobs ...
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Uluru, or last weekend's visit to the Ancient Development Lab for Innovative Landscapes

If you're spending six weeks around Alice Springs, you can't pass up on the opportunity to go see one of the most impressive sights Australia has to offer. Uluru presents majestic insights in ancient cultures, history and geology. Two other Jawun secondees and I drove to Uluru last weekend (~ 4.5 hrs by car) to take in the majestic rock and its surroundings, and hear some of the stories that the local people associate with it. It was a magical experience, enhanced by a most excellent tour guide for our walk around the bas e, and the great company of Mick and Jillian.                 Estimates for how long people have lived in Australia vary, with conservative numbers quoting at least 30,000 years, and some studies pointing towards a human presence well over 100,000 years. Hearing some these people's stories that are set around Uluru, about how the rock came to be, and how these stories fit in storylines that connect t...
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