Training programs need to be altered to suit each
community, in order to improve rural empoyment
rates, the researchers have found.
Image: iStockphoto

Providing successful and meaningful training for Aboriginal people living in remote communities may depend on new approaches that are flexible, sit within customary governance and are on the trainees’ own country.

That is a groundbreaking finding from research carried out in partnership with Anmatyerr people in Central Australia by DKCRC researchers, aimed at solving a long-perceived issue that training approaches that work in urban Australia seem to fall down in remote areas.

“Everyone has a different path to their employment situation as adults,” says project leader Naomi Rea.

“If you look at it, most people’s training has a few false starts and wanders off on different tacks according to new interests. We end up working in areas we didn’t expect or plan for. We have to be prepared for this to happen in desert communities too. Rather than instant outcomes, people will build their skills base by tapping into various opportunities until ready for specific training or career paths.”

“In the deserts expected outcomes from well-intentioned Government and private initiatives are not always met as the training and employment options are not always easy to take up. We have explored some of the essential criteria that make up the character of successful training pathways for Aboriginal people living on their traditional lands.”

Naomi says that desert traineeship programs need to go the extra mile in terms of first consulting Aboriginal communities about what they most need at this point in time and what would work best in their setting. In some cases, the communities had been made to fit the training programs, rather than the training the communities.

There was also a clear need for flexibility in how training is designed. An important success indicator, she says, was that training that was practical and on-the-job, with a strong sense of cultural relevance. Training that has meaning to the young person in terms of what is happening in their culture, is much more likely to prove effective.

“Everything that people do and all relationships are embedded in Aboriginal systems of governance, that manage people’s roles, responsibilities and importantly, protocols for other people. Education in Anmatyerr law and the skills learnt are taken very seriously. If you are going to provide training, it needs to fit in with this cultural foundation. Indeed, successful training and new work opportunities are best achieved as part of existing cultural training.”

Tony Scrutton, Cultural Supervisor to this collaborative research, stresses that training must be endorsed by the elders. “Young people need mentors who can follow through with them, encourage them and remind them this is the path to becoming a leader themselves one day” he explains. “Training best takes place on our country where everyone looks out for each other”.

Some training programs may add to people’s skills base but cannot provide employment as they don’t match the realities of community life in the desert, says Naomi, where people’s lives are rich, complex and busy. “Many people find meaning through working on their country which they intimately know”. There is a growing range of valuable work in the deserts such as water sampling and testing, carrying out wildlife surveys, controlling pests and weeds that threaten the landscape, maintaining station tracks, fences and water points, erosion control and sharing culture with the growing flow of interested visitors.

“Being on country allows for a strong sense of identity and being able to fulfil ones responsibilities, and socially and economically support and be supported by family and kin. Moving away from country for training (and employment) could carry risks for some people – things might change while you are away and maybe because you are away, and you don’t know when you will get home.”

Tony explains how Anmatyerr live according to two or more Laws and languages, as with many Aboriginal people on traditional lands in desert Australia who live in two cultures, wider Australia and their own. “We must work together with respect for each others ways”.

Naomi adds that “Anmatyerr have listened and understand the culture, language and ways of wider Australia, we should listen to their perspective too.

There is a major opportunity for Anmatyerr to interpret their culture to people who work in their midsts such as teachers, health workers, government officers and mining, horticulture and pastoral workers. This would help harmonise the regional cultures and reduce turnover and increase outcomes through people being better equipped to live and work in the desert.

Tony says that “sharing some of our Law and knowledge is a way to strengthen our culture.” To this end, Anmatyerr are embracing the concept of cultural tourism.

Naomi says that the research has raised hope that more culturally-relevant, flexible and effective training can be developed with the people who inhabit almost 1000 remote communities spread across the greater part of the continent – delivering young people into livelihoods that will benefit their communities and the nation as a whole.