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Jawun update

ISSUE

01

December

2009

Introducing Jawun
Text Box: Text Box: Many of us have already had the opportunity to remove ourselves from our everyday routine for a while and play a valuable role in supporting aboriginal communities and the organisations that assist these communities as part of the IEP program. But often once we return home, many of us end up feeling detached from our experience we shared. We are excited and passionate but are now unsure of how to funnel this energy further into the program. We want to remain engaged with The Cape and other Indigenous communities. We all have something in common………. and that is an interest in working together with Aboriginal communities to achieve a shared goal. Indigenous Enterprise Partnerships (IEP) recognise there are a lot of people like us across Australia with a broad range of skills who have already made our interest and passion clear by putting our hand up to be part of this program. To strengthen and further build a lasting relationship between Aboriginal communities and past secondees, Jawun, the IEP Alumni committee was formed in July 2009. It was formed after a series of brainstorming sessions that were held by IEP with past secondees to identify what it was that past secondees wanted or needed in order to re-engage and become further involved in the program. There are currently eight members of the Jawun committee and we are all past-secondees from a range of IEP corporate partners. You will see throughout this newsletter a few of our stories. We are from a wide range of industries and have different experiences to share. We are volunteering our time to this program to further develop this ever-essential link between aboriginal communities and past secondees. We hope to achieve this by introducing a number of initiatives to support current and past secondees and getting the Jawun further involved in future programs within different communities. It is thought that the Jawun program structure will be made up of sub- committees located in the major cities but to start things off, this Sydney- based committee has been born. Jawun are seeking expressions of interest for a Melbourne-based committee. The purpose of the Jawun Newsletter is to keep you updated on what has been happening across the program and how you can be involved. It will include personal stories from past/current secondees and information about initiatives that are being implemented. We hope this is the first Jawun newsletter of many and we welcome you to Jawun. Jawun Alumni Committee

Jawun means “friends” in the Kuku Yalanji language of Northern Queensland and is understood by a large number of Aboriginal communities.

 

 

“We achieve more from three months from a

high-calibre person... than I’ve seen us get from the bureaucracy in three years.”

 

Noel Pearson, Indigenous Leader, Cape York

                  Your IEP Alumni Newsletter