After a successful pilot last year, Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB)’s Indigenous-led Youth Outreach program has returned to Lama Lama Country in Far North Queensland, with the goal of sparking a curiosity in engineering among First Nations students.
The place-based program seeks to inspire a shift in the low proportion of First Nations people studying and working in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
Now in its second year, the program is focussed on building upon the learnings gained from the pilot workshops, growing the impact and reach of the program, and strengthening relationships with Indigenous communities. The workshops teach young Indigenous students not only about engineering but how to leverage it to improve their community while remaining on Country, keeping knowledge local.
Kalkadungu and Bidjara man and EWB STEM Program Lead, Isaac Barton shared, “Young mob are more likely to get into jobs that will affect and support their communities and they can be reluctant to leave their homes for work. The benefit of this program is to show them that they can stay on Country, or return after study, and we can show them that engineering can be used to improve their communities…”
Indigenous-led and local in focus
Students taking part in an outdoor workshop during the Indigenous-led Youth Outreach program workshop held on Lama Lama Country in June.
The Indigenous-led Youth Outreach program kicked off with pilot workshops in Coen in Far North Queensland last year, where access and retention of clean water during the wet and dry seasons remains a challenge. In June this year, EWB returned to the same community to run three days of workshops with local partner Yintjingga Aboriginal Corporation (YAC), building on the pilot’s outcomes and relationship with the community. Twenty-five participants, aged between seven and eighteen years, attended the workshops, including several students who participated in the pilot program last year.
EWB staff led the workshops in collaboration with YAC staff, who helped guide the workshop content by advising the project team on how to design workshop activities specific to the location as well as the concerns and interests of the community.
The workshops started with a cultural tour led by YAC, which included taking a look at a water supply system developed as part of an EWB Engineering on Country project. The students saw how the system provides water to their camp area. The majority of the students are Lama Lama and were excited to learn about the plants of their Country, including scar trees, keeping knowledge sharing alive.
Following the cultural tour, students participated in workshops including an introduction to electronics, using a circuit to get LED lights working with solar panels as the power source. There was also kite making, and the younger children built solar robots while the older children built a weather station. The students and the community will now be able to use the weather station to map and track weather data for their ranger base.
Harnessing the power of technology and community
While the primary goal of the program is to engage and inspire young First Nations people to consider a career in STEM, the benefits of the workshops go well beyond the impact on the kids. The activities and ongoing relationships benefit the broader community as well.
EWB staff worked alongside YAC rangers, taking drone footage of the area, including along the Stewart River because the community mentioned that some parts were hard to get to, and that they haven’t had access for a long time. The drone footage also supported crocodile monitoring efforts. This was just one way that students saw first-hand the power of harnessing technology for the benefit of their community.
Dharug man and EWB’s Pathways Outreach Manager, Josh MacLeod said, “[Through this program] they can live and breathe the outcomes and get their brains thinking about how they could fix things in their community.”
YAC’s Elaine Liddy and EWB’s Isaac Barton and Josh MacLeod on Lama Lama Country.
For Isaac Barton, working with the Lama Lama community and facilitating workshops has been pretty special. As an Indigenous man and engineer, he volunteered for the pilot program held on Lama Lama Country last year. This year he returned as an employed member of EWB.
Isaac said, “As an Aboriginal person, when you grow up in community, you are taught to give back. So, I feel that there is worth in giving back to the young ones, helping the Aunties and Uncles, and providing our services to do things like help YAC survey the water systems.”
Josh shared, “I’ve always strived to be in a role to give back and we are in a good position with this program to help young mob have the same opportunities that I did to get into STEM, but hopefully with less hurdles than I had.”
What’s next
With the latest set of workshops a success, the Indigenous-led Youth Outreach team is looking forward to continuing to build relationships with communities to scale and deliver the program in new locations while driving engagement in the regions they have already visited. The team will be returning to Derby, Western Australia, in November to deliver workshops with the community again.
If you are a First Nations engineer or working in the STEM sector and are interested in volunteering your time to facilitate these workshops in the future, please complete this expression of interest form. Expressions of interest to volunteer as a facilitator on the upcoming trip to Western Australia close 20 September 2024.
Students making kites.
As someone who started as a volunteer and now works with EWB as the STEM Program Lead, Isaac said, “It was an incredible experience to go on Country and be around mob. And it means I can give back to community and also meet like-minded Indigenous engineers. There aren’t many Blackfellas in engineering, and through the program you get to meet them, make connections and potentially lead to great job opportunities. It’s an incredible program that opens lots of doors.”
To continue to deliver this valuable work and support future Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders in STEM, this program requires generous sponsorship and funding. If you share our commitment to increased First Nations representation in engineering and your organisation would like to amplify the impact of this program, please contact our partnerships team at partnerships@ewb.org.au.
This workshop was funded by the Queensland Government Department of Environment, Science and Innovation through the Engaging Science Grants Program.
We would like to acknowledge the generous support of our program partners, Aurecon and GHD Foundation. We would also like to acknowledge the Lama Lama Traditional Owners who supported our time on Country and thank the Yintjingga Aboriginal Corporation and their staff who supported the co-design process for workshop activities.