EWB Australia partners with First Nations Community for 2026 Challenge

EWB Australia announces the launch of First Nations Community Partnership for 2026 EWB challenge.

EWB Australia welcomes Lama Lama as the First Nations Community Partner for the 2026 EWB Challenge. 

MELBOURNE — 9 February 2026

Engineers Without Borders Australia is expanding its work with Yintjingga Aboriginal Corporation through the 2026 EWB Challenge, bringing university students to Port Stewart in Lama Lama Country, Cape York virtually.

Lama Lama, in collaboration with Yintjingga Aboriginal Corporation, are sharing their culture, knowledge and lived experiences with Australian university students. EWB Australia is committed to a decolonised approach to humanitarian engineering through partnerships with First Nations communities such as Lama Lama.

The First Nations-focused program will see engineering students collaborate with the Lama Lama community through immersive 360 content on real engineering challenges that matter to them—putting co-design principles into practice in one of Queensland’s most remote regions.

Students learn directly from Lama Lama culture, knowledge and lived experiences as they work on engineering challenges identified by the Port Stewart community.

The partnership provides university students across Australia with the opportunity to work on real engineering challenges that the Port Stewart community currently faces. Students learn directly from Lama Lama culture, knowledge and lived experiences.

Through collaboration with First Nations communities, students are guided through practical case studies and gain experience in consultative and collaborative approaches that meet community goals and achieve engineering outcomes and meet community goals.

EWB’s Education team worked closely with YAC and the EWB First Nations Engineering On-Country team to develop the Design Brief and educational resources to ensure that community priorities lead the way. The approach honours cultural knowledge, respects Country and supports self-determination. 

This partnership differs from others because of its direct connection to ongoing community work. Student design concepts are not just be academic – they’ll feed into EWB’s continuing engineering projects with YAC, helping create pathways for Lama Lama people to live, work and thrive On Country.

The Design Brief provides students with real-world challenges while emphasising what many engineering programs traditionally overlook: cultural safety, respect for Indigenous knowledge systems and the critical importance of community partnership in creating solutions that actually work for the people who’ll use them.

It’s part of a broader shift across the engineering sector toward culturally responsive, community-led approaches – particularly in regional and remote First Nations communities where cookie-cutter solutions have historically failed.

The 2026 EWB Challenge First Nations context begins in late February 2026. More than 10,000 engineering students across 24 universities nationwide will have the opportunity to engage with this work.