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Fiona Jose, Empowered Communities leader in Cape

York (and executive general manager of Cape York

Partnerships), says the power of the movement is the

collaboration it supports:

We have to be collaborative leaders, to work on

the ground with people and provide them with

the tools they need to unlock challenges. This is

why the Empowered Communities movement is

so powerful.

Jawun deployed secondees to establish an

implementing structure for this ambitious reform.

Many worked at ‘backbone’ organisations set up in

seven regions to coordinate regional Empowered

Communities agendas. So far, over 50 Indigenous

organisations have opted in to Empowered

Communities.

KPMG described Jawun’s ‘behind the scenes’ support

as multidimensional: facilitating collaboration

between and within each region’s leadership,

supporting implementation of governance and

service integration arrangements in regions;

facilitating Indigenous leaders’ engagement

with government; educating decision-makers in

government; and bringing influencers together:

A majority of interviewees acknowledged that

Empowered Communities—as a national network

and coalition of diverse Indigenous regions—would

not have come together in the form it did without

Jawun’s support, specifically its ability to leverage

trusted relationships across sectors and its strength

of presence in the eight regions

. 40

Government engagement has been strong and

constructive. A national Empowered Communities

leaders group has met periodically with government

ministers, including the prime minister, to progress

this critical reform.

In his Closing the Gap Report Statement to

Parliament in February 2017, the Prime Minister, the

Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP, referenced Empowered

Communities as ‘generating strong Indigenous

governance, and empowering Indigenous people

to partner with government and companies’

. 41

In his

introduction to the 2017 Closing the Gap report, Mr

Turnbull pledged to ‘continue to build the capacity

and capability of communities and government to

truly engage with each other and to jointly make

informed decisions’

. 42

Since then, the Minister for

Indigenous Affairs, Senator the Hon Nigel Scullion,

has progressed discussions with the Empowered

Communities leaders group and each region

is building an evidence base on which to make

decisions and measure progress. This commitment

to communicating impact is a way of proofing

Indigenous-led development agendas, which have

historically struggled to sustain credibility and been

easily dismissed.

Almost 200 Jawun secondees have supported

Empowered Communities to date—equivalent to

one full-time skilled professional deployed for thirty

years

. 43

Today, nine regions are progressing Empowered

Communities reform agendas based on Indigenous-

led development priorities. The following vignettes

highlight the progress of East Kimberley, West

Kimberley and Inner Sydney.

Celebrating the publication of the report

Empowered Communities

, 2015. From left to right:: Shane Phillips (Tribal Warrior), Joshua Toomey

(formerly of Darkinjung), Liza Carroll (formerly of PM&C), Marcia Langton (University of Melbourne), Michael Rose (formerly of Allens),

Noel Pearson (Cape York Partnership), Brian Hartzer (Westpac), Sean Gordon (Darkinjung), Paul Briggs (Kaiela Institute), Chris Ingrey

(Inner Sydney Empowered Communities).

Photo: Daniel Linnet

54 JAWUN 

2017 LEARNINGS AND INSIGHTS