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on the Central Coast. One
of the trainees is a former
Darkinjung staff member who
used to work in accounts. It’s
an attractive job that they
can do right here locally,
without having to sit for
hours on a train every day.
We’re doing innovative
work to make more local
Commonwealth Bank
positions possible through IT.
Since Jawun began operating
on the Central Coast, Sean
has become a member of
Commonwealth Banks’s
Indigenous Advisory Committee,
advising the bank on practical
Indigenous inclusion and economic
support strategies, and its
Reconciliation Action Plan.
Another partnership was forged
between Darkinjung and elite
education provider Barker College.
In 2014, Sean joined a Jawun
Executive Visit to Cape York
attended by Westpac executives.
He met Ewen Crouch, a member
of both the Westpac Board and
the Jawun Board, who spoke of his
close connection to Barker College
through his wife Catherine Crouch,
who is deputy chair of the school’s
council. The idea of a school
partnership grew quickly:
The Darkinjung Barker
opportunity came through
Jawun when Ewen and I met.
I learned that Phillip [Heath,
Head of Barker College] was
interested in a model where
a school partnered with an
Indigenous community for a
year. So Phillip and I met in
June 2015, signed an MoU
in September, and had the
school up and running by the
end of January.
Today, this unique campus is
trialling a resource-intense,
focused means of closing the
gap in education outcomes
while promoting cultural identity.
Twenty-eight Indigenous students
attend Darkinjung Barker College,
set in bushland near their homes,
where they are taught by four
teachers focused on academic
achievement and cultural identity.
Testament to the power of
relationships initiated by Jawun
Executive Visits, Darkinjung Barker
College was the highlight of an
executive visit to the Central
Coast in March 2017. Phillip Heath
and Ewen and Catherine Crouch
attended, and with Sean led a tour
showcasing the college to the
senior corporate and government
executive guests:
For me, Darkinjung Barker is
without a doubt our greatest
achievement. When I asked
the board last year what our
greatest achievement had
been, people pointed to our
recent win in the land and
environment court to protect
a significant sacred women’s
site. I asked, really? Is that our
greatest achievement, fighting
against state legislation to
protect a significant women’s
site? We shouldn’t have to
spend $300,000 to fight
to protect an Aboriginal
women’s site from a
development. The reason I
say Darkinjung Barker is our
greatest achievement is that
those kids will come through
it and go on to be the next
legislators and policymakers,
and we won’t have to have
those types of fights in
the future.
Sean also forged a successful
partnership with global property
company Lendlease. He met Craig
Laslett on a Jawun Executive Visit
to East Kimberley in 2012. They
stayed in touch, with Sean saying
afterwards that his time meeting
leaders of industry had renewed
his vision for Aboriginal people
‘to engage in the real economy’.
Craig went on to become head of
Lendlease’s Australian engineering
unit and the friendship became
a partnership.
When the NSW Government
released its Aboriginal
Participation in Construction Policy
in 2015, the Gosford Hospital site
on the Central Coast was first
in line: 5% of its contracts had
to be awarded to Indigenous
contractors, and 5% of jobs had to
go to Indigenous people.
Lendlease was going out
to tender. They came to
us and said, let’s form a
partnership and we went
into the tender process as a
partner. Our component was
to manage the procurement
and jobs aspect. To date,
through direct placement of
apprentices and so on, we’ve
got 31 apprentices on site.
All up we have 96 Aboriginal
people employed on site,
which is almost 30% of the
whole project.
We also have an Aboriginal
catering van down there, Bara
Barang, which employs four
young people. At peak, they
feed up to 300 workers—a
nice little social enterprise
for them.
This experience has led
to other initiatives with
contractors for major
projects on the Central Coast.
Darkinjung’s partnerships with
Commonwealth Bank, Barker
College and Lendlease prove that
innovative, place-based solutions
to major issues can arise through
collaboration between effective
Indigenous organisations and
corporate partners.
In KPMG’s 2016
Igniting the
Indigenous economy
report, Sean
underlined the importance of
seizing partnership opportunities:
The power of business
must be enlisted to grow
the capacity of Indigenous-
controlled organisations,
leaders and communities to
meet the challenges they face
today and into the future
. 525. SUPPORTING COLLABORATION 67