Jawun: 2017 Learnings and Insights

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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
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’ 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’ 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
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 JAWUN2017 LEARNINGS AND INSIGHTS