Firstly, a quick background check; ASIX is a community of Australian’s working to design and implement new solutions to some of the social and environmental challenges and opportunities that face our world. It’s a community that allows social changemakers to create an online profile where they can list projects and events, offer or find out about learning opportunities, and ultimately share their experiences and report on what is being achieved.

How does the NCIE fit into all this? Our Centre is igniting the conversation around Indigenous innovation and showcasing real world examples of innovation through the work that we carry out each and every day. Indigenous Innovation is a uniquely Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander approach to social innovation. The NCIE is a social innovation itself – we are an enterprise trading for a social purpose and creating new forms of collaboration. We develop mutually beneficial Pathway Partnerships to deliver life changing programs for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and their communities.

Indigenous Innovation: Learning to Listen was held at the NCIE on April 17^th and included an introductory talk from our CEO Jason Glanville. In this talk, Jason introduces the notion of Indigenous Innovation and talks about the NCIE’s approach to rewriting the national narrative while creating brighter futures with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from across Australia.

-          Bianca Roberts, NCIE Communications Coordinator

Mason & Prime Minister Gillard at the Constitutional Recognition Forum

At the next Election, the Federal Government is proposing a Referendum to be held to change the Constitution so it recognises the first peoples of this nation as Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. On March 14 2012, I attended the Constitutional Recognition Forum in Redfern, Sydney.  The Forum was held over a period of 4 days at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence and consisted of around 70 deadly Indigenous Australians aged 16-25. I was proud to be amongst young leaders, but not just any young leaders – a group of young Indigenous leaders. The main focus of the Forum was about Constitutional Recognition. Mick Gooda, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner was inspirational and informative, speaking to us about lateral violence and his experiences as the Commissioner. We also got the chance to listen to speeches given by Jody Braun, Tom Calma, Pat Anderson and Pat Turner.

We were split into groups at the start of the Forum and on the last few days, we developed campaigns to promote Constitutional Recognition to our society. During the forum, we had the opportunity to interview expert panels and this enabled us to learn about the Australian media and how to run a successful campaign. My group was called Lingari and we made a campaign called R Time. We then got to present our campaigns to the rest of the group in the form of a press gallery, which was set up by the National Centre Of Indigenous Excellence.  We also had a visit from the Prime Minister, who came to see our ideas.

We here at the NCIE recently had over 75 young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders come to stay and participate in a four-day youth-led Constitutional Recognition Forum. It was an uplifting and inspirational experience for all involved.

The NCIE secured high profile speakers such as Tom Calma (Co-Chair, Reconciliation Australia), Pat Turner, Pat Anderson (Chair, Lowitja Institute), Paul Howes (National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union), Mick Gooda (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Karen Middleton (Chief Political Correspondent, SBS), Kirstie Parker (Editor, Koori Mail), Jody Broun (Co-Chair, National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples), Indigenous Education Specialist Luke Pearson and Aden Ridgeway (Founder, Cox Inall Ridgeway) to speak at the Forum.

This special event was organised by the amazing NCIE team members Brooke Pettit and Alison McLeod and it was made possible by sponsors the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Reconciliation Australia, Qantas and Accor. There will be lots of photos, videos and reports to come out of the event but here is a quick sneak peek.

The early-risers from the #NCIECRF photo by Blayke Tatafu

We developed a Twitter hashtag for the event #NCIECRF - check it out for some amazing comments and photos from participants, facilitators and speakers. The event also led to the redevelopment of the @IndigenousX twitter account that is taking the #IndigenousX hashtag to a whole new level. Here is a great blog post about it by Luke Pearson.

Pete Dawson NCIE National Youth Advisory Council Co-Chair - 'Great to meet twitter king @LukeLPearson @theNCIE #nciecrf'

While the participants were here, we also beta-tested the Community of Excellence, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social network we have been developing over the past 6 months. First impressions were brilliant! The forum participants loved the look and feel and were excited by the unique experience the network offers. It has been affectionately referred to as the ‘blackfella facebook’. Big shout out to Digital Eskimo for doing such a fantastic job on developing the social network so far. We are just a couple months away from launch.

Kimberly Lovegrove signing up to the Community of Excellence - the NCIE's Indigenous Social Network

Here a few tweets from one of the forum participants that sums up his experience.

The NCIE Team, Emily Scivetti, Carla McGrath, Sheena Duncan, Jason Glanville, Brooke Pettit, Ros Morgan, Bianca Roberts, Pam Kaur

NCIE Stadium Transformation

The night’s festivities kicked off with canapés and mocktails in the courtyard at sunset. As our prestigious guests mingled and had their glamour shots taken by NCIE advocate & Indigenous photographer Wayne Quilliam, we were treated to a performance by the Moogahlin Circus Crew in the Campus Dining Hall. The sound of didgeridoos (courtesy of Clarence Slockee & Glen Doyle) and smoke billowing from the EORA SARC was the cue for guests to proceed into the dining hall where Donna Ingram delivered a beautiful Welcome to Country. Highlights of the Centre’s work played during the night with the debut of the NCIE show reel and a photo slide show of the excellence, integrity, inclusiveness and growth of the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence since we opened our doors back in January 2010. With the cream of the crop in attendance such as Rhoda Roberts who charmed the crowd as our Master of Ceremonies (and I was lucky enough to sit next to her!), NCIE patron & tennis champion Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, supermodel & NCIE advocate Samantha Harris, as well as other distinguished Indigenous guests including Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue, Adjunct A/professor & Author Anita Heiss & Linda Burney MP, just to name a few, we rolled out the black carpet and requested that everyone dress in their deadliest frocks. And boy did they deliver. Board members & staff were blown away by the response to the dinner when this illustrious group of black fullas accepted the invitation. Even more blown away by the Governor, Her Excellency Marie Bashir, who graced us with her company, once again showing her long-standing support of NCIE’s past, present & future.

Lowitja O'Donoghue, Dawn Casey, Marie Bashir

Deadly sista girls Emma & Casey Donovan both performed on the night, Emma staying true to her blend of Country, Gospel & Soul music to deliver two beautiful numbers with the inclusion of her traditional Gumbayngirr language. Casey decided to pull out the Whitney tragic’s heartstrings, kicking off her set with ‘I Will Always Love You’. I had to have a little giggle at the gasps in the room when the music started and we all realised what song it was. But she pulled it off, and then bought the house down, belting out the Sam & Dave classic ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’ just before dessert. We were also treated to an intimate performance by Lenny & Travis from the Bangarra Dance Company, with their piece ‘Possum”, and Indigenous pianist & graduate of the WA & Sydney Conservatoria Bradley Gilchrist.

Emma Donovan

Casey Donovan

Bradley Gilchrist

The CEO of the NCIE Jason Glanville, spoke powerfully of the contribution of the NCIE over the past 2 years, telling guests of the 10,000 young Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people that have stepped over the threshold of our George St entrance, to participate in life-changing programs across our four development pathways of Arts& Culture, Learning & Innovation, Health & Wellness and Sport & Recreation. He spoke of the local contribution, with the help of our pathway partners, and mentioned successes such as the Tribal Warrior Association & The Redfern Police coming together to create a boxing program for both youth and police officers to participate in together and work on bettering relationships. This has seen the crime rate in Redfern decrease significantly. It is these kinds of wins that keep us going, and the kinds of victories that we wanted to share with board members, and hundreds of other supporters of this amazing Centre. A stand out line from Jason for me was when he recognised all the prestigious, influential members of the black community in the front of the room and followed with ‘there’s no Blacks in the Back here, it’s all Blacks in front’. Nicely put indeed, there’s a reason he is our fearless leader!

NCIE CEO Jason Glanville

Bangarra Dancers

Having worked at the NCIE since its opening I felt immensely proud and privileged to be a part of such an amazing, future changing organisation with passionate, hard working staff committed to the NCIE’s values of integrity, excellence, growth and inclusiveness. A HUGE thank you to Sheena Duncan & Great Big Events for pulling off a remarkable evening, Laissez Faire for feeding us and everyone who turned up on the night and to those who turn up every day to make sure that NCIE’s gates stay open.

- This post was written by Bianca Roberts, the NCIE’s new Communications Coordinator.

Rhoda Roberts with blog post writer Bianca Roberts

My internship at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) has made me reflect on the importance of encouragement and support to individual success.

Effie Shorten

The NCIE exists to change the deficit language surrounding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to a positive message by focusing on their excellence, resilience and success. In this way, the organisation makes a unique contribution to Indigenous affairs and its initiatives are fundamentally different to most others in this space.

During my time at the NCIE, I observed that much of the literature and discussion on Indigenous wellbeing focuses on failure, as existing services struggle to achieve progress in the face of complex social issues. Perhaps this negative rhetoric is unsurprising, given that Australia’s efforts to date to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians – in education, employment and health – have not met with much success. Perhaps it is even desirable, given that our failure as a nation to raise Indigenous standards of living needs to be kept in the public eye to ensure that closing the gap remains a national priority.

But where does this leave young Indigenous Australians? An unrelenting media and academic focus on Australia’s failure to close the gap is bound to send the message to young Indigenous Australians that they will only succeed in life against the odds.

None of the messages received by over 5,000 young people who come to the NCIE each year are negative. Instead, they are exposed to excellence in every field and encouraged to take up opportunities of every kind. The NCIE runs a variety of programs in collaboration with its Pathway Partners to cultivate Indigenous talent in arts and culture, health and wellness, learning and innovation, and sport and recreation. Many of these programs involve interaction with successful Indigenous role models. This tangible evidence of the rewards of hard work is a powerful way of motivating young people. A visitor to the NCIE might find themselves playing a casual game of rugby with Jamal Idris, having their photo taken with model Samantha Harris, or discussing youth affairs with Benson Saulo, Youth Ambassador to the United Nations.

Aside from sending positive messages to young Indigenous Australians, the NCIE is also striving to ensure that non-Indigenous Australians perceive these young people through a lens of success by showcasing the many and varied contributions young Indigenous Australians make to our nation. The level of support the NCIE has received from corporate partners and sponsors illustrates that the business world is hungry for opportunities to engage with Indigenous organisations which have a positive message.

I was placed in the NCIE’s corporate office for six weeks, working mainly with the Communications and Public Affairs team. I was fortunate to be at the NCIE in the lead-up to several large events including the Constitutional Recognition Forum for Young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. As well as observing the day-to-day running of a not-for-profit organisation, a rare and rewarding experience in itself, I was able to see what was involved in the organisation of high profile events and was directly involved in several relevant projects.

My tasks were interesting and diverse. Most work involved research or drafting documents and letters. Other work included: summarising and comparing reports on Indigenous employment initiatives and the economic benefits of alleviating Indigenous disadvantage, research for a literature review on Indigenous resilience, writing an overview of different individuals’ and organisations’ views of the Expert Panel’s recommendations regarding Constitutional Recognition, and note-taking at the inaugural meeting of the NCIE’s National Youth Advisory Council. I also filmed short interviews with opinion leaders on their top tips for developing a campaign and wrote a checklist for developing a campaign, to be used at the Constitutional Recognition Forum.

I cannot conclude this article without emphasising a particularly significant benefit of the Aurora internship program: meeting a group of people who are committed to change and are truly making strides to achieve it. My internship at the NCIE turned out to be an invaluable opportunity to work amongst a group of people who are making a real difference. The team at the NCIE have taken their vision so much further than most; surrounded by unending talk of failures to close the gap, they are unswervingly getting on with the job.

For more details on the Aurora Native Title Internship Program, please visit their website at www.auroraproject.com.au. Applications for the winter 2012 round are open from 5 March through to 30 March via the website.

Young people will inherit the legacy of the decision makers of today. The more current decision makers listen to young people, the more engaged and involved the young people across the country will be and we will gain more intergenerational understanding.

Young people view the world differently, they are often not jaded by bad experiences and can bring a fresh, positive and innovative look at issues that need a new perspective. The fact that the Australian Constitution still has race powers in it in the 21^st century is an indication we need a fresh perspective.

It takes young people to say ‘As a nation we cannot grow complacent, we must do the work to cross the finish line and ensure that our constitution reflects the Australia of today.’  - April Long, member of the NCIE National Youth Advisory Council.

“In terms of the Constitution, the biggest factor for me was racial discrimination—the fact that it’s in our Constitution in the 21st century is absolutely appalling. If other people were aware of this, I think they’ll have no trouble agreeing that racism has no place in our founding document.” – Josephine Bourne

Innovation often comes from combining different people, with different  experiences and different views. The thoughts of our country’s baby-boomers and Gen x-ers are important, but they need to be balanced by young people’s ideas about what is important, what is moral and what we, as a nation, should be doing.

‘I think we have to be [ambitious] when we are given the opportunity to change our Constitution so that it reflects the Australia of today.’  - April Long

We look forward to receiving more applications this weekend and facilitating an amazing forum. Spread the word to all young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders between the age of 16-25 so they can be a part of this important opportunity to influence their own futures.

APPLY NOW!

Co-design session

In a series of co-design sessions with 16 young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the NCIE, the Indigenous participants and Digital Eskimo have developed an exciting concept for how the online platform will connect, engage, encourage and inspire.

The Community of Excellence will be a culturally specific social space that empowers members to set personal goals and facilitates the support they need to achieve those goals through social connections. It will focus on linking young people to opportunities that allow them to reach their aspirations and on celebrating member’s achievements.

While in some respects, the online platform will be similar to some other social networks, the Community of Excellence has some unique custom elements that will make it a special place for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

More will be revealed soon as we move into the implementation phase of development and we start to build and code the online platform.

The NCIE’s approach to developing this social network has been to do it in partnership with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. We have used a human-centred design approach and consulted with over 50 young Indigenous people to understand their needs, desires, motivations and dreams for an online network built to empower them.

“It’s mad! I think it will be great for the community’ – Jayden, a co-design workshop participant talking about the concept and design of the social network.

Co-design session

If you are under 30, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, connected to the NCIE or one of its partners and interested in being a part of the beta-testing of this social network , please pre-register here and we will get in contact with you when the opportunity arises.

The NCIE would like to thank the Telstra Foundation for their generous support of this initiative.

We’re looking for 96 young Indigenous Australians, 12 from each state and territory,  to join us at the NCIE in March for the Constitutional Recognition Forum for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Members of the Expert Panel and the NCIE acknowledge the need for the voices of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to be heard in the Constitutional Recognition discussion. The program for the Forum will be driven by young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians as the legacy of this Constitutional Recognition process will be one that is inherited by our young Indigenous Australians.

Come to Sydney and learn more about Constitutional Recognition and work with other young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to develop a youth-led campaign!

When: Wednesday 14 March – Saturday 17 March 2012
Where: National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, 180 George St, Redfern NSW

To be eligible to participate you must:

• Identify as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Australian;
• Be aged between 16 and 25;
• Be available to attend the Forum from Wednesday 14 March – Saturday 17 March 2012

Travel, accommodation, transfers and meals are provided for each participant.

APPLY NOW!

Round One applications close Friday 27 January 2012.

Call Alison McLeod on 02 8094 2500 if you have any questions or need any more information.

The conversation highlighted to us the innovation of the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE).  We are a social enterprise striving to achieve both excellence and access at the same time.  We recognise that there needs to be developed pathways and pipelines of opportunity established to promote excellence and that excellence can come from anywhere.

The greater the access and diversity of access, the greater the potential for excellence and innovation.  This is a major reason why the NCIE aims to provide access to our facilities and our programs to as many young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians as possible, regardless of their location or socio-economic status.

Wesley Enoch the Indigenous director of I am Eora (showing this week as part of the Sydney Festival’s Black Capital at Carriageworks), said during the conversation that it was important for a diverse range of Indigenous cultural expressions to be seen and heard by the wider Australian public.

I Am Eora

The NCIE cultivates talent, invests in excellence, provides access and creates opportunities for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.  We do this so young people can achieve their self-defined vision of excellence, broaden the nation’s perception of excellence and build a shared future of prosperity and opportunity.  Most importantly, the NCIE does this within an Indigenous cultural context encouraging all young people to remain strong in their culture.

To paraphrase Claire Bowditch from the discussion on Artscape - excellence is allowing someone with a brilliant idea (or skill) to run with it until they realise their potential.

You can view the full conversation from Artscape below.

NCIE Season’s Greetings from Gilimbaa