Connecting communities

The group comprised of Team Leader Kibbe Brown, Tianna Yellow Hair, Dawn Marie Johnson, Nicholas Dion and Corey Stover. They were also joined by Rotary Club members Michael Milston and Ann Dib. 

The team was led by Dr. Allan Teale, a proud Wiradjuri man and the Indigenous Research Engagement Coordinator. Team members were welcomed to Jumbunna by Blanch Lake from the Weilwan clan of the Wiradjuri nation and Manager of Indigenous Student Experience.

As the team shared lunch together in Jumbunna, Michael spoke about the importance of the Rotary Club in fostering community connections and supporting cultural continuity with their programs.

“We were keen to have our grey, male and stale program operating with Indigenous communities around the world,” he said.

The Rotary Club established the connection with the group by connecting with a Rotarian in South Dakota a few years ago. They then sent an exchange team of First Nations people from Australia to visit with the First Nations people of South Dakota who in turn came to visit with the First Nations people of Australia. 

“The first thing we found was that connection between communities with their history of incarceration, boarding houses etc. For them it’s been a great revelation of how close Indigenous First Nations communities can be,” Michael said.

He spoke about the historical parallels between the First Nations communities. 

“They share the same traumas and the same need to help people manage the intergenerational trauma that emerges.”

For them it’s been a great revelation of how close Indigenous First Nations communities can be.

Michael mentioned how some of the exchange group members are business owners, working in the areas of cultural preservation, language development and tourism and with young people.

The group was joined for lunch by Julian Zipparo, Executive Manager Faculty Research Engagement team and Research Ecosystem Development, Lachlan McDaniel, Associate Dean of Research at Jumbunna and a member of the Kilari Clan of the Wiradjuri Nation and Professor Chris Turney, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at UTS.

“We pride ourselves on working with communities and actually making a difference,” Chris said. “We can’t do more than working with our First Nations communities to actually make that difference because climate change is existential, and we need Indigenous knowledge to create change in the world.”

The group discussed the significance of cultural garments and cultural practices.

Lachlan handcrafts these garments with the practice and knowledge passed down from his father. He also carves traditional cultural objects.

“It’s part of our traditional garment dress that we wear particularly in winter months,” Lachlan said. “You would sit on them during ceremonies and women would cross their legs and hold the skins tight over them and they could be drums. They were multi-purpose.” 

Building bridges

One of the group members, Nick, shared his experience and insights gained with the exchange program.

Nick is Ihanktowan, a Nakota speaker, and resides on the Yankton Sioux reservation. A business owner, he is heavily involved in his community, investing countless hours in to supporting the Indigenous youth on the reservation. 

“I have a youth group. I feed them, try to go to their sporting events, hang out with them, check up on them and see how they are doing at school,” Nick said. 

“I also have a young adult group where we do life together and once a month we do community outreach. We’ve done clothing drives, food drives, trash clean-ups, we’ve helped elders move and helped other organisations in our community.”

A co-founder of Elevate student ministries, Eagle Pride Impact Centre, Young Adult Life, and Wagner’s Co-ed Volleyball League, Nick is also Associate Pastor with Lighthouse Ministries and proudly serves the South Dakota Army National Guard, 155th Engineer Company. 

“There’s a lot of similarities between our people,” he said. “Back home there’s a lot of animosity between the First Nations people and the white people.”

Nick noticed differences between his community and the Indigenous experience in Australia.

“Here there’s lot of Aboriginal people that are successful, that are willing to work with non-Aboriginal people. You don’t see that back home.”

I want to try to bridge the gap, to bring awareness between the two communities because if we don’t talk there’s always going to be that ignorance

Nick’s focus is on unifying native and non-native communities. 

“Racism and prejudice go both ways,” Nick said. “I want to try to bridge the gap, to bring awareness between the two communities because if we don’t talk there’s always going to be that ignorance.” 

Nick spoke about the insights he has gained from the cultural exchange program. 

“Another thing I’ve learned is how much the government supports Aboriginal people to do things like this program. Back home it’s not very common. Especially in our state as our Governor is not pro Native Americans.”

“So being able to create programs and funding that mirror this, even though it might not be government funded is what I want to do.” 

He referred to the success of the Clontarf Foundation in Australia which aims to improve the lives of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and how he wants to replicate this back home in South Dakota.

Indigenous knowledge exchange

Over lunch, Lachlan and Kibbe, an Oglala Lakota and fourth-generation South Dakotan, discussed the contemporary challenges faced by Indigenous communities regarding land ownership and food sovereignty. They also spoke about the impact of pastoralism and agriculture on Indigenous lands, the breach of treaties by governments and the difficulties in proving land claims through Native Title for Indigenous Australians.

Lachlan spoke about the Indigenous community’s work with farmers to do land-shares, establishing an agreement to grow on excess land farmers are not using, and the impact it has had on Australian farmers. 

Lachlan said, “With climate change there is a new generation of farmers who are more aware that the way they practice agriculture is non-sustainable.”

“So much of sustainable agriculture practices in Australia is indigenous knowledge.”

He gave the example of a farmer east of Dubbo who had used nitrates to grow his crops for decades. Then after losing his crops to bushfires, he had to start again. 

“He started using native grasses and instead of using fertiliser, he was using fires to grow his crops like our ancestors did,” Lachlan said. “He found he didn’t need to use pesticides and got three times the yield than he did with pesticides.”

So much of sustainable agriculture practices in Australia is Indigenous knowledge.

Kibbe is a nutritionist and talked about South Dakota’s food insecurity for First Nations people, the diabetes epidemic and their efforts to improve the situation.

“The biggest movement is the food movement because of our chronic disease directly connected to food insecurity. Now there’s a lot of movement towards screening and intervening for food insecurity but also getting access to foods that support our health,” Kibbe said.

Kibbe spoke about food distribution initiatives in partnership with health agencies to target chronic disease in their communities by providing fresh produce packs which has received positive feedback. 

In response to the diabetes epidemic, they have also introduced fitness initiatives with most tribes creating fitness centres. Some tribes are also growing hydroponics and introducing that into school lunch with a greater movement on trying to make school lunches free.

Kibbe also shared how her daughter attends Montana State University and their practice of growing heirloom varieties of plants, vegetables and fruit, collecting the seeds in a seed bank and sending bundles out to the First Nations tribes so they can grow them within their own communities.

Lachlan noted the work of the Indigenous organisation, Waminda, to improve the health and lives of First Nations people.

“They take care of everyone in the community. They just opened a cafe that focuses on native food, they have gyms,” Lachlan said, “They have one of the first birthing on country programs with great results for mums and babies. They have programs with young people in terms of mental health awareness, physical health and sexual health.”

He spoke about the introduction of hooved animals during colonisation and how they have damaged the natural landscape and threatened native flora. First Nations people are now reintroducing many of these plants including Murnong, a starchy vegetable he describes as a mix between a coconut and potato in flavour.

“The Murnong used to be the size of our fist and now about half the size of our pinkies,” Lachlan said.

Lachlan shared an experience he had through partnership between UTS and Tucson in a program by Native Nations Institute in America. The January in Tucson program provided insight into Indigenous governance and nation building. 

“We set up a nation building hub at UTS to bring those teachings from Arizona across to Australia and apply them. So, we’ve got about six Indigenous researchers now.”

Tour of C3 and the Data Arena

The group concluded their visit with a tour of C3 and the Data Arena organised by Allan.

Director of the UTS Climate Change Cluster, Professor Peter Ralph, led a tour of C3, exploring efforts to address climate change through innovative biotechnology. 

The cluster is made up of about 100 staff and students and focuses on coral research, ocean microbes, and biotechnology solutions.

“What we’re trying to do is fix the planet,” Peter said. “We want to change manufacturing from fossil manufacturing into bio-manufacturing.”

C3 researchers aim to remove atmospheric carbon that’s produced by decaying algae for example and convert it into useful products which act as carbon sinks like seaweed-based bricks, tiles, plastics and fabrics. Some of the products have already been commercialised such as the seaweed-based bricks that are now being used in China.

“We need to change the way that industries work not the way that governments work. We need to get policy aligned with industry because industry is not going to make something they lose money on.”

Take a tour of the Climate Change Cluster to discover the ways C3 are developing solutions to climate change.

Two nations, one people

Kibbe shared that the Indigenous Australian group that visited South Dakota decided to get matching tattoos after their trip, with a symbol from the First Nations people of America and a symbol from the First Nations people of Australia. 

“The tattoos represent two nations, one people,” Kibbe said. 

Thank you to the Rotary Club for supporting the cultural exchange and for choosing to visit UTS. Learn more about Rotary.