Innovative groups win 2024 Indigenous Governance awards

Above: Members of the Djarindjin Aboriginal Corporation, including CEO Nathan McIvor, receive the top award at the Indigenous Governance Awards 2024. Photo by Tom Hoy/Wirrim Media.

Songlines, self-funding and success were the themes at a gala dinner attended by hundreds of people in November, where the outstanding winners of the Indigenous Governance Awards 2024 were announced as part of the National RAP Conference 2024 in Meanjin (Brisbane). Three out of nine First Nations groups from all over Australia were named as winners at the ceremony, hosted by Reconciliation Australia, BHP and the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute. The main winner was the Djarindjin Aboriginal Corporation, based on Western Australia’s Dampier Peninsula, which governs the only First Nations owned and operated airport in Australia. The other two winners were the community organisation Melythina Tiakana Warrana Aboriginal Corporation from Tasmania, run by elders to promote culture and healing and the Learning on Country Program run by rangers and others at the Northern Land Council in the Northern Territory.

Out in the burning hot dry remote country of the Dampier Peninsula north of Broome in the Kimberleys lies a totally unique airport like no other in Australia. Djarindjin Airport is the only First Nations owned and operated airport in Australia and it refuels helicopters every day for the offshore oil and gas industry in the Browse Basin.

“We hot refuel helicopters, which, means that rotors are still going around whilst we refuel them. It's one of the most dangerous jobs you can do in aviation. The only other organisations that do it are the Army or companies in the North Sea. So we're the only operation of its kind in the southern hemisphere,” Djarindjin CEO Nathan McIvor told the AICD on the sidelines of the National RAP Conference 2024 in Meanjin (Brisbane).

“Shell and Inpex are our customers,” he said. “And the helicopter companies have a contract with us to utilise our airport.”

The airport, located at the tiny town of Djarindjin – population 200 - usually services half a dozen helicopters per day but during busy periods this number can rise to 30 per day. “In the wet season where they have to take Fifo workers off the rigs or do exploratory drilling … that can ramp up operations,” he said.

In 2009, Inpex sealed the runway for the communities of the Dampier Peninsula and in 2011, Broome International Airport started a joint venture with Djarindjin and loaned the corporation $6 million to build the airport. “We paid that off in 2018 and in February 2022, we took over full operation.”

Djarindjin Aboriginal Corporation has become largely self-funded as the airport supplies 70 per cent of its revenue. This has allowed the corporation to set up other services such as the Djarindjin roadhouse and associated Camping with Custodians roadhouse campground in conjunction with Tourism WA and a community store, plus a safehouse, aged care program, men’s shed, programs for early childhood and community service outreach.

“The airport revenue is creating generational wealth and keeps the money within the community,” said McIvor. “It also keeps the money within the Dampier Peninsula. We've had the opportunity to be able to expand and employ people from Broome as well. We now have an office in Broome. We now have skilled and qualified people to work within our industry.”

The corporation has a board of six who are all First Nations members of all ages. There is a specific role for elders to guide governance practices. With an eye firmly on the future, the corporation has developed a 20-year strategic plan which will be published next month.

The plan was developed with assistance from yamagigu, a First Nations consulting business which is a subsidiary of Deloitte.

“What we're interested in is building sustainability capacity for the community of the Dampier Peninsula, and to be able to have that generational wealth moving into the future,” McIvor said.

Learning on Country Program  (Northern Land Council)

The program supports sustainable collaboration between First Nations rangers and schools across 17 remote Top End communities.

Set up in 2013, it aims to integrate “both ways” learning into secondary school curriculums. It operates through two levels of governance – local community committees composed of traditional owners, cultural advisers, school agents and First Nations ranger groups - and an overarching steering committee.

Students achieve training and educational qualifications and employment outcomes, while supporting intergenerational transfer of knowledge and culture. Recently, young people have been involved in steering committee meetings, deepening their understanding of governance practices and inspiring them to take on leadership positions on boards and committees.

“Because of that connection of songlines and clans and relations, it’s important to see how the other communities are doing, from sunrise we say and from sunset,” said steering committee member Cindy Jinmarabynana.

Melythina Tiakana Warrana Aboriginal Corporation (Tasmania)

This community organisation was established in 2008 by a group of elders in northeast Tasmania who were determined to reclaim their people’s rightful place as the original People of Tasmania.

It is governed by a board of nine directors who operate with a Circle of Elders providing oversight, cultural advice and ensuring cultural integrity. Set up in 2008, a group of Tebrakunna Elders gathered in northeast Tasmania to create the organisation to preserve custodianship and cultural traditions.

They provide a culturally safe place for all, especially members of the Stolen Generations. Founding board member Jo Cameron said: “We were having lots of people who were coming home who have been part of Stolen Generations who didn’t know where they came from and they didn’t feel like they could safely connect.”

• Find more information about the Indigenous Governance Awards. 
• Read summaries of the nine IGA 2024 winners and finalists.