Wadeye Early Childhood Workforce Development Project and Culture-Play-Childrens Rights and Ethics

Many new early childhood projects are being ‘rolled out’ in remote Indigenous communities in the NT with the aim of ‘closing the gap’ on Indigenous disadvantage. Typically, they are charged with doing so in ways that build local Indigenous community capacity. The non-Indigenous workers recruited to these projects and services are, ideally, qualified early childhood educators, but due to a national shortage in early childhood graduates, some hold other or no job specific qualifications and, for many, this may be their first remote Indigenous experience. As a result, they often flounder and leave after only a few months. This situation undermines rather than builds the capacity of local Indigenous staff. The presentation reports on a pilot project undertaken by BIITE in partnership with Charles Sturt University at the Wadeye community as part of a larger national project funded by DEEWR: ‘Building workforce capacity for early childhood education for inland and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia’. We will report on participatory action research undertaken by the project team in collaboration with local Indigenous early childhood educators to develop a culturally informed resource package that can better inform and support non-Indigenous mentors, trainers and teachers in their new roles within remote communities.