Community-hearted ideas | ELP goes to Galiwin’ku

In late July, the ELP team flew over to Elcho Island to continue working with the women and sistagirls from the Galiwin’ku Women’s Space (GWS).  Led by Yolŋu women and supported by the broader community, GWS are the only space on Elcho Island dedicated to the support and empowerment of women.

Liandra, Marianne and ELP’s school-based apprentice, Zekiah, headed to GWS armed with markers and butcher’s paper, ready to sit down with the group around a hearty morning tea to listen to all the stories and business ideas that were willing to be shared. 

As the first opportunity she’s had to do on-ground, remote work with ELP, Zekiah found the experience heartening, noting that she wasn’t sure what to expect beforehand. 

“I went to the Social Enterprise World Forum last year and I’ve been on a few little trips, but I haven’t gone remote for something that doesn’t have a lot of structure,” she says. “We go to GWS just to make ourselves available – whoever comes and speaks to us, comes and speaks to us. There’s that sense of … will anyone come?” 

But she was pleasantly surprised as the women shared their aspirations of hairdressing, photography, videography, natural soaps and selling products at events, always with an underlying theme of community outreach or meeting a need within their community.

“Listening to their ideas was really nice and hearing how they want to give back to their community – it’s not always something that’s mentioned when you’re working somewhere bigger like Darwin.

“I know that a lot of people feel shame and don’t want to speak about their ideas and ambitions, so to have them open up was really special.”

Over their stay, the team met with many women and sistagirls to listen to the awesome ideas that were shared and to talk through what their next steps could be to bring those ideas to life. Discussing long term goals and purpose, connections and possible training opportunities, the team worked to identify ways to continue providing support through their work with GWS.

For the whole ELP team, it was a great opportunity to understand what existing or upcoming business ventures were on the horizon, and uncover the women’s passion, drive and the range of possibilities they see developing in their community. 

But for Zekiah, it was also personal: the first time she’s returned to Galiwin’ku since she was a baby. 

“I remember almost nothing,” she says of her time there as a child. “I’ve been told stories by my Dad, because he grew up there with family, so I wanted to make sure I took time to visit some of those family members and the home of my father’s childhood.” 

That’s exactly what she did, stopping from house to house to visit family and being reintroduced to plenty of people she knew in the earliest years of her life. 

While the trip was relatively short for Zekiah, she found it a fantastic hands-on learning experience, one that has proven to her what she already knew: remote Indigenous communities are brimming with ideas that are changing the world, they just need the right support to make it happen.