Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Major Donald Robertson says over 100 troops have landed in Gapuwiyak to support the indigenous community

Transcript

Major Donald Robertson says over 100 troops have landed in Gapuwiyak to support the indigenous community · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: We know right now that more than one hundred Australian
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  Speaker 1: Army personnel have arrived in the Gabawiyak community for the
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  Speaker 1: Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program where they're going to be
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  Speaker 1: living for a period of time to develop and deliver services. Now,
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  Speaker 1: joining me on the line to tell us a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more about this is Major Donald Robinson. He joins
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  Speaker 1: me on the line right now.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Hello o Katie, and good morning
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  Speaker 2: to you and your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Now, when did you guys arrive in Gabowiyak, CA.
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  Speaker 2: Do we arrive in Gaboiak in Lake May and started
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  Speaker 2: setting up our camp just outside the community from.
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  Speaker 1: That time, Well, so been there for a little while.
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  Speaker 1: How things been going since you arrived in Gaboweyak, Things, I.
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  Speaker 2: Mean going very well. We took a couple of weeks
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  Speaker 2: to set up the camp that we deployed with. That's
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  Speaker 2: a temporary camp in an existing clearing just outside the community.
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  Speaker 2: We've set that up and it's our temporary home away
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  Speaker 2: from home and we have started delivering our program in
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  Speaker 2: the community across health, vocational skills and of course a
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  Speaker 2: few construction items that were building. All going very well, and.
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  Speaker 1: So what exactly you know? I guess I've heard a
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  Speaker 1: little bit about the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program, but
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  Speaker 1: what exactly is ash?
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  Speaker 2: So the APAP program is a joint commitment between Army
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  Speaker 2: and the National Indigenous Australian's Agency aims at improving instructure,
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  Speaker 2: health and vocational skills and remote fascination in the community
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  Speaker 2: as part of their Closing the Gap initiative.
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  Speaker 1: And how long has it been running for? This is the.
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  Speaker 2: Twenty fifth year of the program. It was delayed in
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty because of their pandemic. That was delayed to
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. But this is, yes, the twenty fifth
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  Speaker 2: year of the program.
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  Speaker 1: Goodness made twenty five years. I'm assuming that there's been
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  Speaker 1: other communities all over that twenty five years would have
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  Speaker 1: been a lot of other communities. I guess that you
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  Speaker 1: know that you would have been involved in.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, that's right. The programs delivered yearly through two Remote
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  Speaker 2: First Nations communities. It gually rotates through the states, so
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  Speaker 2: most states and territories have now benefited from the program
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  Speaker 2: in some way, and this year it was the Norland territory.
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  Speaker 2: So here we are now, tell us a little bit more.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously in Gapa Weak tell us a bit more about
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  Speaker 1: some of that work that is happening and how the
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  Speaker 1: community is involved as well.
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  Speaker 2: So there's three parts of it, health, vocational skills and
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  Speaker 2: of course the infrastructure. Two big infrastructure. I were building
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  Speaker 2: an independent youth center to bolster the community engagement and
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  Speaker 2: youth activities in the community. We're also doing an upgrade
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  Speaker 2: to the barge access road. It gets all of the
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  Speaker 2: supplies from a barge that comes in from Darwin, so
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  Speaker 2: upgrading that road between the community and that barge landing site.
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  Speaker 2: We've got Army medical personnel doctors, dentist, frescindarian to delivering
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  Speaker 2: programs along those lines and support of the existing programs
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  Speaker 2: in the community. And we also have a training team
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  Speaker 2: of specialist personnel who are delivering a range of programs
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  Speaker 2: from construction skills up to video between photography and things
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  Speaker 2: like that.
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  Speaker 1: And Donald, how do you work out sort of you
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  Speaker 1: know what work is required in the community and sort
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  Speaker 1: of consulting with those community members about what you're going
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  Speaker 1: to get underway when you're there.
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  Speaker 2: The niAA and the Army form what's called the Steering Committee.
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  Speaker 2: They run a comprehensive consultation process with the community. They're
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  Speaker 2: olders and they're representing organizations. The engagement with GAP and
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  Speaker 2: me AT commenced in late twenty nineteen, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: with a shared decision making process with them, we formalize
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  Speaker 2: an agreement on what the benefit of what the community
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  Speaker 2: benefits and needs, and then we set out to.
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  Speaker 1: Deliver that and do local community members get involved in
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  Speaker 1: some of that work too.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, with the training and health parts of it. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I'm underpinning all of those lines of as it is
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  Speaker 2: our community engagement. So we are out about in the
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  Speaker 2: community every day. For example, we have a number of
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  Speaker 2: soldiers with us who are keen apphold players, so we
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  Speaker 2: train and participate in their local cop And we also
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  Speaker 2: have every week morning a morning tea where the community
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  Speaker 2: and their elders come along to the morning tea and
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  Speaker 2: have an opportunity to ask us questions and raising concerns
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  Speaker 2: they might have.
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  Speaker 1: That's great to hear. Do you ever see, like you know,
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  Speaker 1: in some of those communities that you've been to over
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  Speaker 1: the years, do you ever see some of the younger
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  Speaker 1: members of the community, does it sort of spark any
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  Speaker 1: interest for any of them? In terms of bet actually
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  Speaker 1: joining the Army.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, the Arnold Squadron, which is part of North Force,
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  Speaker 2: has a presence in the community. But in addition to that,
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  Speaker 2: we do get a lot of questions from the younger
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  Speaker 2: members of the community who are very keen and interested
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  Speaker 2: in the Australian Army and service in the Austrai and
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  Speaker 2: Defense Force. And yeah, we share that information and of
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  Speaker 2: course encourage people to check out what opportunities are available
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  Speaker 2: for them.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like a really good program and as you said,
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  Speaker 1: been running for twenty five years, there would have been
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  Speaker 1: some tremendous work I'm sure within the communities over that
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  Speaker 1: period of time. Major Donald Robinson, we really appreciate you
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  Speaker 1: having a chat with us this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you very much for having us and thank you
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  Speaker 2: to you and your listeners for the support of the
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  Speaker 2: Australian Army in the Northern Territory anytime.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you,