Ashley Manicaros: There’s much us balanda can learn from the Yolngu

TO us balanda — Yolngu for white man — what is being achieved through the Gumatj Corporation would be the envy of most commercial enterprises in its own right

Galarrwuy Yunupingu, who has been a key player in the fight for Land Rights throughout his career, sits with Klaus Helms of the Gumatj Corporation. PICTURE: Ashley Manicaros

To us balanda — Yolngu for white man — what is being achieved through the Gumatj Corporation would be the envy of most commercial enterprises in its own right. But what has been built when you take into account the starting challenges surrounding literacy and numeracy and access to things you and I take for granted — like opportunity — you start to appreciate the depth.

So when one of Australia’s most influential indigenous leaders tells us the rest of the nation could learn from what the Gumatj Corporation is achieving in the business world, then we should all take the time to learn.

Galarrwuy Yunupingu, a former Australian of the Year, and the Gumatj Corporation board have created a diverse range of businesses from construction through to cattle to mining. They even run a butcher shop employing apprentices in the Nhulunbuy township.

They employ young Gumatj men and women, targeting 17 to 24-year-olds. To chief executive officer Klaus Helms and chief operating officer Allan Rungan it is about creating a culture of getting up for work each day, doing a job and providing for their families and their communities.

By achieving this, the belief is, and the results to date show, it will rub off on the young who will then go to school, eat properly, and then at some point down the track enter the workforce. All of this is only possible through a system which accepts the diversity of what is needed and doesn’t just adopt a “one-sized fits all”.

During my recent visit it was often reinforced that Yolngu time doesn’t always operate at the same pace as the rest of us. And it was also reinforced several times that failure had greater shame than not trying.

It is why as part of the success, the Gumatj Corporation takes longer than southern public servants want to build houses. The objective of Gumatj and Deltareef is they want to pass on real skills not “tick a public service KPI”. This approach is where the system’s inflexibility gets exposed. It is where the system, with all its promise, falls down, and we find a new system reinvented being rolled out for public consumption.

There are many lessons for us to learn from the Gumatj. Among the brightest is that a common focus creates a powerful moving force.

The leadership being shown from Galarrwuy Yunupingu down and the ability for everyone to be “on the same page’ is a lesson to us all.

Everyone understands the corporation’s objectives and everyone embraces the role they play. At different points the Gumatj leadership rewards its workers, including one of the greatest rewards anybody can receive — the keys to their own house. A house which more than likely they themselves built.

Another key is the third parties the Gumatj are interacting with are not just commercial partners — they are shareholders in the overall vision. Deltareef general manager Mick Martin and his team lived in swags for nine months following Cyclones Lam and Nathan, not for financial gain but because they are committed to the people of Elcho Island.

This level of relationship is rewarded with trust, not contracts.

The Gumatj have decided to take charge of their future. They didn’t battle the supply chain to get what they wanted — they created their own.

As Djawa Yunupingu said: “We didn’t just create jobs, we created an entire industry.”

If we can’t learn from that determination then we will never learn.