TasTAFE
Partnership training local Aboriginal people on-country
A partnership between Tasmania’s public training provider, TasTAFE, and a local Aboriginal organisation is helping train people in the Aboriginal community to work on-country.
Melythina Tiakana Warrana Aboriginal Corporation (MTWAC) is partnering with TasTAFE to provide training for Aboriginal people to become trainee rangers and care for the area around Tebrakunna (Cape Portland) at the north-eastern tip of Tasmania.
MTWAC has plans to assist in the cultural management of culturally significant reserves and parks in an around Cape Portland. For this to occur, they need to develop a trained and skilled workforce of senior and junior on-country rangers to work land and sea around the region.
MTWAC Chair, Nick Cameron, is also Head of Centre, Trades, at TasTAFE and saw an opportunity to connect the two organisations to create the Tebrakunna Ranger Workforce Development Training Program.
“Working at TasTAFE, I see many examples where we have tailored our training to support industry and the community and I could see there was an opportunity to partner to create a unique training program for ranger training,” Mr Cameron said.
“We connected with the Conservation and Land Management team and they were happy to work with MTWAC to create a culturally-customised training program in Conservation and Ecosystem Management.
Launched in March 2023, 14 trainee rangers are now in the second year of the on-country training program, studying a Certificate III in Conservation and Ecosystem Management.
The program involves eight on-country weekend workshops a year with cultural land and heritage management core responsibilities for the trainee rangers.
Mr Cameron said the program aligns closely with the National Indigenous Ranger Training Program.
“It includes culturally specific training such as cultural burning and Aboriginal Heritage management. Projects underway include vegetation regeneration, invasive plant and animal control and management, rubbish clean-up and maintenance.
“We also hope to include some tourism signage or walkway development. The rangers are also undertaking some surveying of cultural sites, and sea country resources”
Mr Cameron said the community was already seeing the benefits of the program.
MTWAC has recently employed 3 full time rangers to work on country as part of a trial ranger employment program, 2 of these newly employed ranges have been recruited from the trainee ranger program. MTWAC is planning on increasing ranger employment opportunities over the next 12 months with aims for separate male and female ranger work groups.
The trainee rangers have been actively planning new trees to start the land management revegetation work on a 200hectares of land at Tebrakunna with over 1200 different native varieties in the ground. They have also been actively removing invasive species of box thorn and thistles from the land area.
“We’ve had fantastic feedback from the participants undertaking the program.
“One of the things the participants have enjoyed most about the program is that they are able to learn on-country in a real-life environment. They are making a real difference in caring for the local area while also learning new skills.
“This was made possible because of TasTAFE’s can-do attitude in tailoring training specifically for the needs of the cohort and teachers being willing to travel to the local area to deliver the training,” Mr Cameron said.
