Jodie Ryan
Jodie Ryan is a Gunditjmara women with family ties originally from the South West Victoria. Jodie has CPA qualifications and a Bachelor of Business. Jodie worked previously as an Accountant/Auditor with Ernst and Young and in Business Development for the Victorian State Governments, Koorie Business Network. She has worked in various areas of Aboriginal Affairs specializing in community development through education, employment and economic development.
Jodie is the Director of Ingenuity which provides specialist skills and knowledge in working in Indigenous Communities.
In 1999 Jodie received the NAIDOC Victorian Young Aboriginal Achiever of the Year, and in 2002 Jodie went to Geneva as the Australian youth representative to the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations and was elected to the previous Tumbukka ATSIC regional council. Throughout this time Jodie was a finalist for the Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, has been listed on the Victorian Women Honor Role, awarded the Centenary Medal and listed in the Australian Woman Who's Who publication.
What a reconciled Australia looks like to me.
A reconciled Australia to me is a proud nation of Australians who have an understanding of the history on which this country was created. Building on this understanding of our history should be an acknowledgement of Indigenous peoples' rights and a commitment to ensuring Aboriginal Australia can enjoy the rich opportunities provided to all citizens of Australia. This would equate to economic and social standing commensurate with that of the greater Australia.
To achieve this, our communities, (including the private sector, government stakeholders, community groups, families and individuals) must accept the current situation of great disadvantage as a challenge that each and every individual must engage in enforcing active change. In my opinion, if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem, and ignorance is no longer an excuse.
I consider education to play a key part in this process. A reconciled Australia ensures Indigenous perspectives in the primary and secondary school curriculum is mandatory, this would be supported by compulsory units of study in Indigenous Studies at Higher Education. Furthermore, our young people should be further encouraged and supported to complete their secondary schooling and provide genuine access to further training, education and consequently employment and economic opportunity.
Educational opportunity needs to be underpinned with a deeply penetrating social reform agenda, led by strong commitment from government across all sectors and all jurisdictions. A commitment to rural and urban Australia should be considered equal to urgent needs of our remote brothers and sisters, from the north to the south, the east and the west (and of course everywhere in between).
All of the above will be a waste of time without a true investment in strengthening the culture and identify of Aboriginal Australia. Our young generation did not grow up on missions, and thankfully are not themselves members of the stolen generation, but they do face the trans-generation trauma of those who were. The scars born by our older generations are inherited to our young people. A reconciled Australia will support the much needed healing that needs to take place, but is not reaching the investment agenda. The current symptom based, band aid approach is severely lacking in understanding of the underlying hurt and anguish we continue to bear and suffer internally, but is well documented and exhibited in our extreme disadvantage.
Most importantly, this change will only succeed if we as Indigenous people step up to the plate and show genuine leadership, support one another in our endeavours to achieve our common goals. We must embrace our diversity, heal ourselves and put an end to the bullshit we dish-out to each other (usually 10 times that of what we do to anyone else) and show strength in unity. This does not mean we always have to agree, or that there is a one size fits all approach. Simply that we show each other and ourselves the respect we deserve.
Finally, My Reconciled Australia supports a new way of doing business in an Australia that is: comfortable and proud in knowing who the traditional owners of their communities are; can celebrate in our culture; share our stories; employ our people and together create a prosperous future in which we all have our part.
Jodie Ryan
