News in brief

Award-winning yarnin’

A youth partnership has won the 2010 Premier’s Reconciliation Award.

Since 2007, students from Brisbane Catholic girls’ school Mt St Michael’s (MSM) College have regularly visited the Australian Catholic University to meet tertiary students attending residential study blocks through the Weemala Unit.

Together they’ve shared stories, asked questions, and supported each other.

“Meeting in an informal setting has provided a space for the students to find common ground and increase their understanding of each other’s cultures,” says Weemala academic coordinator Dean Duncan.

The Commonwealth Bank won the Established Business category of the Reconciliation Awards for Business for its Indigenous banking team initiative. Blue Care won the Community category, and Carbon Media was the Emerging Business winner. Read Carbon Media’s story on page 12. 

Aunty Ruth’s truly great

Brisbane Elder Aunty Ruth Hegarty (left) is officially a Queensland Great.

She was one of five individuals and one institution honoured as part of Queensland Week celebrations in June.

Aunty Ruth, 82, has campaigned on social justice issues for Indigenous people for decades. A founding member of the Koobara Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Resource Centre in Brisbane, she was spokesperson for the Queensland ‘Stolen Wages’ campaign and the ‘Redress Scheme’; and has participated in government advisory roles including the Domestic Violence Council.

Aunty Ruth is also a published writer, known for Is that you Ruthie and My bittersweet journey.

Members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community previously named Queensland Greats are:

• Kev Carmody
• Pearl Duncan
• Dr Evelyn Scott
• Aunty Olga Miller

• Uncle Bob Anderson.

Future served up

Patryce Nona, 17, is the inaugural recipient of the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) Tourism Scholarship. The scholarship, worth more than $115,000 over three years, covers the full tuition fees of Patryce’s Bachelor of International Hotel and Resort Management at Bond University on the Gold Coast as well as an internship.

Patryce, who grew up in Innisfail, hopes to travel the world with her degree.

Applications for the 2012 ILC Tourism Scholarship open in April 2011. More information email scholarships@bond.edu.au

Different strokes

Meet Ellen Mills, one of six Townsville women learning construction skills in the first Indigenous Women in Hard Hats program.

Ellen has begun a painting apprenticeship with QBuild. Others are training as carpenters or construction workers.

Find out more about this program, helping Indigenous women enter non-traditional trades by emailing iwihh@communities.qld.gov.au or calling 1800 070 318

Cherbourg opens wide for dental clinic

Cherbourg community is all smiles at news of a training school for dentists, run by Griffith University, to be built as an extension to its health centre.

“The doctors and nurses at Cherbourg do a wonderful job but not having a dentist causes a lot of suffering; and we’ve been without for a very long time. Few children walk around here with pearly white teeth,” says Cherbourg Deputy Mayor Gordon Wragge.

Griffith University’s Colgate Chair of Rural, Remote and Indigenous Oral Health, Professor Ratilal Lalloo says the centre will have four dental surgeries and be staffed by supervised dentistry and oral therapy students.

The university service will be available to residents of Cherbourg community and its surrounds.