News in brief

Lifelong learner

Meet Paula Dean, Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Student of the Year representative at the Australian Training Awards.

Paula gained her Certificate III in Business Administration and Diploma of Community Welfare through Brisbane North Institute of TAFE Caboolture campus.

Learning, she says, has transformed her life. Once a shy woman who would run from the classroom in tears when it was her turn to speak, Paula is now a confident public speaker, community worker and student representative who is pursuing journalism studies at university.

The Australian Training Awards are the peak, national awards for vocational education and training, recognising innovation and excellence in the training sector.

Do you know a FAB business?

Entries are now open in the inaugural First Australian Business (FAB) Awards.

The ‘FABs’ aim to recognise successful Indigenous business people and the vital role they play in creating jobs in our communities

Awards will be presented across five categories, including Business Man of the Year, Business Woman of the Year, Young Business Person of the Year, Business of the Year, and Mentor of the Year.

Winners will be chosen by an independent panel selected by the Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce. It will be made up of Indigenous business leaders and prominent business figures from the wider community.

In formally launching the awards, Warren Mundine, Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce Chairman, said the FABs were designed to ‘shatter the myth’ that Indigenous people were either not interested in business or did not have the aptitude for it.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Sydney in early 2011

Nomination forms can be downloaded from www.fabawards.com.au

Entries close 28 February 2011.

New supermarkets open

Residents of Mabuiag and Stephen Islands in the Torres Strait are bagging healthier, cheaper foods following the opening of two new Islanders Board of Industry and Service (IBIS) supermarkets.

The stores have opened with assistance from the Department of Communities and the Torres Strait Regional Authority.

Through its Healthy Eating Program, IBIS is providing a range of healthy food options, including fresh fruit and vegetables, at the lowest possible prices.

IBIS has recruited a nutritionist to strengthen its stores’ focus on diet-related health issues and is looking at ways to reduce consumption of sugary soft drinks, an initiative supported by Coca Cola Amatil.

Mabuiag store will employ two people full-time and four people part-time. One full-time and one part-time job have been created at the Stephen Island’s store.

Another gong for Carbon Media

Carbon Media has added another award to its growing list of credentials.

The Brisbane-based digital media mob won the Reconciliation Australia–BHP Billiton 2010 Indigenous Governance Awards for organisations established less than 10 years ago.

Carbon Media took out the Emerging Business category at the Queensland Government’s Reconciliation Award for Business in May and was a Telstra Business of the Year finalist in 2009.

Recent additions to Carbon Media’s portfolio of work include Australia’s first Indigenous children’s television game show, Letterbox, broadcast on ABC3 and National Indigenous Television; a documentary on the Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair; and the In Tune music series for National Indigenous Television.

Info just a click away

Cairns-based Aboriginal digital entrepreneurs Leigh Harris and Steven Pelham have launched Australia’s first online Indigenous-specific service and business directory, www.inguides.com.au

The website has listings for a wide range of services from sport and recreation, retail and entertainment, through to tourism and travel, and health and wellbeing.

It also has a mobile phone application with iphone, ipad and blackberry applications out soon.

Deadly Queenslanders!

Congratulations to the Queenslanders who took out 2010 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music, Sport, Entertainment and Community Awards at the 16th annual Deadlys held at the Sydney Opera House recently.

Wendell Sailor (TV Personality of the Year); Yolande Brown (Dancer of the Year);  Deborah Mailman (Female Actor of the Year); Josie Janz (Female Sportsperson of the Year); The Medics (Band of the Year); Busby Marou (Most Promising New Talent in Music); and St Teresa’s Agricultural College, Abergowrie (Outstanding Achievement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education).

The Deadlys, hosted by Vibe Australia, recognise and showcase excellence by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in music, sport, the arts and the community. Winners are nominated and selected by community members.