Kimberley trip shows how lives are changed

Indigenous communities across Australia are facing pressing social and financial problems. Anna Green from The Boston Consulting Group went to the Kimberley region and shares what happens when passionate and smart people work at a grass roots level and let local people lead the way.

Over the years I saw many colleagues at The Boston Consulting Group return from secondments with remote Indigenous communities and talk about their time away as an almost mystical experience.

I had asked questions and listened carefully, but was unsure that I really ‘got it’. That changed earlier this year when I finally had the chance to join an executive trip to the Kimberley region and discover first-hand the remarkable impact made by BCG.

To go back a step or two, BCG’s Colin Carter started a new type of partnership with Indigenous communities back in 1998, known as Jawun, with an initial focus on Cape York Peninsula. It began with just two BCG associates, who spent a number of months living and working in the communities and applying their skills to solve the most pressing social problems.

Today, more than 20 of Australia’s leading companies have joined Jawun and give the time of their own people to make a real difference to Indigenous communities in North East Arnhem Land, the Kimberley, the Goulburn-Murray district, the Central Coast of NSW and inner Sydney.

More than 80 BCG people have now undertaken pro-bono projects with Jawun, including a welfare reform trial, new policies on housing, education, work and social norms, a model of care for Cape York children, and creating a proposal for improving educational outcomes in remote Indigenous areas.

Noel Pearson, one of the Indigenous leaders in Cape York, has said “We achieve more from three months from a high-calibre person from Boston Consulting than I’ve seen us get from the bureaucracy in three years.”

I was fortunate to be able to make my trip to the Kimberley with our former managing partner, Ross Love. I knew he was an energetic supporter of Jawun, but when we arrived I discovered Ross was practically a celebrity with the people of Jawun and Wunan, an Aboriginal development organisation in the East Kimberley. In fact, mentioning I was from BCG resulted in being hugged by members of both organisations and then being told tales of the many BCGers they had worked with over the years.

The statistics on social and financial disadvantage in Indigenous Australia are bleak, and some communities are in crisis. But through the vision and work of many of the organisations BCG supports through Jawun, I saw much light and hope. I saw what happens when passionate and smart people work at a grass roots level and let local people lead the way.

While Jawun has been at the centre of BCG’s philanthropic work for more than 15 years, we do support for other organisations. BCG started a relationship in 2009 with Teach for Australia, a pioneering initiative to address educational disadvantage in schools. BCG was instrumental in getting Teach for Australia off the ground and provides ongoing support through secondments, strategic advice and recruiting support.

We also participate in pro-bono initiatives for other organisations, such as symphony orchestras, sporting codes and educational reform programs. If any of our people show passion for launching a project of interest to them, there will be many enthusiastic BCGers to support their thinking and make it happen. Our office-based Charity Committees also organise local support for a range of charities, and many BCGers undertake efforts for causes close to their hearts, such as a coast-to-coast motorcycle ride in support of the Royal Flying Doctors, a gruelling 300km bike ride to raise funds for Can4Cancer, or donating time and materials to Wesley Mission.