First Indigenous Female Parliamentarian goes to Israel
Mrs. Carol Martin, Member for Kimberley in the Western Australian Parliament, will be traveling to Israel in January as the 2006 National Australia Bank Yachad Fellow. She will be conducting an examination of Israeli approaches to community capacity-building and their potential applicability in the Australian Indigenous context.
Mrs. Carol Martin, Member for Kimberley in the Western Australian Parliament, will be traveling to Israel in January as the 2006 National Australia Bank Yachad Fellow. She will be conducting an examination of Israeli approaches to community capacity-building and their potential applicability in the Australian Indigenous context.
Mrs. Martin has the distinction of being the first indigenous female parliamentarian (elected 2001), and represents the Kimberley electorate, one of the largest in Australia.
"My electorate contains many remote Indigenous communities that experience significant disadvantage across a range of fundamental benchmarks, such as health and education. My hope is that the Israeli experience of community capacity building will provide ideas and perhaps even models that can assist communities in facing these challenges," said Mrs. Martin.
As this year's Fellow, Mrs. Martin will be following in the footsteps of past Fellows - Dr. John Bradley (2004) and Professor Marcia Langton AM (2003). Professor Langton's Fellowship resulted in the establishment of the Yachad Accelerated Learning Project, a national indigenous education pilot Project, which will in 2006 be working in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
"On behalf of the National Australia Bank Yachad Scholarship Fund Board, I am delighted that Carol Martin will be traveling to Israel as the 2006 Fellow. We wish her every success and look forward to hearing her findings upon her return," said National CEO and Yachad Fund Chair, John Stewart.
Mark Leibler AC, Deputy Chair of the Yachad Fund and Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia, observed, "We are justifiably excited at the continued success of the Fund, which, I believe, has surpassed everyone's expectations. The Fund has been able to facilitate connections between Australia and Israel to the ongoing benefit of both countries and their citizens - there could be no better outcome.
The National Australia Bank Yachad Scholarship Fund also confirmed two new Scholars who will travel to Israel this summer.
Alex Dawia, a senior Project Officer for the Queensland Government Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and Development travelled to Israel in December as the 2005 United Israel Appeal Yachad Scholar undertaking a three week intensive investigation of grassroots community capacity building with a particular focus on assisting disadvantaged Youth and those who have been through the Justice system.
Hugh Evans, Young Australian of the Year (2004) and Founder of the Oaktree Foundation and Dinners for Life will travel to Israel in February 2006. Hugh will investigate the Israeli NGO sector and in particular those programmes that seek to assist economic development in developing communities and communities in the Third World.
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