Winyama successfully launches Australia’s first free, online, Indigenous mapping training
This blog was written for Winyama Digital Solutions’ audience and also appears in the Winyama Newsroom.
On the 22nd September 2020, Winyama officially launched the IMW Australia - On Demand - an online learning platform hosting specialised geospatial training for Indigenous organisations.
The online platform was built and designed for Indigenous communities to access across Australia after the Indigenous Mapping Workshop Australia (IMW Australia), due to be held in Melbourne in July 2020, was postponed. The training platform responds to the direct need that 76% of applicants identified during the application process - there is a lack of training and capacity to help them achieve their mapping-related objectives.
On the day of the launch, the platform had 164 accepted participants. Of these applicants, 69% identified as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and 85% had never participated in an Indigenous Mapping Workshop previously.
The applicants spanned across Australia with the following breakdown to the right:
In the first 24 hours of being officially open, the IMW Australia - On Demand platform saw 68 users enrol in 90 courses, and achieve seven course completions.
If you would like to be a part of the IMW Australia - On Demand journey, head to our webpage to apply now.
The IMW Australia - On Demand launch event was hosted online by Winyama’s Managing Director, Andrew Dowding, who discussed the importance of acquiring digital skills in a modern Indigenous context. The launch event was viewed live by 124 people, and the webpage hosting the event recording has been visited more than 1000 times.
“If you have a passion and interest for working on Country, participating in our workshops means you can pick up digital skills that will give you a broad range of options to remain in your communities and be valuable at your workplaces,” Andrew said.
Professor Marcia Langton, Dr James Rose and Mr Darren Clinch from the Indigenous Data Network delivered a keynote address and discussed the future of Indigenous mapping and data ownership.
IMW Australia team before the official launch of IMW Australia - On Demand
“The whole issue of Indigenous governance and management of this problem is absolutely critical, it is only with excellent training and qualifications that Indigenous people will be able to own, govern and manage geographical information on digital data systems,” Professor Langton explained.
Mr Terry Garwood, Deputy Secretary, Local Infrastructure at the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in the Victoria State Government, commended the Winyama team for successfully pivoting to an online platform and ensuring that all Indigenous people can now access the much needed training resource.
“Winyama made 2020 work for them and I’m really proud to be a part of the process.
“They harnessed the acceleration of digital transformation that people across the globe are tackling, to enable traditional owners and Aboriginal communities across Australia to be able to access this important training in 2020,” he said.
Did you miss the live broadcast of the launch event and want to hear more about what our guest speakers had to say? Watch the recording here.