In January this year, Robbie Miniter (Gnowangerup Aboriginal Corporation) and Belinda Swift (Yarramoup Aboriginal Corporation) were supported by Mulloon Institute, Bush Heritage Australia and Gondwana Link to attend Our Common Place’s ‘Healthy Country Planning Course’ in Lutruwita (Tasmania).

The course was a five-day immersive learning experience that walked us through a powerful planning framework about placing First Nations values and aspirations at its foundation while also providing the tools to put this healthy Country knowledge into Caring for Country actions.

Gondwana Link’s Jim Underwood and Mulloon Institute’s Brooke Cunningham and Mitch Lennon also attended the course, where future collaborations for healing Country in the Pallinup catchment of south west WA were consolidated, along with a deepening understanding of Healthy Country Planning.

Robbie said the course showed how to “put things together strategically and look at ways of moving from your values as a start, and then all those steps that’re in between to then finally get into your goals…we learned how to stay on track right throughout a project.”

Belinda felt that the course allowed the opportunity to “be able to be present in all of it: to be present in the beauty of country, the beauty of what country used to be like and what we would like to get it back to for our future generations.”

Course attendance was supported by Mulloon Institute’s TIMME (Training, Implementation, Mentoring, Monitoring and Evaluation) project, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.