Aboriginal Student Program

Team MADALAH Visit to Canberra

Team MADALAH hit the air on Monday taking the teams Head Boy, Oshay Calgaret (TC, Year 11) and Head Girl, Jorjah to Canberra! Our first stop was breakfast with tertiary scholar, Latoya Jones who is supported to attend Australian National University where she is studying both Psychology and Law! We then went on campus to meet Aunty Anne who runs the Indigenous Program there and it was so lovely to see what an inclusive and supportive family they have at Tjabal.

Our next meeting was at the National Indigenous Australians Agency where we got the opportunity to share a bit about our program in person with our long standing funding body, to who we are incredibly grateful.

We were then lucky enough to meet Minister Burney’s Advisor, Senator Thorpe, Senator Cox and sit in on question time in the House of Representatives! To end our trip to Canberra we headed to Parliament House to celebrate the National Indigenous Times turning 20!!! Minister Burney also announced the exciting news that NIT is going Australia wide!

A huge congratulations to MADALAH Year 11 Trinity College scholar and team Head Boy Oshay! Oshay is a smart, witty, caring person and a natural born leader who decided to apply for a position on the Australian Government Youth Steering Committee and was successful!!

Fifteen members were chosen from more than 1,200 applications and Oshay is 1 of 2 Western Australians chosen. Members are aged from 13 to 24 and come from every State and Territory in the Commonwealth.

The Youth Steering Committee will support the development of a new youth engagement model and create new opportunities for young people to work with the government and contribute to policy. By being a member of this committee, he has the opportunity to work with the Minister for Youth, the Hon Dr Anne Aly MP, and ensure that young people have a voice to government and have a say on issues that matter to them and their peers.

Thank you to everyone for hosting all of us. It was an amazing experience for the students and staff involved.