April 2025 – Learning the Macleay: Building momentum for community action
Our first Learning Network event for 2025 was held on 3 April, exploring the story of Learning the Macleay, a community-led initiative that has taken big steps since its beginning only 2 years ago :
- From kick-off and making connections and building momentum at ChangeFest23
- To hearing the community voice through deep engagement
- To community action around key areas of priority including community governance
Jo-Anne Kelly (Partnership Lead) and team shared the outcomes of their community survey and engagement and together, attendees explored the similarities and the differences across communities and our work.
Background to the Event
About Learning the Macleay
Learning the Macleay seeks to take action on three priorities:
- Racism – How might the issue of racism be approached in key critical areas such as policing and education and community members who want to engage but don’t see or feel its impact?
- Relationships – How might existing tensions between local Aboriginal community members and organisations and other organisations be held and processed to enable new ways of working together?
- Right Timing – How might Learning the Macleay hold competing tensions between the urgency for change and the time it takes to learn together differently?
About the presenters
Jo-Anne Kelly, Partnership Lead, Learning the Macleay
Jo-Anne Kelly is a proud Dunghutti woman who has worked across a range of government and Aboriginal community controlled organisations over the past 30 years. She has worked in education, training, cultural & heritage, governance, business planning, out of home care, family research, community development and capacity building.
She is a mother of two who are chasing their dreams as well and her son is a qualified primary school teacher who has a Master of Arts in Indigenous Social Policy, a Diploma in Project Management as well as a Diploma in Management.
Jo’s aspiration is to make her community a better one which builds on the legacy of both her parents and her siblings.
Jo loves to travel and explore and is eager to learn from other Indigenous cultures around the world. She has recently returned from trips to Canada and New Zealand with fresh ideas and inspiration from their First Nation’s People and their own challenges.
Read more about the ChangeFest Learning Network and upcoming sessions here.