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Speaker 1: We know right now that more than one hundred Australian

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Speaker 1: Army personnel have arrived in the Gabawiyak community for the

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Speaker 1: Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program where they're going to be

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Speaker 1: living for a period of time to develop and deliver services. Now,

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line to tell us a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about this is Major Donald Robinson. He joins

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Speaker 1: me on the line right now.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Hello o Katie, and good morning

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Speaker 2: to you and your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now, when did you guys arrive in Gabowiyak, CA.

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Speaker 2: Do we arrive in Gaboiak in Lake May and started

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Speaker 2: setting up our camp just outside the community from.

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Speaker 1: That time, Well, so been there for a little while.

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Speaker 1: How things been going since you arrived in Gaboweyak, Things, I.

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Speaker 2: Mean going very well. We took a couple of weeks

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Speaker 2: to set up the camp that we deployed with. That's

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Speaker 2: a temporary camp in an existing clearing just outside the community.

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Speaker 2: We've set that up and it's our temporary home away

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Speaker 2: from home and we have started delivering our program in

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Speaker 2: the community across health, vocational skills and of course a

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Speaker 2: few construction items that were building. All going very well, and.

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Speaker 1: So what exactly you know? I guess I've heard a

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Speaker 1: little bit about the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program, but

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Speaker 1: what exactly is ash?

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Speaker 2: So the APAP program is a joint commitment between Army

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Speaker 2: and the National Indigenous Australian's Agency aims at improving instructure,

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Speaker 2: health and vocational skills and remote fascination in the community

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Speaker 2: as part of their Closing the Gap initiative.

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Speaker 1: And how long has it been running for? This is the.

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Speaker 2: Twenty fifth year of the program. It was delayed in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty because of their pandemic. That was delayed to

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. But this is, yes, the twenty fifth

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Speaker 2: year of the program.

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Speaker 1: Goodness made twenty five years. I'm assuming that there's been

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Speaker 1: other communities all over that twenty five years would have

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Speaker 1: been a lot of other communities. I guess that you

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Speaker 1: know that you would have been involved in.

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Speaker 2: Yes, that's right. The programs delivered yearly through two Remote

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Speaker 2: First Nations communities. It gually rotates through the states, so

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Speaker 2: most states and territories have now benefited from the program

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Speaker 2: in some way, and this year it was the Norland territory.

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Speaker 2: So here we are now, tell us a little bit more.

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Speaker 1: Obviously in Gapa Weak tell us a bit more about

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Speaker 1: some of that work that is happening and how the

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Speaker 1: community is involved as well.

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Speaker 2: So there's three parts of it, health, vocational skills and

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Speaker 2: of course the infrastructure. Two big infrastructure. I were building

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Speaker 2: an independent youth center to bolster the community engagement and

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Speaker 2: youth activities in the community. We're also doing an upgrade

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Speaker 2: to the barge access road. It gets all of the

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Speaker 2: supplies from a barge that comes in from Darwin, so

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Speaker 2: upgrading that road between the community and that barge landing site.

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Speaker 2: We've got Army medical personnel doctors, dentist, frescindarian to delivering

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Speaker 2: programs along those lines and support of the existing programs

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Speaker 2: in the community. And we also have a training team

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Speaker 2: of specialist personnel who are delivering a range of programs

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Speaker 2: from construction skills up to video between photography and things

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Speaker 2: like that.

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Speaker 1: And Donald, how do you work out sort of you

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Speaker 1: know what work is required in the community and sort

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Speaker 1: of consulting with those community members about what you're going

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Speaker 1: to get underway when you're there.

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Speaker 2: The niAA and the Army form what's called the Steering Committee.

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Speaker 2: They run a comprehensive consultation process with the community. They're

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Speaker 2: olders and they're representing organizations. The engagement with GAP and

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Speaker 2: me AT commenced in late twenty nineteen, and you know,

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Speaker 2: with a shared decision making process with them, we formalize

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Speaker 2: an agreement on what the benefit of what the community

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Speaker 2: benefits and needs, and then we set out to.

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Speaker 1: Deliver that and do local community members get involved in

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Speaker 1: some of that work too.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, with the training and health parts of it. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I'm underpinning all of those lines of as it is

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Speaker 2: our community engagement. So we are out about in the

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Speaker 2: community every day. For example, we have a number of

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Speaker 2: soldiers with us who are keen apphold players, so we

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Speaker 2: train and participate in their local cop And we also

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Speaker 2: have every week morning a morning tea where the community

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Speaker 2: and their elders come along to the morning tea and

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Speaker 2: have an opportunity to ask us questions and raising concerns

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Speaker 2: they might have.

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Speaker 1: That's great to hear. Do you ever see, like you know,

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Speaker 1: in some of those communities that you've been to over

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Speaker 1: the years, do you ever see some of the younger

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Speaker 1: members of the community, does it sort of spark any

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Speaker 1: interest for any of them? In terms of bet actually

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Speaker 1: joining the Army.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, the Arnold Squadron, which is part of North Force,

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Speaker 2: has a presence in the community. But in addition to that,

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Speaker 2: we do get a lot of questions from the younger

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Speaker 2: members of the community who are very keen and interested

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Speaker 2: in the Australian Army and service in the Austrai and

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Speaker 2: Defense Force. And yeah, we share that information and of

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Speaker 2: course encourage people to check out what opportunities are available

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Speaker 2: for them.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like a really good program and as you said,

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Speaker 1: been running for twenty five years, there would have been

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Speaker 1: some tremendous work I'm sure within the communities over that

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Speaker 1: period of time. Major Donald Robinson, we really appreciate you

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Speaker 1: having a chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much for having us and thank you

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Speaker 2: to you and your listeners for the support of the

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Speaker 2: Australian Army in the Northern Territory anytime.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,