Indigenous Community Volunteers

 “Now I do the things I like to do, rather than what I have to do” is Brian Byrne’s motto for retirement.

Brian, an outstanding volunteer from Indigenous Community Volunteers (ICV), is sharing his skills and expertise with Indigenous communities while achieving great personal satisfaction.

Brian’s curiosity was sparked in 2001 while thinking through his retirement plans and seeing an advertisement for ICV―he has been volunteering ever since. A teacher by profession, Brian’s desire to share his skills with others stemmed from an awareness of the deficit of educational opportunities experienced by many Indigenous communities.

Over the last 4 years, Brian has partnered with several Indigenous communities to transfer his skills in teaching, public speaking, leadership, IT and digital photography to name a few. For Brian, a particular highlight was the delivery of a 3-day personal development workshop requested by the Port Kennedy Association on Thursday Island. “The management of the Port Kennedy Association Inc. identified the need to develop leadership skills in community organisations” said Latoya Nakata, Senior Administration Officer of the Association, “but we had funding limitations…we heard about ICV’s good reputation and decided to approach them”.

The participants agreed that the workshop was highly valuable and innovative. Through various exercises and games, attendees gained new perspectives on styles of leadership, communication and conflict resolution. Plans for a ‘train the trainer’ workshop are under discussion to allow an even greater transfer of skills to the Thursday Island community organisations and their continued development.

When asked about his experience, Brian remarked on the rewards of “seeing people own their own excellence” as they presented confidently on the last day of the workshop to the noisy support of their peers. His experience was reinforced by being well supported to undertake the projects through the cultural training provided prior to the project and a cultural mentor while on the project. His message to other retirees is encouraging: “the experience is brilliant, moving, I came away feeling that I got more than I gave, it’s a real opportunity to interact with different lifestyles, you don’t lose financially…how could you be so lucky”.

<< Back to other volunteer stories