Indigenous Community Volunteers

 

Tips From Our Volunteers

Volunteering with ICV is an unforgettable experience. It can be one of the most rewarding and enriching things you’ll ever do but at the same time, before you get out there, it can be very daunting…that’s why we are here to support you every step of the way.

ICV provides a comprehensive two day cross cultural awareness workshop to every volunteer before your first project. Here you’ll learn about Indigenous history, culture and protocols and get to ask practical questions about what to say and do and how to effectively share your skills. You’ll also get to hear directly from return volunteers about their experience – something everyone seems to enjoy!

The community provides you with a cultural mentor to help you with any questions throughout your project and ICV maintains regular contact to ensure things are going smoothly. In addition an ICV officer is available 24/7 for support during your project.

While every experience is different, there are a number of helpful tips you can apply to every project. [links]

Patience | Listening | Openness | Flexibility | Perspective | Sharing

Patience

....is the key to successful skills transfer projects! It’s easy to get caught up in achieving outcomes and want to steam full speed ahead. Enthusiasm is great but it must be balanced with patience.

Different things are important in different cultures. Relationships are a core part of Indigenous culture so it pays to put time and energy into building rapport and trust. These things do take time to establish “ You can’t go into a community and expect to be immediately accepted and liked – it takes time and you must earn respect and friendship. Just the same as it does when someone new comes into your work or home situation”. Gaynor Nicols

So take your time to get settled and shed your expectations. Don’t expect to get started on the first day of your project. Ultimately you will achieve a lot more if you put your early efforts into getting to know the people you will be working with first and foremost.

The other thing to be aware of is how this emphasis on relationships may effect timings on projects. Generally speaking you need to allow plenty of time for community discussion and consultation. This fosters ownership and acceptance – essential for long term benefits. Enjoy it, don’t try to work against it. As ICV Volunteer Barry Phillips discovered/recounts (?)“ It .. gave me a wonderful opportunity to experience how such communities function on a daily basis, where people were far more important than they are in our more task-orientated society. This different focus... explained to me why tasks can take longer to complete as day to day issues of the family always came first….. As a very task orientated person I found that as I adjusted to this ‘people focus’ anything became possible in time.” [link: barry’s full story]

Listening

It follows that where relationships are important so is communication – in particular listening. Being able to listen, watch and ask questions enables you to gain insight into exactly what skills are necessary and the best ways in which to share them. Bear in mind that listening means really hearing what is being said “yes” doesn’t always necessarily mean “yes”. Don’t be afraid of silence either As [link: Gaynor Nicols] says “ I’ve learned to listen carefully to people and to understand and respect the silences.”

Openness

“Every visit is a unique experience that adds to my knowledge of Indigenous life ― and realisation about how little I really know! It’s also an honour, of course.” [Link: Volunteer Sasha Trikojus] Volunteering with ICV is a two way exchange – it’s not just about skills transfer. Indeed if you’ve already decided to become a volunteer it’s highly likely one of your motivations is to learn more about Indigenous culture and you won’t be disappointed. Many of our volunteers come back humbled, often expressing a sense that they have gained more than they could possibly have given… so get ready to be amazed!

During our cross cultural awareness workshops we try to highlight the importance of keeping an open mind. We hope you’ll find this training as useful as volunteer Lily O’Niel. According to Lily it “was terrific – thought-provoking, challenging and extremely interesting. It gave me an inkling into the vast amounts of cultural assumptions that I make every day without even realising it. Again and again while in Aurukun I was so thankful that I had had that training – even when I wasn’t sure about the right cultural protocols in any given situation, I was aware that my assumptions about what was going on may not be the right ones. This is a valuable realisation that I will take away with me back to my daily life in Melbourne.”

There are so many lessons to learn about ourselves and the way we relate to others and the world around us. Volunteering is a wonderful opportunity for personal growth and development.

Flexibility

There will be times when things don’t go to plan or you will need to work within very limited resources. This is your chance to get creative. Your ingenuity can be priceless in these situations projects and can bring about surprising results. For teacher Jeff Best adapting to the needs of the situation meant expanding his teaching methods. “ Professionally as a Teacher; I learnt that I had to change my teaching style to fit a different learning culture and to relax and go with the flow more, make learning more like a social activity. It also confirmed to me that project based learning is a great way to learn.”

Skills transfer is about hands on learning. Encouraging people to apply what you are sharing reinforces their understanding and builds confidence. Always look for opportunities to make skills sharing as practical as possible.

Perspective

“Anyone who thinks they are too small to make a difference has never been in bed with a mosquito!” Anita Ruddock Body Shop. Your contribution will and does make a difference. That said, things take time – don’t expect to change things overnight or seek dramatic results. Often it’s the less tangible things, like increasing someone’s self esteem or broadening their horizons, that make the most priceless and powerful difference. Just your presence, the fact that you have gone out of your way to be there, is actively contributing to the reconciliation process. As volunteer James mason puts it "Outcomes are difficult to define sometimes because we aren’t there for a great deal of time. It’s sometimes what happens after you’ve gone that can be more meaningful, similar to after I left school, I seemed to learn more, because I wanted to, not because I had to, and I can put into practice those things I did learn and at my pace.”

Sharing

Sounds obvious right? You’re there to share skills, aren’t you? But of course! However that’s not the only thing...be open to sharing your world too. When on a project you will share yourself as well as your skills.  You’ll find this happens fairly naturally, but one great way to engage is to take a small photo album with pictures of where you live, your family etc - to help people get a sense of who you are.

All in all you might be surprised at what you end up sharing… recipes, personal stories, handyman hints. You might even end up sharing skills you didn’t even know you had.

Last, but by no means least, you may find you end up sharing long term friendships well after your project is completed. So be yourself, relax, enjoy, have fun and SHARE!!