Community ties

UQ graduate Will Davis OAM reflects on the importance of community to everything he does.

Aboriginal artwork illustrating a river with turtles swimming in it. The artwork consists of circles and wavy solid and dotted lines.

Image : rashmisingh / Adobe Stock.

Image : rashmisingh / Adobe Stock.

At first, Will Davis wasn’t sure whether to accept a Medal of the Order of Australia, presented on Australia Day this year for his service to the Indigenous community of Queensland.

The proud Cobble Cobble Aboriginal man realised the nomination didn’t just reflect his work, but also the work of the Elders and other community members in his local district around Eagleby, Beenleigh and Logan.

“My achievements stand on the shoulders of other blackfellas who have done it, like a thumbs-up to that collective community work.”

A list of all the roles and initiatives Will (Bachelor of Arts 1996, Graduate Diploma in Education 1998, Master of Educational Studies (Leadership) 2009) has undertaken would be an entire article in itself.

He’s worked as a teacher, community worker, university lecturer and tutor, and has been CEO of the Beenleigh Housing and Development Company since 2014.

He is a proud participant and founding member of Durithunga – an independent education group that strives for Indigenous cultural integrity and equality for jarjums (children) – and Warril Yari Go Karulbo, an Indigenous leadership group striving for change and equity in Logan.

UQ alumnus William Davis received the Medal of the Order of Australia for his service to the Indigenous community of Queensland.

“The Durithunga group started in the late 1990s at a time of government funding cuts and collective slashing of Indigenous programs, in particular in education, community voice and governance,” Will said.

“A few Elders, who have passed now, along with me and my brother and other young fellas who were teaching and teacher aides and community people, we said we don’t need funding to do community projects in the school system.

“Our first meeting was in a park in Woodridge at the back of the police station and we just kept meeting. We were gifted the Aboriginal word Durithunga, which means to grow, and ran strongly for many years, with a whole range of community activism going into jobs and structures.”

Will has also helped develop and implement ‘Elders Principles’ for his local district.

“With our community Elders Principles, we were defining as a mob how we want to live together. A lot of the old community-controlled organisations were housing organisations, as we are. State and federal governments historically restricted funding and, in many ways, caring about local Indigenous urban housing, so our mob came together to yarn about how we want to live as a community, a basic human right that Indigenous people are not really afforded.

“Slowly but surely the tide turned, with different governments looking for ways to embed social and emotional wellbeing and programs that authentically assist our mob. We were a small community, but it was not our first rodeo and we had the right people with the right stuff.”

Will Davis standing in front of sign with the Jinndi Mibunn Housing and Development Company logo.

UQ alumnus William Davis received the Medal of the Order of Australia for his service to the Indigenous community of Queensland.

UQ alumnus William Davis received the Medal of the Order of Australia for his service to the Indigenous community of Queensland.

He is currently undertaking a PhD on developing a cultural-strengths curriculum and research methodology using Indigenous knowledge principles and community-developed and owned practices and processes.

This doctorate is based on his extensive community work and education, including a master's thesis on a successful Spear Making program.

The Spear Making program for local youths and men focused on revitalising an important practice as a learning program; integrating knowledge coding; and collective and individual assessment through tracking, reflecting and presenting that knowledge journey.

Will said he developed the Spear Making program with community to not only help shake up ‘trite Indigenous offerings’ in the curriculum, but also to provide learning experiences drawing from community cultural strengths.

“You can make a spear within a day, but in this context you try to come up with a spear-making unit assessing things like respect; knowing from the past; and connecting with a body of knowledge around making spears, using them properly and passing them on respectfully as cultural products that are symbolic and practical.”

Will said his studies at UQ were bolstered by the ‘really supportive nest’ offered by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit (ATSIS Unit).

“You have to deal with layers of culture shock on campus so it was great to have other blackfellas and thinking academics supporting you, nourishing you and pushing you until you were ready to fly out from that sanctuary,” he said

“It’s easy to get lost in the academic stuff but coating and infusing that with community activism considerations is important.”

Image : rashmisingh / Adobe Stock.

Aboriginal artwork consisting of wavy solid and dotted blue, red, orange and yellow lines.

Will has also championed an after-school ‘Murriland’ curriculum around Indigenous knowledge and languages, aimed at young men’s and women’s groups, and ensuring they are connected within the community.

“I’ve taught mainstream English and History and also co-developed with community a range of different youth programs with the theme of empowering mob, through our rights to a mainstream education and our rights to our own education.

“Nowhere does it say in the UN or anywhere that education just has to be the education of mainstream Australia for our people. That’s ludicrous because it’s our Country.

“We’re smart enough to create programs that can matriculate ourselves through different stages of knowing and being and doing.”

Will hopes that through his work he’ll be able to inspire a new generation of Indigenous young people to continue this valuable community work.

“I’m keen to encourage more Indigenous university graduates to get involved with grassroots Indigenous community connections, activism and local community-controlled organisations, otherwise they disappear into structured professions with a client focus and are not used to listening to community voices.”