The Emmanuel College Connection caught up with Inala Cooper (Dodson) in March when she came to meet with students. Inala has multiple roles at Monash University, where she is: Senior Advisor on Indigenous Strategy and Communication, Executive Officer on the Indigenous Advisory Council and a Deputy College Head at one of the on-campus Halls of Residence. We asked Inala about her varied and interesting career path and the influence of Emmanuel College.
After completing a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Drama and Contemporary Dance, Inala studied Theatre and Event Management and worked for a long time on festivals and events in the arts arena. A stint in the Victorian Public Service gave Inala a wide range of experience in a variety of departments, leading to a few years in the Ministerial Taskforce for Aboriginal Affairs. A meeting with the Vice Chancellor of Monash University about how Monash could attract more indigenous students lead to Inala accepting a position as Senior Advisor on Indigenous Strategy and Communication and completion of a Masters in Human Rights Law on a scholarship. Inala has served in this role for 6 years in addition to her role as the Executive Officer on the Indigenous Advisory Council and a Deputy College Head at one of the Halls of Residence, living on-campus.
“Being an Emmanuel student had a big impact on me and my views on life. I had a Catholic education right from the start and you do learn important values and a view of the world that includes empathy and understanding. We learned how we could help people who are less fortunate than ourselves but not in a missionary way where we are saviours to go out and rescue people - in a way where there is a two-way communication and a two-way learning. We learned that we should go out into our community and make a contribution that is equal to our capabilities. I am grateful for the education I had at Emmanuel. The things I learned because I went to a Catholic school I have taken with me into adulthood.
My teachers had such an influence and impact on me. Mrs Bastow, who I had in Year 7, I will never forget. Mr Hingston was great as an RE teacher. It was not so much about teaching students what was in the Bible or being a good church person, it was far broader. It was about looking at other religions and your own personal faith. He was very influential and even teachers that I didn’t have for my classes managed to have some kind of positive influence. Working at the Halls of Residence and having 183 names to remember I find incredibly challenging. Coming back to Emmanuel 20 years later and having teachers come up and say, ‘Hey Inala, how are you?’ and remembering the thousands of people that come through these doors? It’s an extraordinary gift.
I remember Mr Tobias when he was Deputy Principal coming in to fill in for our English Literature teacher. We were studying King Lear and he just made us sit up and pay attention! He got up on the desk to perform the role and was very dynamic. He had a real knack for engaging people - the kind of teacher where you knew straight away that he believed in you without him having to say that he did.
The reunion was terrific! It was so good to come back and see how much the school has grown. When we were in Year 12 twelve there were probably less than 600 students and now it’s about double that isn’t it? It’s great to see the progress and to see that Catholic education is stronger than ever in the region. It was wonderful. We loved it!”
Jill Moloney has had an extensive career in nursing and public health in Australia and internationally. One of the few westerners to work in North Korea, Jill designed a life-saving program to improve birthing services and live birth outcomes.
Beginning her career in Nursing through Warrnambool Base Hospital, Jill commenced her first nursing job in Darwin. From there she worked throughout NT and QLD as well as Melbourne, and Nhulunbuy in East Arnhem Land where became interested in public health. In central Queensland, Jill worked in public health looking after clients in a 540,000 square kilometre area and serving on immunisation reference groups and committees.
While in Katherine WA, in 2000 Jill saw an advertisement in The Australian for a midwife to work in Cambodia. This initiated the international career and led her to completing a Master of International Public Health at the University of Sydney.
“In North Korea, I had three different jobs, but two of them were really short fill-in jobs. The main one was a really successful program that I designed and it’s still going since. The aim of the program was to improve birthing services. The people there were really crying out for new information. They’d gone through a system where it was basically using 1950’s obstetrics, and so they were interested to know what everyone else was doing. I designed a program based on some of Andrea Robertson’s work here in Australia.”
Jill then served in Niger during the drought and famine emergency. “I was doing community mobilisation there because when they came in with the food and sanitation, people were so desperate for food that they’d just rampage and try and get as much of the food as they could and they needed someone to come in and help them to organise things a bit better.”
Jill then went to Uganda, working in public health with a maternal child health focus to teach traditional birth attendants through the midwifery program that was set up by the Vatican. Adapting the curriculum that she did for Korea, the Ugandans adapted and implemented the curriculum she did for Korea. In Uganda Jill faced the difficulties of civil war and a cholera outbreak. Later Jill’s work took her to Timor Leste, the Solomon Islands, Cambodia, Laos and Burma.
“I have fond memories of St Ann’s, especially Sister Jacqueline, (later known as Sr Maureen) with her choir practice – and Sr Patsy – she was great fun. I remember having to perform in the school concert. I can’t remember what we were supposed to be singing, but just prior to the show one of my classmates said, ‘Let’s do Pink Floyd’s ‘Another in Brick in the Wall’ instead. With lyrics like, ‘we don’t need no education’ it didn’t go down too well! I really loved my Science teacher when I was in Year 9. She was really encouraging and gave me the confidence to go over to the boy’s school and do chemistry and physics and things like that that I considered really quite daunting at the time. I was reluctant to take up chemistry and she was very encouraging.”
After a career of international service and achievement, often in challenging environments Jill has been nominated for the Emmanuel College Inspiring Alumni.
Since graduating from University, educator Georgina Hay has been making a difference in indigenous education in the Kalkarindji Daguragu area in the Northern Territory.
“I've always been interested in indigenous culture. I did a 3-week placement in my 4th year of Uni, and really liked it. I have been there 2 years now with no plans to return in a hurry. I taught prep last year, and I'm doing pre-school this year, with 3 and half to 5 year olds. I'm studying. My degree was in Primary Education so now I'm doing early childhood qualifications through Edith Cowan University in Perth.
I've got two assistant teachers, who are local indigenous people. I would not be able to do it without them. English is the 3rd or 4th language for most of the students and for some it's their first interaction with white people. The curriculum is adapted to suit local culture and students learn about fishing, culture and art. They are very active, outdoors people so for them to sit in the classroom is a massive change. Now, I can't really see myself teaching in a mainstream classroom. Here it really feels like you're doing something. I'm learning just as much as they are learning.
So you've got to be super organised to live in a small community. It’s a four-hour drive to a supermarket. There is a little shop that's open Monday to Friday, but it only sells really basic things. We do bush orders online, so if you order before Thursday, it comes the following Tuesday! You become more conscious of what you really need and what you want.
The Internet here is amazing though - super fast ADSL. It would be a lot harder not being connected to the outside world. Even to come home you have to drive 8 hours just to get to Darwin. We have a health clinic with a couple of nurses and a doctor a few days a week. They'll fly you out for anything serious. You learn things about yourself when you live up here. I've learnt that I'm a very social person and I need people around me. On weekends there's nothing to do.
We’ve lost our funding for secondary school, so now the secondary students have to go into either Katherine or Darwin to boarding school. They're really connected to their land and their family so to move away is difficult. Some kids do really well, but some run away and come home. They’re at the age where they are bigger risk-takers and when they go into town they are exposed to alcohol or drugs a lot more.
I say to my kids every day, ‘You be could be a doctor or nurse when you grow up. You could be a teacher’, but they’ve never seen someone from their own community go out, go to university, and come back to be a teacher in the school, and it’s hard for them to try and achieve it if they haven’t seen anyone do it themselves. When they see it, they will know that they can do it. That’s my goal for them.”
Freedom Day - The twenty-third of August is Freedom Day. Where I live is the first place in Australia where land rights were recognized. It’s where Gough Whitlam went to Kalkarindji and poured the sand into Vincent Lingiari’s hand. This year it’s been 50 years since the walk off. There was the Wave Hill Cattle Station, and they were getting paid nothing – paid with rice and water pretty much. Nothing, so they went on strike for 8 years until Whitlam came in and gave them land rights. This year’s festival was massive. We raised over $10,000 for the school, which is the biggest fundraising the school has ever done. There were many people here along with some Warrnambool identities including Shane Howard performing. Do you know the song, ‘From little things, big things grow’? That was written about Kalkarindji. It’s such a significant part of Australian history.Georgina Hay
