Making space for young First Nations people in Australian geoscience
Making Space is the theme of this year’s World Hoodie Day 2021, an AIME initiative that aims to make space for young First Nations people in all kinds of ways to alleviate educational inequality. Get on board to support AIME in their mission and buy one here! Hoodie artwork: Maddie Williams. Image: AIME
Today is World Hoodie Day, a time to celebrate young First Nations creativity and to consider ways we can all ‘make space’ in unexpected, necessary and valuable ways to help alleviate educational inequality in Australia. AuScope is proud to support the inspiring ideators of today’s initiative from AIME in helping young people to overcome barriers into, throughout and beyond their higher education journey. Help us to make space for an emerging generation of First Nations geoscientists!
Introducing AIME
AIME, the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience, is an award-winning organisation that uses mentoring and imagination to unlock the potential of marginalised youth to create a fairer world. Founder, Jack Manning Bancroft started AIME as a 19 year old:
“[I was] sitting in between two worlds — one of privilege, a white family, and a world of systemic disadvantage, a black family. I wanted to be a bridge between both worlds. I wanted to design a fairer world, one where we saw each other not from where we have come from, but where we could go to.”
In the sixteen years since, Jack, his team and a passionate network of mentors have empowered tens of thousands of young people to change the course of their lives across Australia through AIME Mentoring. Their work has been so impactful that Jack was able to launch AIME globally in 2017.
This short film, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Laurent Witz, tells the story of a world built on a mechanised system that favours only some. It follows two characters whose lives seem predetermined by this system and the circumstances they were born into. It was made for the international launch of AIME in 2017.
Australia still faces enormous challenges in supporting young First Nations people through their journeys into and beyond higher education, and Jack and his team’s work is more important than ever today. In his 2018 book, MENTORING The Key to a Fairer World, Jack explains that in Australia, 75 percent of non-Indigenous young people between the ages of 18 and 25 are in university, employment or further training – for young Indigenous people, this rate is only 40 per cent. Evidently, we must make more space.
‘What do you do after you read a Black Lives Matter story? Indigenous injustice? How do you respond to shareholders calling for more diversity in the boardroom? Where do you even start? You start by sending a signal. That you are with them. You start by making a statement that you are ready to make space.’
— Jack Manning Bancroft, AIME Founder
AuScope is making space
This year, AuScope is proud to be supporting World Hoodie Day by donning hoodies that feature artwork by Maddie Williams, a proud Wiradjuri and Torres Strait Islander descendant and AIME graduate. Titled Escalation, Maddie’s artwork depicts her experience of dealing with the bushfires in Australia and the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide.
By wearing these hoodies, we hope to show that there is space for emerging First Nations creatives in Australian geoscience — whether you want to learn about Earth’s evolution and how it may support us in the future; and whether you want to work in the field, in the laboratory or even in a museum! Join us and purchase a hoodie here.
Philomena (left) and Jo (right) from AuScope proudly wearing their 2021 Making Space Hero Hoodies on Wurundjeri land. The hoodies feature artwork from Maddie Williams, a proud Wiradjuri and Torres Strait Islander descendant and AIME Mentee and Artist in Residence who depicts her experience of dealing with the bushfires in Australia and the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. Image: AuScope
On 22 September at 12pm AEST, we will share a geoscience themed quiz across on IMAGI-NATION {TV}, a weekly, hour-long YouTube show run by AIME that aims to engage and inspire young First Nations people from Year 3 to Year 10 with AIME mentors, artists, designers and now scientists during the pandemic.
Join us on Wednesday 22 September at 12pm AEST for a geo-themed episode of IMAGI-NATION {TV}, AIME’s creative solution to bring young First Nations communities together in COVID-19. GIF: AIME
WATCH: IMAGI-NATION {TV} - S02 - E10
Today we are exploring Geoscience with AuScope Geoscientists contribute to the protection of the earth by researching it, learning from it, and forecasting its future. They examine the environment and research global environmental systems. We’ll hear more from this in a moment from our resident experts.
We are excited to present questions that have been put together by different geoscientists from around Australia, and hope that they both educate and inspire our audience. Our top three quiz scorers will each receive a custom lego set of an AuScope radio telescope, an instrument that uses black holes in space to measure Earth’s rotation, and supports the GPS that gets us from A to B on Earth’s surface!
Taking a leaf out of Professor Hope's Diary, AIME’s creative advertising format shows potential students what the IMAGI-NATION {UNIVERSITY} education program is all about. This spread features the program’s first ever program application from science-loving Lailah! Image: AIME
Help us make space
There are many ways that AIME suggest that everyone can make space:
Simply by purchasing the 2021 Making Space Hero Hoodie, knowing its story and wearing it with pride everywhere you go, you’re MAKING SPACE for Maddie’s story to shine through.
You can also sign up to be a Mentor with AIME at a University / school campus near you and offer your time and knowledge to help alleviate educational inequity.
If you want to lead your own social change project for 1 year as part of AIME’s IMAGI-NATION {University}, you can submit your expressions of interest and we’ll invite you in.
What other spaces do you have access to – feel free to MAKE SPACE on your website, email list, social media, office, bus stop, billboard, office space, classroom, mural, meetings, community groups or anywhere else you can think of! The world is your canvas.
The AIME team is possibly the most friendly on the planet, and open to ideas to bring different worlds together and break down education barriers. If you would like to learn more about potential opportunities between your organisation and AIME, please get in touch with Jade.
PRODUCED BY
This story was written by
Jo Condon (AuScope) and edited
by Benjamin Knight (AIME) and
Philomena Manifold (AuScope)
LEARN MORE
Join us on IMAGI-NATION {TV}
at 12PM AEST on 22 September
for a geo-themed quiz for AIME audiences around the world.
If you would like to collaborate
with AIME, please contact Jade.