Talking about Sustainability
At the beginning of October, I headed out to the Dubbo Sustainability Expo to have a chat to the Central West community about the IDX Initiative. It was a great event led by the Central West Science Hub (Dubbo City Council) as part of the NSW Regional Science Hub network. There were different stalls from community organisations and from around NSW including the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), Macquarie University, UNSW Physics, Taronga Zoo and Sliding Spring Observatory. The younger audiences even played a game of tag with Winny the Dinosaur (a Muttaburrasaurus puppet from the Australian Museum). The IDX Stall was definitely a big hit and had a steady stream of people learning how the 3D printer worked, printing their names and some eager young people initiating their own robot races throughout the day. But you may be asking yourselves, Why was IDX at a sustainability expo?
When we think about sustainability sometimes we only think about creating greener solutions, but sustainability has three pillars - social, environmental and economic. Sustainability speaks to the interconnectedness of people, places and things. I believe, that IDX is at the heart of that discussion and highlights the continued contribution that Australian Aboriginal people make toward innovation, science and technology as well as the amazing network of people.
“Since the late 20th century, as Western science has become increasingly focused on environmental sustainability, climate change and global warming, there has been a significant shift towards seeking solutions within Indigenous knowledge systems in order to mitigate the impact of globalised industrialisation. Central to this is an increasing awareness of the intrinsic resilience of Indigenous communities.” (Indigenous Engagement with Science: Towards Deeper Understandings, 2013)
Australian Indigenous knowledge has made a profound impact on technology, but sometimes we don’t see it. Did you know that NASA has developed a drone that will be the first to fly on Mars that references the boomerang? The boomerang is at the forefront of space exploration!
During the event I was primarily promoting the Flint EOI, an opportunity for regional communities to receive digital making workshops, training and equipment valued up to $25,000 as well as our digital making workshops, which is fondly referred to as learning experiences in IDX. The IDX learning experiences provides foundational digital making skills for young people through hands on activities such as robotics, coding and 3D printing and demonstrates the lineage of Indigenous Knowledge to new digital technology. It is an ambitious brief, but it hopes to encourage the next generation of Indigenous digital makers to continue the legacy of 40,000 years or more of innovation - and have fun doing it!
It was great to hear and see the response from the community and their enthusiasm brimmed when they found out that IDX would be heading back out to the Central West at the end of November to facilitate a number of learning experiences. I met a teacher from Wellington Primary School and he really illustrated the need to inspire young people and move beyond traditional education environments. He immediately, jumped at the opportunity to bring some students to our stop over in Wellington.
Lastly, I wanted to announce that IDX has joined forces with ThreeFarm, dLUX MediaArts,Michael Crouch Innovation Centre UNSW and Code Club Australia to demonstrate the potential of what digital making could mean for the Central West Slopes and Plains with on the ground support from our friends from Orana Arts. We realised that we were all working in the region and decided that by collaborating we would bring more opportunities into the community and bridge different programs together to create sustainable outcomes. In the current climate, partnerships are the only way to move forward. By working together we have an exciting program of activities to engage young Australian Indigenous people including A round robin of high energy learning experiences, a pop-up Maker space and a stop over for Soup Sessions to hear some local ideas.