Our Cultural Learning Program was a practical response to injustices affecting Australia’s First Nations people
Symbiote’s Human Centred Design & Change Lead, Rachel Kelly, describes the way an Australia Day project prompted some interesting discussions among our team and led her to develop our Cultural Learning Program.
What do companies do when they see global political tensions and racial injustices filling our news headlines? What is a company's role in society, knowing that Australia deals with its own set of racial injustices that take place every single day?
Back in 2021, while we were evaluating a potential client project focussed on delivering information about Australia Day, we realised that we each had very different ideas about the significance of that day. Our team members come from a variety of cultural backgrounds, with many permanently migrating to Australia for work opportunities. While many of us felt aligned to alternative days like Survival Day and Invasion Day, we hadn't looked into why. We all had varying levels of knowledge about the history of Australia’s First Nations’ people, who have the world’s oldest known civilisation.
We decided to implement a Cultural Learning Program to increase our understanding and empathy
I'm a proud First Nations wahine māori from Aotearoa and I worked with another of Symbiote’s indigenous Australian team members to propose a Cultural Learning Pilot Program for our business.
Applying a ‘Think global, act local mindset’ the pilot program focussed on learning about a First Nations perspective. We engaged a local elder and created a safe learning environment for all staff to listen, learn and engage with them. The program aimed to build deeper awareness and empathy for First Nation people’s lived experiences while also celebrating the diversity that makes Symbiote a great place to work.
In my proposal to our management team, I wrote: ‘We design, develop and deliver software with the aim to improve the lives of everybody who uses it. So, it makes sense that we should actively educate ourselves about what life is like for all Australians.’
The Cultural Learning Program’s vision and goals
We love that we’re all different at Symbiote. On a personal level, it’s fascinating that everyone brings their culture, ideas and perspectives to work. That also means we have a lot to learn about and from each other. This program aims to create a safe space for everyone to learn, listen, engage and celebrate the cultural diversity that makes our team so great.
– Owen Windsor – Managing Director
The goals of the Cultural Learning Program were:
Build cultural awareness at Symbiote
Develop deeper empathy for others’ lived experiences
Actively create a safe learning environment where staff can engage and ask questions on the topic of cultural learning
Broaden staff perspectives of the experiences of people who come from other cultures
Provide additional resources for staff to dive deeper into cultural learning
Connect and engage a local Elder to learn from them.
How the Cultural Learning Program worked
We budgeted around $3,500 for this engagement and allowed significant time for each employee to take part in a program.
We like to run our internal programs the same way we run our client projects – taking a human-centred approach, including everyone from the start with discussions and drawing on previous comments and contributions. We negotiated a schedule, invited anyone with direct experience of this topic to be part of a panel, sent out reading and information and then scheduled three sessions with a First Nations Elder, followed by a one-hour group discussion.
We engaged Uncle Bill Nicholson Jnr from the Wurundjeri Woi wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation for a 3x 2 hour engagement across three weeks.
It was an absolute privilege to learn from Uncle Bill. Everybody left with their minds opened and shifted perspectives.
What happened as a result of the Program?
The program did take time and money. And it did bring up uncomfortable conversations. But we were ready for that. Actually, that was the point of the program – to learn to safely have difficult conversations while we learned together. The reality is: our team (just like our community) is made up of people from different countries and cultures. We all make different assumptions about almost everything.
It was well worth spending our time and money on this program to a) expand our minds, b) be better humans and c) write better code and make better user interfaces. I want us to continually question our assumptions, challenge each other’s biases and stay curious about people who are very likely extremely different to us.
– Marcus Nyeholt – Head of Technology
Want to use our Cultural Learning Program Plan in your own team?
Send us an email to get in touch. We’re always happy to share what we’ve learned.
“What is an indigenous ally?
An ally is someone who is not impacted by issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, but actively supports them. An ally is someone who promotes diversity and inclusion through their own actions.”
