News Archive

In the first week of semester, Denise Jackson was behind the front counter of the International Student Office, dealing with inquiries from dozens of confused students with calm efficiency.

Little did the students know it was her first week too.

Denise is a leading character in a success story; one that started last July and is on track for a happy ending.  She is one of four newly-employed Indigenous people at UWA, who have been engaged through the Indigenous Employment Strategy - or Indigenous Jobs, as Indigenous Employment Officer Mia Kriznic likes to call it.

"There are actually six new Indigenous employees, but four have got their jobs directly through this strategy," Ms Kriznic said.

"I'm really pleased that the Registrar's Office and the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences are leading the way.  There are more appointments that will be confirmed in the next few weeks.

"The way I work is that I want faculties and centres to come to me before they advertise their positions through traditional channels. I have my own recruitment system, with a lot of enthusiastic Indigenous people registered with me, who are keen to work at UWA.

"I match them with vacancies that have been supplied to me and, so far, we have a success rate of four out of four."

Denise, a Yamatji woman, who has worked in career development, is keen to study psychology so she can make for herself a creative and satisfying career.  She is enjoying her work in the International Centre and learning a lot.

"I like being around people who are growing, so the University is a great place to be. I have been made extremely welcome. My colleagues are very friendly and helpful and I can see that this is a place full of opportunity," she said.

Clara Morrison is on secondment from the Department of Indigenous Affairs to Records Management Services.

The Senior Records Management Officer is learning new procedures and is delighted with the non-hierarchical structure at UWA. "You can talk to the bosses and everybody relates to each other and is helpful and friendly.  It's a great work environment.

Clara, a Torres Strait Islander, spends most of her time on data entry, putting the student records onto TRIM and working at the TRIM help desk.

"At the moment, Clara's job is a 12-month secondment, but you never know what might evolve," Ms Kriznic said. "Clara was a foot in the door for me for Aboriginal people when she started late last year."

Allira Clinch is very happy working as a purchasing assistant on the QEII site in the School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

Bu she didn't want to take time off to join her colleagues for a photo session on the Crawley campus.  "I'm so busy with orders, I don't want to get behind," she said. Allira (a 22-year-old Noongar) was ordering concrete supplies in her last job, and is now ordering laboratory supplies, which she finds much more interesting.

"Everyone here is lovely and extremely helpful," she said. "There is a big difference between here and where I was before. The working conditions are so much better, the work load is better, the people are much nicer and my two lovely managers, Susan Piper (senior administrative officer) and Brett Tizard (School Manager) are very easy to approach and understanding.

"I love the fact that everyone here is the same and there are plenty of opportunities."

Ms Kriznic's aim is to build on the fantastic efforts of the existing Indigenous staff, grow Indigenous job opportunities and make UWA an employer of choice for the Aboriginal community.

If you have a position vacant, contact her at [email protected]