A trailblazing and multi-award winning $12.5 million project in East Arnhem Land counts community collaboration and engagement as the keys to the project’s success.
The Manymak Energy Efficiency Project, which engaged 589 remote Indigenous households in six East Arnhem Land communities, is the first energy efficiency project of its scale to be delivered in remote Indigenous communities, and addresses genuine community needs in culturally respectful ways.
Engineers Australia Northern General Manager Mark Monaghan said that collaboration with community stakeholders was critical to the project’s success.
“The Manymak Energy Efficiency Project is a wonderful example of the excellent outcomes that can be achieved when local people are at the centre of the design and delivery of benefits to their community in true partnership with Balanda,” Mr Monaghan said.
“The employment outcomes for the community provided a vehicle by which energy efficiency understandings were conveyed and are now realised through entrenched behaviours and practices locally.”
The approach to education and engagement, including content and delivery, was owned and shaped by Yolŋu, with more than 80 Yolŋu household engagement and research workers employed.
Power and Water Corporation and Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT) worked with other consortium members to identify and train Yolŋu Energy Efficiency Workers (YEEWs) across the communities.
YEEWs delivered the consultations and education around energy and water efficiency and associated hardware, including the BEEBox, a unit developed by CAT to suit local conditions that provides real-time energy usage information.
The project achieved energy savings of over 350MWh per annum in communities solely reliant on diesel generation.
Chief Executive Officer of CAT Steve Rogers said that the project demonstrates what can be achieved when “community ambassadors” are given buy-in and empowered to drive local engagement.
“The project confirmed CAT’s previous experiences that community ambassadors are a critical component of successful technology and infrastructure adoption and service delivery programs in remote Indigenous communities,” Dr Rogers said.
Yolŋu community members have overwhelmingly testified to the success of the project.
“Thanks for the magical thing on the wall … that BEEBox box. Very good to see the power,” said senior elder Keith Lapulang of the Milingimbi community.
“When YEEWs came around, when they were bringing all the information – that really went into my brain. It penetrated. It was so inspiring and exciting to me,” one participating resident said.
The project won the Environment category at the recent Australian Engineering Excellence Awards (AEEA) Northern 2016, adding to its existing honours, including the NAIDOC Caring for Country Award.
Operations Manager at CAT Projects Michael Tuckwell said that winning at the AEEAs highlights the importance of prioritising dialogue and collaboration with the end user.
“To have the BEEBox unit recognised at the AEEAs reinforces for us at CAT Projects and everyone in the CAT Group the importance of placing an understanding of the people your engineering is trying to serve front and centre in the design phase, and then continuing that engagement with them during deployment and beyond,” Mr Tuckwell said.
Image: YEEWs, researchers, Yolŋu community members and consortium members at Gulkula.