This year’s NAIDOC Week theme, “Always was, always will be”, recognises that First Nations people have occupied Australia thousands of years, and were the continent’s first farmers, astronomers and engineers. 

With NAIDOC Week starting on 8 November, we’re taking this opportunity to highlight some upcoming activities, events and partnerships.

• While infrastructure projects can sever connections between people and Country, they can also offer an opportunity to reconnect sites to important stories and history through place-based interventions. Learn more at our upcoming World Engineers Symposium, which will feature Michael Hromek, Technical Executive Indigenous (Architecture), Design and Knowledge at WSP on 18 November in a session titled Reconnecting Kulin National Songlines: Cultural Driven Outcomes on the Level Crossing Removal Project.  

• Members are entitled to free registration for a webinar on 12 November highlighting Indigenous engineering, its relevance to current engineering processes and the importance of collaborating with communities. It’s being led by Grant Maher, a Founding Director of Jabin Group and Chair of our Indigenous Engineers Group. Grant and fellow Indigenous engineer Dennis Jose will also feature in the November edition of our print member magazine create, or you can catch him now on a previous ep of our Engineering Heroes podcast here. 

• Our podcast Engineering Heroes will interview electrical engineer and energy consultant, Ruby Heard, the Director of Alinga Energy Consulting in an episode set to drop on 6 November. She discusses the role of nature as the ultimate engineer, how she chose the perfect profession for an academic allrounder out of a careers handbook and the work her firm does in renewable and microgrid consulting with a focus on remote and off-grid applications. 

• We’re partnering to support Engineers Without Borders’ Giving Day Appeal. This funds their Engineering On Country program, which works with people living in remote Indigenous communities to build capacity and achieve positive, sustainable and long-term change. Your tax-deductible donation on 1 December will be matched and multiplied by major supporters for even greater impact. Or you can volunteer your services directly. 

Engineers Without Borders' Engineering On Country Program partners with remote Indigenous communities to achieve their aspirations through engineering. Pictured is a ranger base under construction at Shipton's Flat near Cooktown in Queensland.