“The other beautiful success that we have is the people that work for Nalderun and the people that it attracts are such amazing, honourable, understanding, humble, loving, tolerant humans. It’s a hard road, and as from the very beginning, the success of Nalderun and what we do is because of the people that are a part of Nalderun. I’m really appreciative of everybody and the work that everybody does. I do at times have a heavy heart as I wish that we were able to pay people to do more hours to adequately respond the needs in our Community. There are many Mob and allies who have worked tirelessly for Nalderun, for their belief in how things should be and that’s what makes Nalderun work.”
Our Impact
Over the past 15 years we have seen our children become stronger, proud and deadly. We know their future, and the future for their children's children is safe, having created programs and ways of being and teaching over many years. Nalderun came about through the work and legacy of Uncle Brien Nelson and Aunty Julie McHale, who believed that sharing is the way forward for everyone.
Taking a holistic, intergenerational and strength-based approach, our programs respond to the challenges young people often face in the mainstream education system. In our Balotj cyclical mentoring model, children are mentored by youth, youth are mentored by young leaders, and young leaders are mentored by senior leaders and Elders. After fifteen years of this work, we now have several Youth Leaders who have been mentored, built capacity and grown up strong in culture through Nalderun's programs. They are now employed by Nalderun as teachers, mentors, Directors, and co-managers of key programs. These young people are the heart of the organisation, and are active in determining what Nalderun does, and how grows into the future.
Nalderun has also contributed to systems change where we look at the upstream issues and support and train teachers, local schools and the education system in our ways of teaching and curriculum that follow our protocols. Nalderun has been able to operate for so long through people power, volunteers and strong partnerships with the broader community that we have built.