Community briefing and site selection
The Authority established a partnership with Mandingalbay Yidinji peoples own organisation, Djunbunji Land and Sea Program. Collaboratively we developed a timeline for project activities, and developed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the delivery of certain outcomes by Djunbunji. These outcomes included construction of model tables, facilitation of community involvement and coordination of P3DM activity days. At a first community meeting the wider community were briefed on project parameters, risks and potential outcomes. The community were taken step-by-step through the proposed process and shown a film of the Ovalau P3DM activity. At this meeting the community made several key decisions, these were: - the geographic coordinates of area to be covered by the 3 dimensional model (a pivotal outcome as it determines several actions henceforth) - the scale of the model - a calendar of dates for the building of the model, its legend and the population of information onto the model - to participate in the development of a video of the process - a commitment to work on the project to completion
Strong Mandingalbay Yidinji leadership enabled decisions to be made transparently and through trusted community processes - access to online resources such as videos of other P3DM activities enabled a broader cross section of the community to understand, feel comfortable with and ultimately participate in the P3DM process. A strong trust relationship between Djunbunji and Authority staff enabled the development of an MoU. Use of an MoU meant roles and responsibilities of the facilitation and supporting organisations were clear and agreed
Selection and agreement by the community on the geographic area to be modelled needs to occur early and definitively. This is because the arrangement and printing of contour maps, the size and construction of the tables, and amount of materials purchased is dependant on this area. Changes to the area will negatively disrupt the budget and timelines Collaborating with an organisation that the community know and trust, allows facilitators a direct and culturally appropriate avenue to the community. Additionally, undertaking preliminary work with key Djunbunji staff prior to community meetings meant more productive and better facilitated community meetings. Our experience has shown that many Indigenous people are 'visual' and 'tactile' thus using tools such as videos and photos allows for more Indigenous community members to understand and engage with the concept of P3DM - and ultimately participate.