Max

During my internship, I was placed at the Moriarty Foundation and their sister company, Balarinji. My time spent at the Foundation were extremely engaging, and equally eye-opening. The Foundation team works with regional and remote communities throughout Northern Territory, NSW and Queensland. The Foundation delivers two programs, John Moriarty Football (JMF) which provides in-school, after-school, and school holiday football (soccer) clinics; and Indi Kindi, which is an early years solution for children under five. Both programs focus on integrating health, wellbeing, education, and development to give children the best start in life. My assigned project was based around creating a best practice nutrition plan that would most benefit our remote communities. I also worked with Balarinji who are an Aboriginal Design and Strategy Agency. I was able to extensively research site-specific local histories of the locations where our public art and design projects were located on. This informed our designers of the history, stories and spiritual significance of certain sites which were central to the development of design concepts. I was also able to help run a Body of Story workshop, in which local Elders, community members and knowledge holders came together to discuss the Aboriginal history of Sydney. It was an enormous learning experience for myself in which I was able to listen and ask questions to our Elders. I learned a lot of practical professional skills but also cultural knowledge and understanding. Thanks to the internship, I’m excited to continue with Balarinji in my new role as a Research and Administrative Assistant, whic I am able to do while I’m at uni which is aligned to my degree, strengths and interests.