Video transcript – DVA Graduate Program and the Indigenous Graduate Pathway
Hi my name is Gabrielle Lavis, and I am a graduate here at Department of Veterans’ Affairs. My mob comes from Grafton. I’m a Bundjalung Gumbayngyirr woman.
My family have traced our ancestors back to the 1820s to a place called Yulgilbar Station.
I studied at Southern Cross University and I completed a Bachelor of Social Science and majored in sociology, so I applied for Graduate Pathways programmes through the Australian Public Service Commission and Department of Veterans’ Affairs were really, really gunning for me and I’d not considered going down the road of Department of Veterans’ Affairs before, but the way that I was – the opportunities that were available in the agency made it very appealing to me.
And the fact that the agency is a little bit smaller than other APS agencies made it appealing too, and with DVA being such a smaller agency, but still doing some really significant and powerful work, was very appealing to me.
I’ve just gone through the process of three different placements.
I feel like in every rotation where it’s actually complimented my work experience as well as my degree.
You know, for me, because I’ve got a social science degree, it’s made it very easy to be able to get in and get some really important work done with the business areas that I’ve been allocated.
Making a difference in people’s lives is really important to me, but since I’ve been here, I’ve realised that the work that I have engaged in before my time at DVA, as well as my social science degree, I feel like an asset to the agency.
I feel like I’m a valued valuable resource.
So in every rotation, I’ve had the opportunity to be able to engage and use my, you know, my knowledge from my cultural knowledge to complement business areas.
I feel like I can make a big difference to my people and to the veteran community.
It’s really my area of expertise, and my major, is a real focus on vulnerable groups, veterans have, you know, have served the country and they really do deserve to be really well supported.
And I love the fact that DVA is here to pull some people out of their darkest times, as well as celebrate their victories.
People are so interested in doing things differently in this agency, especially in the business areas that I’ve been rotating to.
I’ve been given opportunities to hold yarning circles for NAIDOC Week, and that means a lot to me, to get the guys off the phone for like an hour and be able to sit there with them and celebrate NAIDOC Week collectively and have people see things from a different perspective has been such an amazing experience for me.
And my experience has been that the work that I’ve done has been quite meaningful and my managers have pretty much taken up my recommendations and embedded what I’ve suggested, which is, you know, not everything, obviously, but just some of the things.
And I do believe that little steps are really big steps in the right direction.
I feel really well supported in Department of Veterans’ Affairs as a First Nation’s person.
There is an Aboriginal network here that we are encouraged to – or staff network that we’re encouraged to attend and participate in.
Every year we celebrate significant events like NAIDOC Week.
The organisation has a Reconciliation Action Plan, which is really exciting to me.
So that’s the first step to bringing about change, and if we have to put it into a framework or some sort of way that we can be held accountable for what we want to achieve as an agency, then I believe that that’s a really good way for moving forward.
And I feel like in Department of Veterans’ Affairs, I’ve been given that opportunity to be able to change the worldviews of some people and their understanding of, you know, First Nation’s people.
There’s still lots of work to do, and that makes me excited too, but at the end of the day, the first crucial steps have been taken.
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