Maranguka Annual Report 2024 - Flipbook - Page 4
Honouring
Our Journey
— Stepping
Boldly Into the
Future
Yaama,
As Executive Director of Maranguka Ltd, I write this with deep
respect for the journey our community has travelled together
over the past ten years. It has been a decade shaped by courage,
cultural strength, and a shared commitment to creating a better
future for our children.
From the beginning, Maranguka has been about walking a
different path — one led by our people, grounded in culture, and
built on the wisdom and guidance of our Elders and the Bourke
Tribal Council.
What we’ve achieved together is something rare: a genuine
model of community-led change that is now being looked to by
communities and governments across the country.
Over the last ten years, we have seen real and lasting change:
We’ve led the way in justice reinvestment, created the Palimaa
Data Platform as a tool for our own decision-making, and built
partnerships that respect and uplift our governance.
We were the 昀椀rst place-based, community-led initiative in
Australia and are now one of 10 place-based initiatives nationally
funded under the Stronger Places, Stronger People initiative. The
success of our work in Bourke has helped shape State and Federal
policy, with Justice Reinvestment now adopted nationally.
We established the Palimaa Data Platform with Indigenous Data
Sovereignty as a key principle, placing power back in community
hands to drive data-informed decisions.
The Nexus Centre has been developed as a national hub for placebased collaboration, born out of the leadership and learning from
Bourke — a space to support other communities, funders, and
government in walking this path.
The NSW Government and the Department of Social Services
are now co-funding the Backbone Team and have committed
funding for another 昀椀ve years. The principles of Maranguka have
also been adopted in government procurement contracts for
services delivered in Bourke — a recognition of the protocols set
by the Bourke Tribal Council.
Daily Check-Ins with Bourke Police — initiated in 2017 — are
still proceeding, helping support families and create a more
coordinated and compassionate response.
The NSW Cross-Sector Leadership Group was established to help
government and community partners work better together — to
unblock systemic barriers and strengthen frontline impact.
And through it all, the Bourke community has stood strong
— leading, mentoring, innovating, and offering guidance to
communities right across the country who now seek to learn from
this journey.
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