Reflective Essay: Creating Sustainable Jobs for Indigenous People

This reflective essay explores the challenges and opportunities in creating sustainable employment for indigenous people, focusing on a group project aimed at opening a fruit and vegetable store in Campbell Town to address nutritional needs and provide employment opportunities. The essay highlights the barriers faced by indigenous communities, such as geographical isolation and lower educational levels, and emphasizes the importance of cultural understanding, community engagement, and leadership in developing successful initiatives. The project aimed to empower indigenous people by involving them in decision-making processes, promoting their rights and cultures, and fostering collaboration to achieve sustainable economic and social benefits. The reflection underscores the significance of training, education, and awareness of indigenous knowledge and culture in fostering sustainable employment outcomes.

Running head: REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Reflective Essay: Creating sustainable employment for indigenous people in Campbell Town
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:

1REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Reflective Essay on Sustainable Employment for indigenous people
Sustainable Employment in the community development is defined as point to which the
workers are enthusiastic to stay working now and in future. The information is collected and
analyzed based on the subject area of sustainable employment. The topic reflected on creating
sustainable employment for indigenous people in Campbell Town. Our group decided to open a
vegetable and fruit store for indigenous people. This topic is important to study for our group as
indigenous people is facing barriers to sustained employment like living into isolated
communities and lower educational levels (Altman, 2018). We analyzed that unemployment rate
for indigenous people are 11%. They are required training and also support for building skills
they require to find employment. Our group project was performed to identify unique position of
the indigenous Australians as the first nation’s people and we committed towards indigenous
education along with stronger engagement with them.
We conducted this group project to take attention of desires of indigenous people staying
in Campbell Town and engaged them in collaboration with outside their community. We moved
towards harmonized actions as the community developers are becoming focused about how this
group project fits with profits of further project in comparable community. We worked mostly 20
hours in a day to find out the issues they are facing in community. Therefore, we interacted with
them to find out issues and their solutions (Carr, Ruhanen, & Whitford, 2016). The indigenous
people are not getting nutritional and fresh fruits along with vegetables as the community is not
treated them with respect. Therefore, we decided to perform this group project by opening
vegetable and fruit store for them so that they can get nutritional food items (Spencer et al.,
2016). Therefore, before completing this project, we interacted and collaborated with their
community members.

2REFLECTIVE ESSAY
At first, this group project was performed to understand conceptual as well as legal
understanding of development in culture. The challenges we faced while interacting with
indigenous people were that they have different culture, language and standard of living. It was
difficult for us to understand to understand what they are saying and doing. There were some
people in community those are speaking in common language and they guided us in their
community (Altman & Finlayson, 2018). We understood that human development paradigm is
used to increase choices of people and improve capabilities of human. Our group project
performed to understand importance of indigenous people participation with important inputs
that holds conventional knowledge. It contributed towards sustainable employment. There is
closer relationship as well as dependency made indigenous people vulnerable to cultural changes
as well as damages into the surrounding environment (Gilberthorpe & Hilson, 2016). Pollution in
addition to climatic changes is posed to increase threats towards indigenous people livelihoods.
While performing the group project, we first interacted with them to understand the
issues they are facing. Throughout coordination and communication with people, we at first were
identified rights of indigenous people, responsibilities and challenges in helpful for the
environment. We recognized consequence of indigenous people participation to achieve
sustainable employment in integrated way (McGinnis et al., 2017). We identified that before
involved in employment, they are required to participate in decision making, planning,
implementing of their rights and cultures. There was performing of interactive session with them
so that we are familiar with their culture and language. Our project is based on vegetable and
fruit store for indigenous people in community to promote healthy food throughout price
discounts as well as nutrition education (Carr, Ruhanen, & Whitford, 2016). We decided to open
the store so that we worked towards improving health as well as lives of the indigenous people

3REFLECTIVE ESSAY
across selected region, Campbell Town. We interacted with them so that we can deliver
sustainable employment, economic engagement benefits for people at Campbell Town. We
decided to open shop on vegetable and fruit store for indigenous people so that our group project
can build ability to hire as well as retain indigenous staffs and offer employment chances for the
indigenous people (Whitford & Ruhanen, 2016). This store opening would provide retention
along with career progression benefits for the indigenous people.
In order to complete the group project work, we noticed that there are five key
community development principles as successful initiatives to open the vegetable and fruit store
for indigenous people. We focused on community engagement by supporting them right from
starting. We helped people to involve in problem solving as well as decision making processes.
When people are engaged in redevelopment and planning processes, then it leads to have
resulted in high likelihood of the community buy-in (Spencer et al., 2016). We played a role of
leader to support the community and guide them in their job to make it succeed. A stronger
leader is required to review entire project from staring to the end. People should overcome to
have adaptive leaders those are possessing skill set for addressing the community challenges. We
have provided them motivation and commitment to remain focused on work (Carr, Ruhanen, &
Whitford, 2016). Skilled leaders are required for the project so that they can meet with
organizational goals and purpose.
This community development project is not just work of the single individual person; it
consists of collaboration among all people present in the community. We build collaborative
partners for supporting integration, coordination and communication among the indigenous
people. The group team members facilitated creating shared vision of improvement as key
outcomes for the residents in community of Campbell Town. By collaborative with them, we

4REFLECTIVE ESSAY
became aware of strengths as well as weakness of community to evaluate community
development (Altman & Finlayson, 2018). We determined macro and micro environmental
factors provides effect on the group project. Financing the community development is critical
and therefore we required patience plus adaptability (Wu, Wall, & Tsou, 2017). Finally, in order
to develop sustainable employment, we decided to train, educate as well as raise awareness of
the indigenous knowledge and culture with educational approaches in the selected area.

5REFLECTIVE ESSAY
References
Altman, J. (2018). The Indigenous hybrid economy: A realistic sustainable option for remote
communities?.
Altman, J., & Finlayson, J. (2018). Aborigines, tourism and sustainable development.
Carr, A., Ruhanen, L., & Whitford, M. (2016). Indigenous peoples and tourism: the challenges
and opportunities for sustainable tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 24(8-9), 1067-
1079.
Gilberthorpe, E., & Hilson, G. (Eds.). (2016). Natural resource extraction and indigenous
livelihoods: Development challenges in an era of globalization. Routledge.
McGinnis, G., Harvey, M., Clark, I. D., & Young, T. (2017). Australian Indigenous Tourism:
Integration of knowledge vs. independent ventures. BEST EN Think Tank XVII:
Innovation and Progress in Sustainable Tourism, 12.
Spencer, R., Brueckner, M., Wise, G., & Marika, B. (2016). Australian indigenous social
enterprise: measuring performance. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and
Places in the Global Economy, 10(4), 397-424.
Whitford, M., & Ruhanen, L. (2016). Indigenous tourism research, past and present: where to
from here?. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 24(8-9), 1080-1099.
Wu, T. C., Wall, G., & Tsou, L. Y. (2017). Serious tourists: A proposition for sustainable
indigenous tourism. Current Issues in Tourism, 20(13), 1355-1374.