CO-DESIGN WITH FIRST NATIONS
PROJECT EXPERIENCE

The Borroloola Water System Upgrade project, led by Power and Water Corporation, addressed complex water quality issues and ensured long-term water supply security in this remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory. Co-design was a key focus throughout the project, which engaged and empowered Aboriginal people in managing and protecting their water supply. Overall, the project was very successful in numerous ways, particularly regarding co-design activities related to community and stakeholder engagement. Borroloola has several complex social and economic issues. Various governments have historically ignored the people, resulting in a deep scepticism of investment promises. The project was delivered within this context. Successful public participation was predicated on taking the time to build an honest and genuine relationship with the community and providing balanced, objective, and accessible information about the proposed project. This approach enabled the community to understand the project rationale and contribute to its elements, enabling community input into decision-making. To facilitate community engagement, the local Aboriginal Art Centre and school were empowered to design an artwork project to encourage community awareness about the project. The Art Centre worked closely with the students to develop a series of Aboriginal paintings representing water animals and plants from the region. The artwork project aimed to celebrate the traditional and contemporary art of clan groups living there. 18 paintings by school students were printed on large steel sheets and affixed to structures around the WTP. To promote local pride in the facility, an information sign highlighting the meaning of the paintings and presenting the students involved in the artwork project was also installed on-site. The artwork project provided an effective and dynamic way of engaging with the community, creating a better community understanding of the project's benefits and the vital role of safe water. It also established a link with Aboriginal culture by integrating local art into an engineering project. This aspect of the project created an enormous sense of satisfaction and pride within the community and dramatically reduced vandalism. An official opening was organised with the community to celebrate the project's delivery. Despite the hot conditions and school holidays, event attendance exceeded expectations, with around 120 people attending, including 45 school students and their families. One of the community's elders performed a ‘welcome to country’. The official ceremony presented certificates of Appreciation for the school students who participated in the artwork project and local businesses involved in the project delivery. The project's success was highlighted in media, including ABC National News and Aboriginal TV coverage. No vandalism or theft occurred during the project, and the community now values its water supply. During Tropical Cyclone Trevor in 2019, strong community rapport from the project facilitated effective engagement. Through educational activities, the community is now aware of the value of its water supply and where it comes from. The project also featured other approaches to engage with the local community and convey messages. These included: Development of key messages in local languages through water stories and image-based factsheets. Messages were developed with local community members to ensure the messaging was culturally relevant and meaningful to the targeted audience. Creation of a series of radio stories (in language) broadcasted throughout the project duration. Radio stories were developed in accordance with the stage of the project and the key messages that needed to be conveyed. The radio stories involved local community members, including school students, increasing the relevance of the messages to the local community. The radio stories were put together by people with Aboriginal backgrounds who had strong connections with Borroloola. This provided an authentic and meaningful way of connecting with the Borroloola community and gave Power and Water the ability to convey key messages. This project was considered very successful due to the high level of community engagement and the social outcomes achieved. Two awards were given to the project: the 2019 International Association for Public Participation (AIP2) Smart Budget Award and the 2019 AWA NT Infrastructure Project Innovation Award. As the project manager, Eric was the driving force behind this initiative. Over 18 months, Eric was fortunate to build honest and genuine relationships with the local Aboriginal community. Eric engaged with school students and regional artists and proposed inviting the children to create Indigenous artworks on the water theme to link the project's benefits and the local Aboriginal culture.