It’s National Skills Week and we are celebrating by sharing student and team stories, highlighting how practical and vocational learning can lead to some pretty incredible opportunities and career pathways. 

At TAFE SA we deliver vocational education and training across the state, including in Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY lands). Recently, we caught up with Katherine Reckord (Katie), Community Lecturer, who teaches out of our TAFE SA Learning Centre in Fregon Kaltjiti. Earlier this year, Katie relocated from Canberra to the APY lands and offers training and support to job seekers, employers and community members. In addition to her substantial experience in community work and vocational education, Katie also has a background in art, which has been a great tool for communicating and connecting with her new community.

What was your driving force to move and work in the APY lands?

It was kind of a life stage thing. To be honest I loved my job back home but when I saw this opportunity, I thought it would be a great experience and a chance to give something back. I know that sounds corny, but it is not entirely altruistic. I find learning very enjoyable and stimulating and it has blown my mind to come out here. I could not have done it without the support of my husband who left his job to come out here, he now volunteers in the community and helps me a lot at TAFE SA too.

What have been some key memories so far?

Reconciliation Week 2022. The Indigenous Literacy Foundation donated a number of boxes of books and my manager asked me to find a way to get them out to the community.

At the time, Reconciliation Week was coming up and we were also keen to do something that involved the school, so we planned a book fair so children could choose books to take home and read and then share with other members of their family and the community. We decided to invite a range of groups, including upper primary, higher school students, early learners and participants of the Community Development Program (CDP). The benefit of the CPD clients getting an introduction to TAFE SA was important, as it provided a chance to feel comfortable at the learning centre. Getting to know us and also getting to see themselves as capable learners with opportunities to develop new life goals.

Through our book fair and community open day, we had about 24 students and over 50 people from the community, many of which had never been to TAFE before.

Tell us about your role in the APY Lands

APY Land Lecturers are the TAFE out here. We do everything from promotion and orientation through to course selection, enrolment and on to training and assessment. We liaise with individuals, community and other stakeholders to select and shape courses to address community needs. We teach introductory tasters which are non-award courses to get people interested in TAFE and we teach Foundation Skills Training Package units to workers and job seekers and collaborate with other service providers to deliver courses that suit what the community and individuals need. We run events and support community activities. We are especially interested in assisting Anangu to identify and develop resources and opportunities locally to use their culture and language for career development. Sharing cultural knowledge is something we really value, listening and learning is a privilege for us and we want to show we value that in concrete ways.

What type of artwork do you produce?

I trained as a sculptor, but this is tricky when you have limited space and resources, so I mainly draw, paint and take photos. I use ink, water colours, gouache (opaque water-based paint), acrylics, oils and also paint on silk with dyes. This year I did a printmaking course before coming to SA and did etching, linocuts and screen printing. Out here I have been doing mainly water colour, but I got some oils which I think the landscape out there lends itself to.

What themes/stories/mediums do you focus or include in your artwork?

Here’s a story. Artists out here, when they show you their work, discuss it very differently to our western ideas. They tell you the story of the image they made and may even break into song in language which is the most amazing artistic experience to witness. When I first showed a local artist my work I was straight away asked about the story behind the painting. It was a landscape. I said’ “um I don’t think it has a story. I just made it up out of my head. I wasn’t sure which rock formations I would be allowed to paint so I just painted a mix up of what I have seen from memory. I wanted to respect what I did not know.” He just said, “well, that’s the story.” I like painting interiors, figures and landscape, especially trees, and a bit of abstract too.

A note from Katie

The APY Lands is the most extraordinary place I have ever been, and I have travelled a lot. To live and work here and try to help the local people, who have been through so much, is a privilege. It is a two-way learning experience, to be a good teacher you have to be a good learner, and open to different ways of looking at things. Living and working in the APY Lands with Anangu people and learning Pitjantjara language is a very precious thing. The depth of connection between people, land, culture and language is hard to understand unless you live here, there has been so much trauma and dispossession, but Pitjantjara is still the Anangu’s first language, and this helps people to keep their culture strong and we are working at ways of supporting this.