Indi Kindi joins The Apiary Fellowship

Throughout 2024, Indi Kindi Tennant Creek Team Leader, Warumungu/Wambaya woman Keara Baker-Storey and Indi Kindi Program Director Jessica Horne-Kennedy, have participated in the The Apiary Fellowship – a year long leadership program that draws together early childhood development professionals from across Australia.

The program’s fellows come together around a shared purpose of bringing forth change to transform the early learning sector in ways that directly benefit all children, families and communities – in both the present and future.

As part of this collective of change-makers, Keara and Jessica participated in three group convenings in Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra throughout 2024. The convenings ran over three days and involved workshops to engage in dialogue to learn about system change work through connections to place and each other. The Apiary provides an inclusive learning space that supports fellows to be curious and explore new ways of thinking and doing to grow leadership capacity, both personally and professionally.

As a result of their participation in the fellowship, Keara and Jessica have formed strong connections with early years professionals across Australia and have been able to contribute perspectives of what it means to provide access to early learning for children and families in remote Australia.

Through participating in smaller leadership circles, Keara and Jessica have contributed to invaluable dialogue about the need to hear about and bring visibility to the early childhood programs that sit on the periphery – programs that (deliver high quality pedagogy) but do not fit within a formal legislated early education and care system – highlighting how Indi Kindi is an exemplar of community-led early childhood education.

Collectively, fellows in these smaller leadership circles have explored questions around the barriers to access for children living in remote communities to better understand what needs to change at a systemic level to provide equitable universal access and participation in early learning.

This year-long journey of action learning concluded at a graduation convening in Canberra in October. The next stage will involve Keara and Jessica being part of The Impact Community where they will contribute to the development of proposed systems ideas and solutions. Keara will also continue into the The First Nations collective of The Apiary.