A broad cross-section of the public were invited to be involved in a design thinking process at the Reconciliation WA Ideas Workshop this week. Twelve Year 11 students from Santa Maria College attended the workshop at Curtin University. The event was hosted by Innovation Central at Curtin University, Cisco and Reconciliation WA.

Our design challenge for the day was to address how we can create greater opportunities for the WA community to connect with First Peoples and their culture. We were split into different groups, which gave us the opportunity to engage with different members of the public, from a range of backgrounds, careers and ages.

Each group tackled different domains, including tourism, business, sport and recreation, online, digital media, education and the arts. We all developed some really impressive ideas and look forward to seeing some of them take shape in the future, including the winning idea for the day – an immersive digital experience called ‘2 Walks, 1 Path’.

It was a great privilege to be involved in such an important initiative and to collaborate with other members of the community in the design thinking process. We felt a part of something really important and meaningful, making genuine contributions towards future directions in building reconciliation in Western Australia.

Ben Court – Teacher