Induction

Thank you for registering your interest as a Robe River Kuruma member facilitator of the RRS CAT program. We value your experience.
For us to comply with our stakeholders delivery requirements we do require you to follow the steps below. Once you finish, please fill in the form at the end of the page; then, you will be asked to answer a few questions on the following page.

As a RRKAC Presenter, you will need to complete this training before running a session. Please ensure you familiarise with the following steps:

    1. CAT Panel Introduction
    2. RRKAC Staff Handbook
    3. Facilitator Code of Conduct (needs to be signed acknowledged and returned to RRS via office)
    4. Indigenous Cultural Training Standards (needs to be signed acknowledged and returned to RRS via Office)
    5. Rail Permit
    6. RRK Cultural Protocols for People Visiting and Residing on Country (needs to be read, signed acknowledged and returned to RRS via Office)
    7. RRS Cultural Awareness Training Feedback QR code (please download this to your phone once accepted as a facilitator)

Please note: Once you have submitted your application, you will be contacted by our office to confirm you have achieved the certification.

1. CAT Panel Introduction

Please view all the slides. Make sure you are familiar with their content as you will be asked some questions during the questionnaire.

2. RRKAC Staff Handbook

Please read all the pages. Make sure you are familiar with their content as you will be asked some questions during the questionnaire.

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3. Facilitator Code of Conduct

Please read carefully as you will be asked some questions during the questionnaire – the Code of Conduct needs to be signed acknowledged and returned to RRS via office.

Cultural Training Facilitator – Code of Conduct (Please read and sign)

This document outlines important rules and principles that should be followed by cultural training facilitators to make sure that training participants learn as much as possible and have a positive experience of RRK cultural training.

 

  1. Don’t make the participants feel blamed

Many terrible things were done to Aboriginal people during colonisation and up to the present. We need to speak about these things clearly and factually, but we shouldn’t make the training participants feel as though we blame them for these events. This will just turn them off from listening and they won’t learn a thing!

Avoid saying things like, “You people did this or that…” or “White people don’t care about Aboriginal people…”

  1. Don’t make general statements, keep it specific and personal

Generalisations or general statements open us up to unnecessary arguments. If you are arguing with your participants, the training is pointless. Here are some generalisations that open you up to an argument: “All towns in Australia had a law that Aboriginal people could not be in the town between 6pm and 6am” and “Australia is a racist country.”

Sharing your personal experience, or the experience of your family cannot be challenged – its your experience. Personal experience often makes the point far better than a generalisation.

  1. Be professional

This means programs start and stop on time. They don’t take shortcuts and the try to give participants a powerful experience of learning. Everything we do in our training starts with care for our participants, their wellbeing and their learning.

  1. Ask how you can improve

Great facilitation is an art that can take years to develop. Always ask your co-facilitators, the participants or your managers about how you can improve. Try to do it better every time.

  1. Don’t raise your voice or argue with a participant

If you have to argue or raise your voice –  you have already lost. No one in the audience will think better of you. Find other, gentler ways to disagree. You might say, “Well, I am not sure about that, what do other people think?” or “That is a good point, but my experience is that….”

  1. Give Trauma and Trigger Warnings before hard stories.

Participants must be warned about an upcoming traumatic story and given the opportunity to remove themselves if they wish. Facilitators must have contact details for Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) or other support staff available for participants who experience strong reactions to traumatic stories.

  1. Follow the policies and rules at a client site

Facilitators must stick to the rules and policies at client sites. When visiting a Rio Tinto site for example, there are rules on safety, clothing and boots, bullying and where you can go and where you can’t go. Learn the rules, stick to them and don’t moan about them to workers at Rio Tinto!

  1. Use Empathy, honesty and humour

Program facilitation should be open, honest, funny and authentic at different times. It should encourage open and honest questions and discussion from participants. It should make them laugh, make them cry and make them think. People to open their minds when they like you, feel for you and are interested in what you have to say.

  1. Stick to the facts

Make sure everything you say is factual and supported by good research. For example, some people say “Aboriginal cultures are the oldest continuous living cultures on Earth.”

But are they older than African cultures? Modern science has shown that the human species came from Africa. Are they more continuous than African cultures? How do you measure if something is continuous or not?

It’s best to stick to facts that are supported by plenty of evidence.  

  1. Stick to the learning objectives

Whenever we take up time talking about something that is not connected with the main point of a training session, we lose the chance to teach the participants something later in the program. Don’t fill up the air jumping from one story to the next or one idea to the next. Learn to make your points in the shortest most high impact way possible.  Don’t ramble.

  1. Never disagree with a co-facilitator in front of participants

If we are delivering with a co-facilitator, we must always have each others’ back. Even if you think your co-facilitator has got something a bit wrong, don’t correct them in front of the participants as this can make them feel really shamed. Co-facilitators need to trust each other. Talk to them about the issue afterwards when there are not participants around.

The only time you might step in is when your co-facilitator is breaking the rules 1, 5 or 7 in this Code of Conduct.

 

I have read and understood the RRK Cultural Facilitator Code of Conduct and the rules and principles within this, that must be followed when delivering Cultural Awareness Training for RRKAC and Robe River Services with our stakeholders.

4. Indigenous Cultural Training Standards

Please read carefully and sign at the end , it will be automatically sent to the RRS office.

Indigenous Cultural Training Standards (Please read)

This document outlines important training standards for Robe River Services (RRS) aiming to provide high quality RRK cultural training services.  The standards cover the following subject areas:

 

  1. CAT Organisation Standards – standards related to delivery of cultural training
  2. Delivery Standards – General – Basic delivery standards for the facilitators and materials
  3. Facilitator Standards – Desirable requirements for facilitators
  4. Program Design Standards – Principles for the design of a quality program
  5. Facilitator Levels – General guidance on facilitator skills levels
  6. Coordinator Levels – General guidance on Coordinator skill levels

 

A.    CAT ORGANISATION STANDARDS

 

  1. Pool of facilitators: RRS will maintain a pool of facilitators. The pool will ideally include highly experienced facilitators; capable facilitators who can deliver effectively with support; and facilitators-in-training. The facilitator pool can start with one experienced and confident facilitator and one facilitator in training. The pool should be large enough to allow for backup if one training team is not available. It must also be large enough to prevent burnout from repeated delivery.

Note, the over-reliance on a one or two facilitators is the major reason that cultural training services fail or cease operations. To achieve reliable delivery an organisation must secure sufficient business to maintain a pool of 3-10 facilitators so that there is redundancy in the delivery team and facilitators do not become burned out. This is a key reason why RRS will take a central role in the management and delivery of CCT.

  1. Client Contact, Quotes and Bookings: RRS will have one or more readily contactable and knowledgeable people who are able to explain the organisations training products, understand client requirements and provide quotes based on these requirements.
  1. Internal organisation: Once a quote is accepted, RRS will have a CAT Co-ordinator who is responsible to liaise with facilitators and confirm their willingness and availability to deliver on the requested dates then confirm the dates with the client.
  1. Invoicing: On behalf of RRS, RRKAC finance team must provide timely invoices to the client on, following training (or according to the agreed quote) and have mechanisms for chasing up outstanding invoices or negotiating disputed invoices.
  1. Feedback Review: RRS will review participant and client feedback and connect these reviews with program and facilitator development.
  1. Client Site Access: RRS must ensure that its facilitators understand and are able to meet the client site access requires where training is conducted at a client site. For example, the facilitators may need to complete a range of site induction training, wear appropriate PPE and navigate a range of travel and accommodation processes.
  1. Facilitator Improvement and Development: RRS has an established set of facilitator standards to underpin facilitator development and feedback (see below). There must be a system of facilitator improvement. This same system must have the capability to discontinue the use of a facilitator who is not meeting important standards.
  1. Program Improvement and Development: RRS will establish a system of program improvement, based on client, participant and facilitator feedback. The system must be able to rollout program changes to the facilitator pool.
  1. Facilitator Contracts: RRS has a contract to facilitate arrangements with its facilitator pool, including likely frequency of training, who will supply of uniforms and equipment, travel and accommodation costs and fees, pay rates and standards, support and development.
  1. Facilitator Payments: RRS has a schedule of facilitator rates. These rates are set by the RRKAC Heritage and Advisory Committee and agreed with individual facilitators prior to any training delivery. RRKAC has the necessary payment and HR systems to employ and pay facilitators.
  1. Marketing and Promotion: RRS has developed and will maintain marketing and promotional material for the RRK cultural training products.
  1. Safety: RRS, with support from RRKAC, has high quality safety standards for CAT participants and facilitators if they are conducting moderate risk activities such as travelling in 4WDs, Cars or Buses; walking or visiting locations or sites; or using firearms, fishing gear or knives.
  1. Access: RRS will be responsible for securing necessary access permissions for visiting locations involved in “CAT Cultural immersion on Country”. These may include nature reserves and national parks, mission and native welfare settlement sites; heritage locations and client tenure etc.

B.    DELIVERY STANDARDS – GENERAL

  1. Timing: Programs must start and finish on time.
  2. Backup Plan: Trainers must have in place a backup plan agreed with the client in case of a facilitator falling sick or being otherwise unavailable for a scheduled program.
  3. Materials: Training materials must be appropriately and professionally formatted
  4. Feedback: Facilitators must capture feedback from participants and encourage honest constructive criticism of the program using a well-structured feedback form supplied by RRS.
  5. Trauma and Trigger warnings: Participants must be warned about an upcoming traumatic story and given the opportunity to remove themselves if they wish. Facilitators must have contact details for Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) or other support staff available for participants who experience strong reactions to traumatic stories.
  6. Client Policies: Program delivery must conform to Client and policies and behavioural standards, including standards on harassment and bullying, disability, and equal opportunity.

C.    FACILITATOR STANDARDS

  1. Information Technology and Equipment: Facilitators must have the skills to set up and manage client’s information technology and other equipment used in immersion experiences.
  2. Facilitators: Facilitators should, as far as possible, have direct personal experience of the topics under discussion.
  3. Empathy: The Cultural Awareness Training is founded on empathy and affection for the facilitators and their personal story. Factual and other information should be interspersed throughout however facts without the interest and openness created by empathy have little impact.
  4. Use of Personal Stories: Historical, psychological, and cultural themes should primarily be explained using personal stories and the lived experience of facilitators or those to close them.
  5. Avoiding Generalisations: Generalisations about Australian society or Indigenous societies should be avoided e.g. Australia is a racist society, Aboriginal people shared everything. This is because the making of generalisations opens the program to contestation. Where generalisations are made, they must have a strong evidentiary foundation.
  6. Scope: Indigenous facilitators are not expected to be able to speak on behalf of other Indigenous people or groups; or be expert in the diversity of cultures across Australia.
  7. Show, don’t tell: Facilitators should avoid telling the participants what conclusions to draw from the stories and information provided. The conclusions that participants draw on their own are far more powerful. Let the stories stand for themselves and create a space for reflective learning.
  8. Blame: CAT participants cannot feel blamed for the actions of their cultural predecessors. Non-Indigenous participants are most likely the beneficiaries of Indigenous dispossession, but this conclusion is more powerful if they reach it on their own, having learned about the experience of Indigenous people. The program is designed to help them reach this conclusion.
  9. Humour: Facilitators should use humour and funny illustrative stories. They should intersperse hard stories with interesting experiences, stories, and lessons.
  10. Plain English: As far as possible, programs should be delivered in Plain English and avoid management-speak, academic abstractions, and jargon to make the content as accessible as possible to the widest possible audience.
  11. Honesty and Openness: Program facilitation should be open, honest, and authentic. It should encourage open and honest questions and discussion from participants. It should not sanction participants for doing or saying something connected with a learning objective that is planned to be achieved later in the program. For example, a participant may say “part-Aboriginal” near the start of the program. They should not be chided for this if issues of skin colour and identity have not yet been covered in the program.

See section E below for an outline of facilitators’ capability levels that could be linked to pay rates and development pathways.

D.    PROGRAM DESIGN STANDARDS

  1. Aims and Learning Objectives: The Cultural Awareness Training program is designed to achieve program aims and learning objectives in the most effective and efficient way possible.
  2. Included content: The Program should not include material that is not connected to the delivery of these objectives or exclude material that is required to achieve these objectives.
  3. Factual content: All content and claims in the program should be founded on personal experience; and or peer-reviewed research. It should avoid obviously true, empty or meaningless statements such as (e.g. “Indigenous society was a sharing society” or “this was a meeting place” or “oldest continuous society on Earth”) and aim to include rich factual content.
  4. Design Process: The CAT Program and facilitators must continually reflect on better ways to achieve the learning objectives and should seek out and welcome suggestions and discussion on how to do so. The organisation’s staff both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, should help define the objectives and design of the training.

Cultural training is an inherently cross-cultural activity and should involve both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in its design, improvement and management.

  1. Applications: The significance of historical, psychological, and cultural themes should be illustrated with case studies of their influence on the work of the client.
  2. Skills, actions, and positive examples: Where possible, discussions of historical, psychological, and cultural themes will also include descriptions of actions, skills or positive examples that might have achieved better outcome. Participants should always be offered guidance on what they could do to create better relationships and more positive outcomes.
  3. Emotional Arc: Consideration should be given in program design to the emotional responses of participants over the course of the program.
  4. Trauma and Sadness: The handling of traumatic content should be carefully considered by the CAT program design team. The program should aim to be honest and factually represent Indigenous experiences in an impacting and affecting way but should not do so in a way that is itself potentially traumatising to facilitators or participants. Indigenous facilitators must be supported to find a level of sharing that is comfortable for them.
  5. Activities and discussions: The program must include participant-driven group activities and discussions. It must avoid long periods of passive listening or reading.
  6. Literacy and numeracy: Program design must avoid the requirement that participants read or write extensive material. This avoids the risk of shame for those whose literacy or education may make these activities difficult.
  7. Mixed Media: Engaging programs should make use of images, video, sound and text.

 

  1. FACILITATOR LEVELS
Level Features
Trainee Facilitator A trainee facilitator is still learning the structure of the program and is still identifying relevant stories. They may still require coaching on speech and presentation style.
Facilitator Level 1  Knows the structure of program

 Has identified initial good stories for each session

 [If there are role plays] Can act out each role in a basic way

 Does not need coaching on speech or presentation style

 Able to Introduce course and run introductory slides (aims etc)

 Requires constant Coordinator questioning and guidance to stay on track

 Responds well to coaching and suggestion improvements from Coordinator and participants
Facilitator Level 2 All of the above; and

 

 Requires regular Coordinator questioning and guidance to stay on track

 Able to run a basic group activity

 Able to respond to changes in role plays and stay in character

 Able to summarise one or two key points

 Some stories concise and high-impact

 Able to effectively answer some questions
Facilitator Level 3 All of the above and;

 

 Requires occasional Coordinator questioning and guidance

 Able to respond creatively in role plays in character

 Able to summarise a number of key points

 Most stories concise and high-impact

 Able to run some sessions alone

 Able to effectively answer most questions

 Only occasionally takes tangents or introduces unrelated material

 Rarely generalises about “Australia”

 Requires little coordinator questioning and guidance

 Able to use humour occassionally

 Mostly reliable, self-managing invoicing, timesheets and bookings, consistent communication
Facilitator Level 4 All of the above and;

 

 Requires little coordinator questioning and guidance

 Able to summarise at least half the key points

 Able to frame and summarise some sessions

 Takes responsibility for books, IT and forms

 Takes responsibility for sticking to schedule

 Activity and consistently refining their stories

 Always reliable, self-managing invoicing and bookings, communication

 

 

  1. COORDINATOR LEVELS

Coordinators are highly skilled facilitators who take overall responsibility for:

  • The development of less skilled facilitators
  • The program schedule
  • Overall program delivery
  • Guidance and support of less skilled facilitators during training
  • Managing participant behaviour
  • Responding to participant questions

The table below outlines levels of Coordinator skills:

Document Purpose
Coordinator Level 1 All of the Facilitator elements, and

 

 Able to introduce and summarise all program sessions

 Able to bring out key points by questioning facilitator

 Able to manage IT and update presentations as needed

 Able to amend the program on the day in response to events and participant priorities

 Able to support facilitators and manage facilitator issues

 Manages the facilitator and participants to stay on schedule
Coordinator Level 2 All of the above elements, and;

 

 Able weave in and elicit participant experiences when relevant

 Able to help facilitators refine stories to be more concise and relevant

 Able to manage client relationship and negotiate program changes

 Able to manage confronting questions or surly participants without escalating conflict

 Able to facilitate as part of new and bespoke programs

 
Coordinator Level 3 All of the above elements, and;

 

 Able to engage in complex discussion with participants e.g. Equality vs Equity;

 Able to think through complex scenarios from the point of view of a leader working in a client business and provide advice

 Able to link program elements to policy and leadership practice

 Able to link program elements to broader historical, social or anthropological research.

 Able to design new program content and materials

 Able to coordinate new and bespoke programs (other than WWIE)

(Please read, understand and ask questions if unsure prior to signing acknowledgement of the Indigenous Cultural Training Standards)

 

5. Rail Permit

Training link need to be completed for Individual Rail Access Road Permits, which can be obtained via www.pilbararailaccessroad.riotinto.com/

(this should only take twenty minutes to half an hour to complete – please download your certificate and upload it on the form at the bottom of this page)

6. RRK Cultural Protocols for People Visiting and Residing on Country

Please read carefully (you may want to bookmark this document in case you need to read it again in the future).

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7. RRS Cultural Awareness Training Feedback QR code

Approved facilitators should download this QR code to their phone so that it can be used during sessions.

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