Coodanup Girls Academy opens doors for Indigenous leaders

Girls Academy is a relatively young college scholarship program being rolled out at schools across the country, aimed at providing resources, advice, mentorship and support to young Indigenous female leaders.

The program is being rapidly rolled out in schools around the country, and it’s no surprise: over the past five years of it’s existence, the Girls Academy program has seen year 12 enrolments increase by 276 per cent in their students.

Coodanup College is the latest school to host the program, which includes a dedicated classroom, teaching program and responsibilities for the Girls Academy students.

The program was launched by Girls Academy state reigonal manager Narelle Henry, development manager Desiree Delcour and Coodanup program manager Shannon Le Plastrier.

The launch was attended by the program’s first students, as well as staff, friends and family, who were given an outline of what the girls would be doing.

“Any time I think about my family, and the struggles we go through, and the things we have to do to hold it together – like making sure our boys and girls are educated – the people who kept it on track were the women,” Ms Henry said.

“This is no disrespect to the men but your mothers, your grnadmothers your aunties, these are the women you look up to, who have given you this opportunity. They are nothing short of superheroes.”

The Girls Academy, while being school-based, is not just a school program: the girls enrolled in the program take part in extracurricular activities such as sport and excursions and take part in leadership and cultural projects.

“The idea behind the Girls Academy is that if we develop a girl, we change a community,” Ms Henry said.

Local elder Ivy Bennell opened the launch with a Welcome to Country, and expressed how much opportunity she saw in the college.

“This is a big step for our girls. People will watch you, so you need to behave yourselves, but we are all behind you,” Ms Bennell said.