Metta Young

Metta Young

Professional Award in Vocational Education and Training sponsored by Australian National Training Authority (ANTA)

Media Profile

“Strong and effective Indigenous governing institutions in the U.S. have emerged over the past 15 years and this has lead to significant social and economic development in Native Nation Communities. This Indigenous governance has transformed the way external service agencies work with Indigenous communities and provided valuable lessons for a partnership approach to community-lead development in the Australian context. "

Metta Young is an Arts graduate from the Australian National University with a Masters in Education, Literacy and Language from the University of South Australia. She has won the Fulbright Professional Award in Vocational Education and Training (VET) sponsored by the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA). This award was established with ANTA in 1995 to support the exchange of research and ideas on Vocational Education and Training between Australia and the United States.

Through her Fulbright Award, Metta will undertake research at the Udall Centre for Studies in Public Policy of the University of Arizona. Her work will investigate how the Australian National Training System can be strategically positioned to expand its effort to support effective partnership approaches in the Australian Indigenous context.

Metta’s research will build on the work undertaken by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (HPAIED) over the past decade. This project highlights the ability of Native Nations to build sustainable economies based on self-decision making, a separation of powers between ‘elected’ representation and business management and a matching of governing institutions to Indigenous values and beliefs about how authority should be organised and exercised. The purpose of Metta’s research is to identify how external agencies, who work in collaboration or partnership with Native Nations in the U.S., have transformed the way they operate and deliver services in response to authentic Indigenous governance and locally driven social and economic objectives.

The Harvard Project has identified the importance of education for nation building and governance, rather than education for employment or personal advancement. Through analysing this method Metta aims to add value to the objectives of ANTA by identifying the key learning methods needed to enable external agencies to work alongside and in support of effective Indigenous governance and thus improve educational, social and economic outcomes for Indigenous communities. Her research will assist the work of the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DK-CRC) in establishing effective engagement and partnerships with desert Indigenous peoples and support the innovative educational approach of the Desert Peoples centre.

Metta is currently an Impact and Policy Officer with the Centre for Appropriate Technology, a national Indigenous science and technology organisation, based in Alice Springs. She is also a Project Leader on two research projects for the DK-CRC. One of these projects is an investigation of vocational education and training for Indigenous peoples across the desert regions of Australia. Metta has also worked as an Independent Evaluator with the Digital Divide Project and was also a contributor to ANTA’s Teaching and Learning Strategies Guide for working with Indigenous peoples.