When Noongar and Thiin-Mah Warriyangka woman Heidi Mippy began her postgraduate journey at Murdoch University, she expected the lecturers and content to be dry but, instead, she found a course that fuelled her desire for education.

Ms Mippy was working a public sector job when she began a Graduate Certificate in Business Administration at Murdoch University.

“Murdoch was the only university running a course in business for the public sector and, at the time, I was working at the Department of Fire and Emergency Services,” she said. “When I did the graduate certificate, I felt like it was a taster. I absolutely loved doing those four units and I just wanted to do more.”

Ms Mippy completed her entire learning journey from primary school to her master’s degree in the areas surrounding the Murdoch University campus.

“I have a great connection to the campus and, culturally, it’s a place of learning for me as well,” she said. “Its significance makes me feel very comfortable, and culturally comfortable as well. Education hasn’t traditionally – whether it be primary school, high school or university – been a culturally safe space."

"The emerging knowledge doesn’t necessarily align with our knowledge and experiences. I don’t see that challenge at Murdoch – it’s culturally safe, allows really great collaboration, and respects Aboriginal and traditional knowledge.”

Ms Mippy said the lecturers at Murdoch University were experts in their field and probably some of the best in the country.

“What I liked about the lecturers we had in the graduate certificate program was that, even though they are brilliant, I think they also fit in with the Murdoch ethos about challenging people’s thinking really well,” she said.

“Particularly as an Aboriginal person, there’s not a lot of studies done on leadership in the Aboriginal space. The lecturers embraced the differences and challenges we see in Aboriginal leadership or governance. “Instead of telling me, ‘no, that’s not how we do it, that’s not what we know’, I feel like they supported my learning journey and also enabled two-way learning through the process.”

During her Executive Master in Leadership, Strategy and Innovation studies at Murdoch University, Ms Mippy had the opportunity to go to Singapore as part of the international immersion unit.

“We reviewed the Singapore smart nation policy, so we got to go to all of these startups and incubators, and I found it very fascinating,” she said.

“As a Noongar person from Noongar Country, you just don’t get exposed to that. Even in Perth now, we don’t have incubators, or they’re only just emerging in our state. I feel like I get the opportunity to use some of that theory around innovation, particularly leadership, value creation and all of these amazing things that help to connect people and get business ideas off the ground.”

Ms Mippy now uses this experience and knowledge in her job on a daily basis. “I work with Noongar Land Enterprise Group, which is a membership organisation of Noongar landholders,” she said.

“Each of the landholders have their own properties – they all run their farms in their own way – and my role is helping them to build their business on their farm. We’re setting up a bushfoods innovation hub at the moment, and the idea is to support Noongar people across the whole of Noongar Country to come into this innovation hub and progress their business ideas."

"They might come in to use equipment and clean bushfoods or they might come in for packaging or marketing advice, so it’s all about incubating their business ideas and helping them grow to whatever scale they want. I would never have thought that way if I hadn’t completed the executive master or had that lived experience in Singapore.”

Ms Mippy said governance, leadership and the not-for-profit space could be difficult to work in, as they were often under-resourced and very competitive for funding. However, she said formal education could make a significant difference in running corporations and businesses.

“I think it can be undervalued in our community – the value of that education,” Ms Mippy said. “There are some challenges hitting the headlines on governance and leadership. You can avoid all of these things that other people are getting called out for, like poor governance and mismanagement of funding, with solid education. There’s so much strength in us working with other people and extending our minds.”