OPENING THE DOORS FOUNDATION
The Opening the Doors Foundation was set up in 2001 to provide Aboriginal children with greater educational opportunities across Victoria. For its co-founders and the individuals who have encountered the foundation over its 20-year history, Opening the Doors is about building understanding and trusting relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.
The story of Opening the Doors begins with Elder Vicki Clark OAM, a Mutthi Mutthi Wemba Wamba woman, and John Arthur OAM, from inner city Melbourne.
Through Vicki’s many conversations with Aboriginal people across Victoria in the late 1990s, it became “very, very obvious” to her, that a key aspiration of Aboriginal families was to send their children to the schools of their choice, to the ones they admired, whether Catholic or Independent.
This was about breaking the generational cycle of limited opportunities to education for many Aboriginal Australians.
But for many families with financial struggles, the ability to do so was seemingly out of reach. “That’s what gave me the vision,” she says.
Vicki Clark, co-founder, 2003
Vicki Clark, co-founder, 2003
Vicki and John first crossed paths in the year 2000. It was a year of great significance in the shared history of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.
National Reconciliation was launched to strengthen relationships and to promote a sense of national unity. The launch sparked one of the greatest mobilisations in Australian history, with over a quarter of a million people walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in a display of support for meaningful reconciliation.
The momentum rippled right around Australia, with thousands marching in solidarity through the streets of major cities.
These events were “memorable” for John.
At the time, he had just semi-retired from a career in law and commercial finance and was dedicating part of his time to education and social service organisations, but admitted that he had never worked with Aboriginal communities before.
It was during a trip to the Grampians when he first heard about Vicki through a mutual friend and afterwards, he was eager to meet her.
“John just walked in”, Vicki recalls. “He came into the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, where I was working at the time, and said he wanted to do something, something positive for Aboriginal people. I said we’ve been talking about setting up a foundation. And it really started from there.”
John Arthur, co-founder, 2003
John Arthur, co-founder, 2003
Vicki had already begun laying the foundations of Opening the Doors with Carol Messer, a woman with whom she had previously worked.
John contributed by developing the legal framework and structure that was required to establish the foundation, as well as the first donation of $500.
“When I met Vicki,” John says. “I just knew that she knew what she wanted. She had the determination to drive forward to achieve that. And, I think she had the sincerity and belief that it could be achieved. And I think that was an added incentive for me to help Vicki achieve that dream.”
For over a year, Vicki, Carol and John volunteered an enormous amount of time to get the foundation up and running.
But it wasn’t only about setting up a foundation, it was about broadening understandings and building trusting relationships.
“For us”, Vicki says. “We were learning that there are good people out there that are supportive of Aboriginal people. And we also learnt about another side of non-Aboriginal people…like that good heart to volunteer your time and that collaboration, that's really what Opening the Doors was founded on.”
Opening the Doors was launched on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day on August 4, 2001.
The foundation has made a huge impact on the lives of many Aboriginal families across Victoria by covering the extra costs associated with schooling, such as uniforms, books, laptops and school camps.
It has grown tremendously, from supporting around 30 Aboriginal children in 2001, to over 800 in 2021.
The foundation’s Office Administrator Brigid Knight-Braniff says the progress of Opening the Doors is due to the connections it has forged with the wider community.
“All the work from everyone in the office before,” she says, "to the volunteers and the staff and the board, has been about connecting with community and building more relationships with schools, organisations and donors, and getting the word out there.”
Over the years, Opening the Doors has made a mark on Victoria’s education system.
In 2009, the foundation, alongside the Catholic Aboriginal Ministry, began the FIRE (Friends Igniting Reconciliation through Education) Carrier program, which is made up of a network of Victorian schools.
Through the program, FIRE Carrier schools make a commitment to educate students, staff and families about reconciliation and to learn from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures.
The program is also reflective of Vicki’s ambition to make schools “culturally safe” for Aboriginal students by creating an environment of inclusion and understanding, free from discrimination.
FIRE Carrier schools also make a commitment to hold fundraisers for Opening the Doors, as part of their fundraising activities.
There are now 120 FIRE Carrier schools across the state.
Through strengthening connections and understanding within Victoria’s school system, a lot can be said about the program’s benefits to wider society.
Opening the Doors has helped to level the playing field in Victorian schools by empowering Aboriginal students with confidence, allowing them to participate and not be left behind.
Lilian Hobson, who worked with Opening the Doors for 15 years, has seen many students supported by the foundation complete their schooling from prep to year 12.
“The kids are confident when they go to school,” Lilian says. “They’ve been able to stand up there at school assemblies and do an acknowledgment of country or raise the flag. A lot of the parents say it's made them proud. They’ve got a uniform like everybody else.”
This sentiment was echoed by Vicki Walker, who first encountered Opening the Doors as a parent of two students supported by the foundation.
Living in Echuca, Vicki has watched with a great sense of pride, her children and many other Aboriginal students in the community supported by Opening the Doors, finish school and go on to become doctors, psychologists, childcare workers, chefs and business owners.
“They're our new leaders in community,” Vicki says. “The kids are loved and already really well respected by both elders and the younger community…they’re going to make a difference, they're going to make a big difference to what happens next, to our next generation.”
The story of Opening the Doors provides just one example of what can be achieved through Black and White collaboration and is reflective of Australia’s great potential for national unity.
John Arthur and Vicki Clark at Opening the Doors Foundation, 2018
John Arthur and Vicki Clark at Opening the Doors Foundation, 2018
I'd come across a lot of non-Aboriginal people who'd never met an Aboriginal person and they weren’t interested in learning…people come and go in your life, but I’ve known John for over 20 years now and friendships have been formed.
~ Vicki Clark, co-founder, 2021
I suppose the thing I've learnt in my journey [with Vicki] is you don't hear all the story in one chapter. It's over a period of time. There's a little bit more of the story that comes out. And so, patience is also a virtue. But, you know, there's still a little bit more of the story to come.
~ John Arthur, co-founder, 2021
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