Indigenous Engagement

Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan

As a majority owned Aboriginal company, Pindari has long committed itself to reconciliation by employing and training Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Since Pindari’s inception in 1997, we have actively supported and helped build the capacity of local Aboriginal businesses and communities. By committing to a RAP at the Innovate level, Pindari publicly commits to a 2-year plan that will strategically outline its actions and deliverables that will contribute to the company’s ongoing vision of reconciliation..

Creating a Cultural Capability Framework

Developing an appreciation and respect for Indigenous culture and understanding how this relates to Pindari’s workplace is fundamental to our successful engagement and participation of Indigenous communities and people.

In early 2022, Pindari began developing its Cultural Capability Framework which focuses on building a culturally competent workplace that supports Pindari’s key business objectives. This includes Indigenous recruitment and retention, developing culturally responsive human resources and procurement policies and practices, leadership commitment and accountability in promoting company wide cultural capability.

This framework will enable Pindari to build engagement and collaborative partnerships with Aboriginal communities across the operational footprint in the Pilbara and South West regions of Western Australia. As part of the company’s 2022/23 strategic plan, Pindari successfully engaged a Coordinator to focus on Indigenous Engagement Strategies and fulfilling our foundational reconciliation requirements.

Building Cultural Competency

Building a culturally responsive and inclusive workplace requires an enormous commitment from staff to undertake a process of continuous learning. It will only be successful if it is given the focus and commitment required by Company from the top down.

A self-assessment tool was used by Pindari to conduct a Cultural Competency Survey to identify staff’s cultural knowledge gaps, as well as explore their understanding of Pindari’s HR policies and practices, staff retention rates, workplace culture, and how effectively it promoted itself as an Aboriginal majority-owned and operated company.

With the survey results in hand, Pindari co-designed the Cultural Training Program with Keogh Bay, a WA Aboriginal owned consulting company with a mission to assist companies and individuals to improve their cultural capabilities.

Since engaging Keogh Bay in late 2022, over one-third of Pindari’s workforce have begun their cultural training journey by undertaking a full-day workshop entitled ‘Working with Indigenous Employees’. In 2023, Pindari will continue to roll out face-to-face training that allows focused discussion around industry-specific issues and local solutions for all staff members.

Pindari is currently working with Keogh Bay to build a series of Online Cultural Awareness Induction Training Videos to provide foundational information for onboarding new staff and to refresh existing staff. 

Supporting Aboriginal Businesses

Pindari is supporting new start-up Yargan Labour Hire, Koormal Plumbing for south west project/maintenance work and Perth based Timewell Electrical, owned and operated by brothers Billy and Jack Timewell, who come from a family of electricians. Pindari introduced them to the Pilbara mining industry and they are now executing Testing and Tagging and developing electrical capability in the blue chip resource sector with Pindari.