Featured Staff Members

Debra "Aunty Deb" BenNET

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Engagement & Cultural Advisor

Aunty Deb works to build our cultural capability to work with First Nations Peoples. She has been a member of RAQ's Senior Management since her formal commencement in December 2008.

Aunty Deb's cultural, historical, and professional expertise and experiences guide us to better serve First Nations Clients and all Australians.

“Together, we have established a strong vision and clear goals and strategies. We join with Relationships Australia (RA)'s Indigenous Network and RA's National Alliance and uphold First Nations Self Determination as a key priority."

"Here at RAQ, my role is to lead the work that we do in building the organisation’s cultural capability in working with First Nations Peoples.

"We work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples because of their unique status and their more recent historical intersection with other Australians.

"As sovereign and diverse Original Peoples, they represent multiple cultures. The history, stewardship of country, languages, lore, laws, ways of living, and oral traditions can be traced back over 60,000 years on this continent prior to, and even since, the first arrival of Great Britain here on our shores." (source)

"Because of their unique status and experience of colonisation, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Peoples are recognised globally as Indigenous Nations within this relatively new Nation we call Australia." (source)

"Since 1770, there have been many changes to First Nations Peoples' lives. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, the experience since the First British fleet arrived has been dramatic, tumultuous, and traumatic.

"There are so many intersections between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples themselves."

"Within that diversity, we seek to reciprocate respect, find common ground, and experience equity to achieve our rights to citizenship and community with other Australians."

"Here at RAQ, social justice is the most important value to me. Social justice incorporates all of our other values, that’s how I see it."

"Whatever anyone is doing at RAQ, our main focus is the client. We are working with communities across our service footprint, and we respond to the needs of those community members who come to us as clients.

"I always look from the perspective of social justice. I believe everything else like Reconciliation, professionalism, integrity, and healthy and respectful relationships really come under the banner of social justice."

If I could add a value to RAQ's values...

"We don’t really talk about it, but it’s embedded in there when we talk about relationships, social justice, and Reconcilitation, and I think it’s very close to spirit and love. The way we talk about it professionally is compassion. That’s what I really work with, the spirit of a person and of our people. I represent that spirit in my daily work. It is about love and compassion. You can’t do this work if you don’t have those qualities inside you."

What excites me about RAQ...

"What excites me at RAQ is the opportunity to connect with other members of the workforce and members of the community, and to collaborate with them. That’s part of my role, it’s the underpinning aspect of my role. I have the opportunity and I make opportunity to engage, collaborate, and connect.

“When I have challenges in front of me, I look at them as opportunities rather than problems to be solved.

"I imagine that my colleagues at RAQ would agree that they enjoy contributing to working with the challenges that face us every day as human beings."

What I'm proud of from this year...

"This year, we’ve done so much to be proud of. Our workforce has accomplished so much in overcoming challenges that we have faced and continue to face as an organisation. From operations to support services, to the broader community.

"We face a challenge in overcoming some really big things that impact particularly our First Nations communities. These impacts are really a reflection of what’s happening in the broader community. But with First Nations communities, it’s more intense, it’s magnified.

"My part and my passion is about working with the whole of the family, and looking at the root causes of family violence. There is a unique type of racial violence that our First Nations Peoples face. You only need to look at the statistics surrounding incarceration and mortality rates. So these families need a unique type of help and support. That's what I'm passionate about addressing.

"So I’m really proud of the work we have done and are beginning to do with helping First Nations families. But it’s not like it’s done and dusted. We are only at the beginning stages of really seeing that grow.

"Specifically this year, I have been so proud of work we have done in the interventional space, including the Thriving Kinnections program, the Murri Court, and our efforts in the correctional centres.

"We are doing preventative work as well, by reaching people who are already impacted by these things. Inside this organisation, we develop and create new models of practice to offer the best possible responses and support to people impacted by domestic and family violence where the root cause has been racial violence.

"This year, I was involved with the work we did for the Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Prevention Forum. We highlighted the work we have done with First Nations men, particularly in having a different perspective and approach to this demographic.

"It’s all connected. There are so many resources we have created for our First Nations Peoples this year, and I’m really proud of those."

My challenges from this year...

"This year was not like the ones before it; we have focused largely on responding to COVID.

"It was a big effort to ensure everyone had safe workplaces and technology to connect them to each other and their clients. That’s been a huge challenge that all of us have felt.

"So, trying to maintain a connection has been a big challenge. When you feel disconnected because you haven’t got the right technology at the right time, or access to your colleagues at the right time – each of us have had to come to terms with that.

"COVID did make it difficult to address other challenges that we have faced this year, and still continue to face.

"We have so many priorities that sometimes, it's a real juggling act. Every time we focus on one of the balls that are in the air, it can draw our attention a little away from the others. But we’ve got to keep all those balls in the air. One of the places where we work extremely hard not to drop the ball is cultural fitness. Helping the community begins from within. I’d love to see RAQ place an even greater focus on building the cultural capability of each staff member. All of us need significant support and enhancements surrounding our skillsets in working with First Nations, black, and culturally diverse Peoples.

"We have been building our cultural knowledge and awareness through different programs and training, but I think there is no limit to what we can do to ensure every single staff member is advanced on the continuum of cultural fitness."

What I'm excited about for the future...

"At RAQ, the future is huge. Next year, I really want to see us fully embrace partnership arrangements. I want to see us document our work to build a strong database and a bank of knowledge around the work we are doing."

Alisha Lyngcoln

Team Leader
Far North Queensland

Alisha is a Team Leader in Far North Queensland, where she works with the variety of services we deliver across the region.

Having always worked with families, children, and child protection, Alisha found her perfect role with RAQ in 2014.

Alisha believes in looking for strengths within each of us, and that learning is a never-ending journey.

“I resonate with RAQ's values and the organisation as a whole. I have really valued the work we have done.

"I started at RAQ as a Children's Contact Services Coordinator. I had just come back from maternity leave, and I was looking for a change from my former role (at a different organisation).

"I happened upon this role, but it was a great fit. I have always worked with children and families, and I have previously worked in child protection. And just being off maternity leave, it was perfect both timing-wise and as a role I would be passionate about."

"A lot of people, we call them boomerangs, they go and come back. The grass is definitely greener here.

"I’ve been happy, I’ve been challenged in the different things I’ve done over the years, and it’s kept me here."

If I could add a value to RAQ's values...

Reflection: something that I really value in people is the ability to reflect.

That’s something we look for at RAQ already; we champion the ability of reflection in all our clients and our staff.

To me, reflection means the ability to look back on things, or to look within, learn something, and then apply what you’ve learned so you can improve and grow. Reflection helps us to look within ourselves and each other to identify strengths.

It’s always important to focus on the positives and recognise what each person can bring. We all have different strengths, and that’s how each of us fit in at RAQ. Drawing upon different people's strengths makes us stronger as an organisation.