Coding for Country

Pilot Indigenous coding program Indigi Code has been established for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students with the hope they will be able to gain future employment and work remotely in the digital space.

Indigi Code, a partnership between programming education provider 42 Adelaide and the Aboriginal Biodiversity Conservation (ABC) Foundation had its first session at Nguta College in September, with 20 students participating in a week-long course designed for entry-level coders.

The free program offers a “gamified” peer-to-peer study experience, with students learning from other students through engagement-style learning.  

ABC Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation established in WA, with its flagship program providing services to benefit on-Country education programs and 42 Adelaide is a non-profit coding school.

Both organisations hope to expand from this initial pilot program with the scope to include other schools if the right interest and funding is found.

ABC Foundation executive finance and strategy advisor, Alison Sentance, is excited to see how kids could utilise what they’d learned from the training program to look after Country.

“Our intent is to enrol more and more schools so we can see this wonderful world of immersion on Country, where the students can look after country while getting into the digital space,” Ms Sentance said.

“There has been a passion from our foundation that children want to get immersed in their communities and look after Country. We know from the digital world and through Covid that you can work remotely. For children to be innovative and explore other ways to communicate about their community and their culture, they could be designing apps and games that have an on-Country focus.