Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia (DKA) has signed an MOU with Lendlease, a lead­ing inter­na­tion­al prop­er­ty and infra­struc­ture group, to cre­ate col­lab­o­ra­tions that impact pos­i­tive­ly on desert and remote Australia. 

Build­ing on the aligned objec­tives of the two organ­i­sa­tions, DKA and Lendlease’s work togeth­er will pro­mote oppor­tu­ni­ties for social and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment in Cen­tral Australia. 

DKA and Lendlease have begun col­lab­o­rat­ing on a num­ber of projects includ­ing a co-work­ing space at the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct in Alice Springs. This co-work­ing space will pro­vide new ways of work­ing that sup­port col­lab­o­ra­tion and inno­va­tion, for DKA and its ten­ants in the Busi­ness and Inno­va­tion Cen­tre. It will also be home to DKA’s region­al incu­ba­tor that will sup­port Abo­rig­i­nal busi­ness­es to thrive. 

Last year Lendlease vis­it­ed Alice Springs to explore oppor­tu­ni­ties to show­case Indige­nous inno­va­tion across their projects. They also expe­ri­enced bespoke cul­tur­al immer­sion pro­grams host­ed by DKA, learn­ing about the kin­ship sys­tem, skin names, bush food, bush med­i­cine, and Arrernte cul­ture. Lendlease used this expe­ri­ence to guide their pro­to­cols around work­ing with Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple and projects. 

“DKA has already cre­at­ed areas for col­lab­o­ra­tion with Lendlease includ­ing the cre­ation of a co-work­ing space for Abo­rig­i­nal busi­ness­es. They’ve also giv­en our team a tru­ly unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence on Arrernte coun­try,” said Lendlease Head of Indige­nous Engage­ment, Cath Brokenborough. 

“We’re look­ing for­ward to strength­en­ing our con­nec­tion with DKA through col­lab­o­ra­tive projects that sup­port Indige­nous Aus­tralians,” said Ms Brokenborough. 

“DKA’s part­ner­ship with an inter­na­tion­al com­pa­ny like Lendlease shows that remote Aus­tralia has some­thing real­ly unique and mean­ing­ful to offer,” said DKA CEO Lau­ren Ganley. 

“DKA is com­mit­ted to work­ing with organ­i­sa­tions that bring a pos­i­tive impact to Cen­tral Aus­tralia, and we’re grate­ful to have access to Lendlease’s exper­tise work­ing togeth­er on inno­v­a­tive projects.”