Annette Creek working closely with local Nhill communities to foster connections

Annette Creek is the Executive Officer of the Nhill Learning Centre. Nhill is a small town in western Victoria’s Wimmera region, halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne. With a population of approximately 2000 people, over the past 10 years Nhill has welcomed over 200 Karen people – around 10% of its total population – and helped them make Nhill their home. The Karen people arrived in Australia as refugees from Burma after an arrangement between the United Nations, United States, Canada and Australia to re-settle tens of thousands of Karen who were living in camps on the Thai-Burma border. Since then, Annette has worked closely with the Karen and local Nhill communities to foster connections, assist the Karen to navigate daily Australian life, and to help shine a light on the beautiful products created by Karen women through the award-winning social enterprise, Paw Po.

Interview by Jo Porter. Photography by Melissa Powell.

Jo Porter: How did you feel when you heard that Karen people would be moving to Nhill?   

Annette Creek: I felt excited about Karen people moving to Nhill – I saw it as a way Nhill could thrive and support new arrivals. We arranged for English lessons for all of the Karen arrivals, but were aware that the Karen community might need various kinds of support, and that coming to the Learning Centre for English lessons might just be the first need we served. Many of the people who came for lessons were women, who were taking care of children and others while their husbands worked at Luv-a-Duck [a local duck processing business]. 

How does the Learning Centre work with the Karen?’

Originally the Centre offered English classes but it was quickly apparent that the class participants as individuals had a huge variety of language skills – some speak and write in Burmese, Karen and Thai, while others have had less opportunity for formal schooling. Fortunately, two of our teachers, Alison Creek and Cathy Moll, were experienced teachers and knew that learning a new language as an adult was very different to learning it as a child. They encouraged English language class participants to join in sewing classes. As the participants asked for thread, discussed patterns and shared technical skills so they learned English.

And of course language was not the only thing people needed to know – as we got to know the women who were coming to the Centre we began to support them as they learned about the things we might take for granted and still find a bit of a challenge: opening a bank account, getting a driver’s licence, providing vaccination records to enrol in childcare… my staff and I have spent a lot of after-hours time with various Karen people as they have made Nhill their home, while sometimes also managing the kinds of things you might imagine they have needed to deal with having had to flee their homes, live in refugee camps, go through the re-settlement process and so on. 

The items created in the sewing classes gradually improved in quality and quantity and the participants were keen to see whether they could earn some money from their work. Of course not knowing whether the products would be of interest, we booked a stall at the 2015 the Nhill Airshow. The Karen women were enthusiastic and keen stallholders and the Airshow attendees were equally keen: our aprons, cushions, bags and similar items completely sold out.

The Airshow experience gave us all a sense that this group and their wares could become something more formal. In discussions with the ladies, we named the group Paw Po and with Alison, the group decided on some key items and patterns they would pursue. We bought better machines, the group met at least weekly and we secured some orders -  the Neighbourhood House conference ordered bags from us which was great.

In 2017 we took the big step of moving Paw Po into its own home. On top of a Learning Centre worker, we have a regular number of ladies who come to the studio to make things and a full-time worker who manages supplies, develops designs and so on. On top of the textile products we also sell flowers which we source from locals who let us trim their plants and also from Australian Wildflowers at Laharum which grows Australian native flowers.

What have some of the challenges been?

I’m an optimist and don’t really dwell on the negatives, but of course there were things to learn. One area is that Nhill has an incredible success story to tell in relation to welcoming migrants but this can’t be done just with formal settlement services. The Karen and the existing Nhill community have made a lot of effort to learn about each other and, when the Karen originally arrived, individuals and families were matched with a local mentor to help them with things ranging from renovations to grocery shopping and going to Centrelink.

How have the two cultures – Karen and others – adapted to life together?

Cultural connection grows like any friendship. The English classes and now sewing classes and creative collaboration at Paw Po has allowed for consistent social connection. The collaboration/co-working relationship puts people on an equal footing with each other because everyone has a different expertise that’s called on to make Paw Po work: sewing, business skills, floristry, design, weaving and so on. The shop is a feature of our main street these days and local people pop in for flowers, gifts and to say hello.

I think if we had not been here, the Karen women would have been very isolated and separated from the community at large. Perhaps families would have moved away once they had saved some money but actually more and more families are moving here and recently we have welcomed people directly to Nhill – bypassing a stay in Melbourne which has been the more typical route.

I am personally most proud of building the social connections in Nhill and I think our social cohesion has really increased because of the way our whole community has adapted. Only very rarely are there complaints about this change and, mostly, I think people have expanded their horizons and feel really pleased that Nhill has been able to share its life and lifestyle.