Former Yass resident Isaiah Dawe was recently awarded the TAFE NSW Student of the Year and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander of the year awards – and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
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For Mr Dawe, who lived in Yass from the age of six and left for Sydney when he was 15, this was a significant change of direction.
As a child of two months, he was taken from his family in Queensland and put into foster care.
He was bounced around the system before ending up in Yass. Mr Dawe described his time in in town as the most “stable” of his early life.
This was largely down to the influence of his foster parent in Yass, Eric Bell.
Mr Bell was a lynchpin of the Yass community, and worked hard for many years towards reconciliation between the local Indigenous population and the Yass community.
He also gave Isaiah a home, and his death in 2015 provided the catalyst for Mr Dawe’s decision to delve into improving the lives of young Indigenous Australians.
His choice, however, was preceded by years of hesitance about the direction he wanted his life to take.
At both primary and high school, Mr Dawe recalled being a class clown, constantly in trouble with his friends.
“I was, I guess, always on time-out,” he said.
“Always disruptive, there was even classes where I spent the majority of my time, English especially, I was always on the time-out desk.
“I was a bit of a class clown … and I really wasn't going anywhere with my life. I didn’t have any aspirations.”
Mr Dawe’s troublemaking streak was curbed somewhat when he moved to Sydney, but it still did not provide him with the direction he needed.
“When I went to St Gregory’s College [in Campbelltown], that kinda kicked me into place,”
“I kind of excelled there. [I] got Sportsman of the Year at an all-boys’ school, and that’s probably what did it, the discipline and routine.
“But I didn’t know what I was going to do after that.”
So he found two jobs and spent most of his time either working or at university, but he quickly realised that higher education didn’t suit him and dropped out.
The purpose Mr Dawe needed came to him when he went to Mr Bell’s funeral in late 2015.
“It was went I went home, back to Yass, and I heard all the amazing things my foster pop … did for the community, and how he changed the perception of Aboriginal people there.
“So then I heard all these amazing stories, and I thought of how I could be of the same stature.”
As a first step, Mr Dawe joined a program called the Indigenous Police Recruiting Our Way Delivery (IPROWD) through TAFE, and connected with the Indigenous community in Redfern.
“Gaining back my community roots and support, that’s when I started to succeed,” Mr Dawe said.
And succeed he has.
Along with the two TAFE awards, Mr Dawe has earned the privilege of being the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander of the Year in Vocational Training, the Gili Achievement Award from TAFE NSW, being selected for an international leadership exchange program in the United States, becoming a youth ambassador for Indigenous children in foster care, and he was elected to National Indigenous `Youth Parliament.
To cap it off, he was also part of the first Indigenous team to sail from Sydney to Hobart.
So it is clear that Mr Dawe has now coupled an intense drive to go with his ample natural ability. The question remains: how far does he want to go?
Although he was reluctant to admit it, Mr Dawe does dream of becoming an Australian Prime Minister one day, and many around him often vouch for his suitability.
However, he is remaining focused on his more immediate goals for the moment.
“I want to work on my own social enterprise that I’m starting up, it’s called ID Know Yourself,” Mr Dawe said.
“That’s all about reconnecting young kids with their culture and identity, and preparing them for life after care.
“The lack of support I had within those foster homes didn’t help me at all.
“I wanted to change it for a positive for those in my [former] situation.”