Beyond Business-as-Usual: Lessons from Purple House

Late last year, I flew to Mparntwe (Alice Springs) to work with Purple House through Jawun’s secondment program. Purple House is an Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation delivering dialysis across remote Central Australia. The secondment reflects a commitment under DTA's first Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

Our commitment to reconciliation is deep and starts at the top. CEO Chris Fechner completed the Jawun Executive Program. Our Executive Board recently nominated Deputy CEO Lucy Poole as Executive RAP sponsor. We're building deeper relationships with Aboriginal organisations and working to increase Aboriginal representation in our staff.  

As DTA's Diversity and Inclusion Champion, I wanted to better understand how a small central agency can meaningfully support self-determination and Closing the Gap.

I came back with lessons that matter.

The strength of community control

Twenty-five years ago, Pintupi elders asked governments for dialysis on Country. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful in securing funding at the time.    

In response, the community raised $1 million by auctioning paintings to build their own clinic.  

Today Purple House operates 20 clinics across three states, governed by a Pintupi Luritja board. Central Australia has transformed from having the worst to the best national dialysis survival rates. This is a testament to the immense impact of Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (ACCOs).  

What I learned

My project was developing a renal nurse training pathway so Purple House can train nurses on Country. I consulted stakeholders across three jurisdictions, surveyed staff, worked through regulatory frameworks, and presented to the board. Purple House staff generously shared their knowledge and expertise, from CEO Sarah Brown's strategic guidance to the nurses and support workers who explained the realities of remote dialysis care.

But what I learned went deeper. I learned that the best work happens through relationship building and deep listening – not rushed timelines. When cultural obligations inform when and how things happen, better decisions get made. And I saw self-determination in action – Aboriginal communities leading and governing their own services.  

Moving beyond business-as-usual

The Productivity Commission's 2024 review found that governments are not adequately delivering on the Closing the Gap commitments. Most actions "relabel business-as-usual or simply tweak existing ways of working." The Commission found persistent "government knows best" thinking and called for fundamental transformation.

For the DTA, this means recognising ACCOs don't need government to design services - they need us to remove barriers and trust Aboriginal governance. It’s about using our influence differently, starting with the policies and programs we create.  

We’ve already begun. We're embedding Aboriginal considerations into our Digital Experience Policy and Digital Inclusion Standard to make mainstream systems work better. This is how we start embedding reconciliation in everything we do.

Putting reconciliation into practice

I'm returning with a clearer sense of how we can support reconciliation: by supporting Aboriginal communities to lead their own solutions, and by recognising the strength that already exists.

Writer Tim Winton puts it well: "Aboriginal wisdom is one of the most under-utilised intellectual and emotional resources this country has."

Purple House achieves the best dialysis survival rates in the nation because they draw on deep cultural knowledge, connection to Country, and 65,000 years of understanding how communities thrive. The strength is already there. Our role is to recognise it and support it.

An invitation

If your agency partners with Jawun, consider a secondment. If not, explore how Jawun can support your organisation's reconciliation commitments through strategic secondment partnerships. This program gives public servants direct experience with Aboriginal-led organisations and real understanding of self-determination.

For the DTA, this experience reinforces our commitment to champion community-led approaches and support Aboriginal leadership across government. As a small central agency, our impact comes from how we use our convening role and influence.

The Productivity Commission is clear: governments need fundamental transformation, not tweaks. Purple House showed me what's possible when Aboriginal people govern their own services, when we trust community knowledge, and when we build relationships over time.

The gap isn't just about outcomes. It's about closing the gap between words and action. Purple House is already there. Now, it’s our turn to follow.