*As an organisation, Pure Finance is committed to putting 5% of its revenue to work for good. Of that 5%, we designate 1% to supporting community organisations working hard to protect our environment, and another 1% goes toward Paying the Rent. The final 3% is set aside for the upcoming launch of a new not-for-profit - Yours.
With another quarter of the year done and dusted (how?!) It's time to once again celebrate the incredible organisations that are on the receiving end of this quarter’s Pure Community donations. Let’s take a look!
FOR THE PLANET - The Koori Mail Office Rebuild Fund
Key findings from a new report by the Climate Council has found that climate change is firmly embedded in the 2022 flooding emergency that swept through southeast Queensland and New South Wales earlier this year, with some regions experiencing rainfall that was simply off the charts. And, with another flooding event occurring in NSW this week, it is becoming increasingly clear that we need to widen our response to the climate emergency.
You might remember the Koori Mail as one of the organisations we supported earlier this year, as they helped coordinate and raise funds for the community-led recovery response to the catastrophic flooding event that swept through the Bundjalung/Northern Rivers region in NSW.
Despite suffering extensive flood damage to their own headquarters and being forced to halt production of the newspaper for the first time in 30 years, Koori Mail immediately began coordinating massive flood relief efforts from their Lismore office, which became temporarily known as The Koori Mail Flood Relief Hub. Here, they not only fund-raised, but provided the community with access to essential goods and services such as temporary accommodation, food, medical supplies, other essential items, legal advice, community support, and general assistance. Just last week Koori Mail were presented with the Innovation Award at this year’s prestigious NAIDOC awards for these flood recovery efforts.
In what has now been described as one of the most extreme disasters in Australian history, the Koori Mail played a central role in their community, at a time when adequate and timely government support was thin on the ground. They threw everything into caring for their local community and now - they’re asking us all to show up and support their own recovery.
“The [Koori Mail] building is still structurally sound, however it has been completely destroyed and now we need to bring attention to rebuilding the home of Australia’s only independent fortnightly Indigenous newspaper. This includes severe damage left to the interior and exterior, and support to secure the remaining suites of the building to ensure the Koori Mail staff have adequate office space to continue full operations and production.”
- The Koori Mail
The Koori Mail gave (and continues to give) so much to their local community, especially during the floods, as well as providing an essential platform for the voices of Indigenous Australians - something that has been historically absent or widely underrepresented in the mainstream media. It was an honour to be able to provide them with $2,940, this time for the rebuild of their own headquarters, so that they can continue to keep the voice of Indigenous Australia strong, proud and relevant.
PAYING THE RENT – Paying it forward with NAIDOC Ball tickets
“I think it's really important to pay it forward to create opportunity for mob to be joyful - not just orgs and funding that focus on [the] pain and hardship our community faces.
Mob haven’t been able to have NAIDOC Ball for a couple of years now due to covid and this is for most, one of the only times a year we get to gather, celebrate and be joyful.”
- Sky Thomas/SOJU GANG, Dj + Creator
Once again, the arrival of July brings NAIDOC Week! From the 3 -10th July, National NAIDOC Week celebrations are held right across the country to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
“It’s an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth.” - National NAIDOC week, 2022
Learn more about the history and significance of National NAIDOC Week here.
With COVID causing huge disruptions to previous celebrations, this year’s NAIDOC week events were finally able to go ahead as planned, after years of cancellations and pivoting in-person events and gatherings online. With thanks to Sky Thomas (AKA Soju Gang) we were presented with an opportunity to be able to purchase ‘pay it forward’ tickets for this year’s Victorian NAIDOC ball, on behalf of First Nations community members.
As Sky reminds us above, while it is always important to financially support First Nations-led groups and grassroots organisations working to make racial equity and justice a reality, so too is it important to support avenues for First Nations joy, creativity and celebration.
With thanks again to Sky for liaising with VIC NAIDOC and making this opportunity for us to ‘pay it forward’ possible, we purchased 12 ball tickets equal to $2,250, representing part of our commitment to pay the rent this quarter. Speaking of NAIDOC week, why not also consider making a ‘pay it forward’ commitment of your own, as part of an ongoing, yearly NAIDOC celebration?
PAYING THE RENT – Showing up for the Seisia community
You might remember the incredible ‘5 changemakers in 5 days’ series brought to us by Common Ground during reconciliation week? (Check it out here if you missed it).
One of those changemakers, Talei Elu, is a Saibai Koedal woman from Seisia – a small Torres Strait Islander community in remote Cape York. Moving back home to be closer to community, Talei is an incredible advocate for the small but vibrant Seisia community and was recently successful in lobbying the government and Telstra to improve telecommunications infrastructure in the area.
“This little community has so much potential, but unfortunately the lack of enabling infrastructure like good telecommunications, reliable power and water, has meant our community faces serious challenges and barriers to achieving better health outcomes, business prospects, and opportunities to access distance education.”
– Talei Elu in conversation with Common Ground
With Telstra being the only telecoms provider in the community, phone coverage and internet connectivity continue to be of low quality. Residents struggle to make 000 calls and access essential services like banking, MyGov and online education, despite paying the same amount for these services as the rest of Australia. Although Seisia was recently successful in securing a grant to build a Telstra tower for better coverage and faster internet, this tower will take months to build, and the community is desperate to find an interim solution, especially for households with Elders and individuals who have high medical needs.
In response, Seisia is seeking donations to purchase Telstra GoRepeaters for these households which will boost the network signal and can maintain good enough coverage for calls.
We’ve given $690 to the cause this quarter, which is the remaining amount from our paying the rent commitment.
If you’d also like to support the Seisia community, please donate to:
Seisia Community Corporation
BSB: 064 804
Account: 133 51 509
Tag: SEISIA TELECOMS
With special thanks to Talei Elu and Common Ground for raising awareness on this issue.
On behalf of all of us at Pure Finance, we want to say a big thank you to all of the people working hard to make our world a more just and equitable one. It is an honour to be able to support your work in ways both big and small.
If you want to learn more about Pure Community, you can visit: www.purecommunity.co or get in touch with us.
*Pure Community and Pure Finance have no direct affiliation with the organisations and causes listed above, we simply appreciate the work that they do, and choose to show our appreciation by donating to them.