Catherine MacDougall On Repurposing Education Systems To Create Lifelong Opportunities For Indigenous Youth
Catherine MacDougall is a passionate chef and inspired teacher who has found true joy in giving back to the community through food. She has been a secondary school hospitality teacher for 12 years and received awards for her dedication and hard work.
Catherine’s passion lies within giving back to the community through her non-for-profit organisation Prepare Produce Provide. This organisation has been a pathway for Catherine to incorporate her life experiences and training as a chef and educator with her true passion - helping young people to pursue careers in education, food, and hospitality.
To date, Catherine’s achievements have included helping two Indigenous students attend the Culinary Olympics in 2020 as part of the National Culinary Youth team. This experience opened up high level training and travel opportunities for First Nations youth on an international platform. Catherine has led the creation of the Power Up 4 Dust Up program, supporting access to cooking workshops in remote communities to address food insecurity. Currently, she is leading the Djinda Ngardak Culinary Program for First Nation’s youth across Western Australia and starting a social enterprise called “Kepa Kwab” designed to develop and grow the Djinda Ngardak Culinary Program, which provides mentoring and employment for vulnerable youth.
Catherine’s successes are a result of strong positive relationships which result in high levels of engagement from youth, teachers, industry and community members across the state, Australia and internationally. Her core values align with a commitment to creating meaningful change, and her creativity allows for real solutions to be implemented when addressing complex issues.
Catherine was the Western Australian finalist for Australian of the Year 2024, the Commonwealth Teacher of the Year in 2023, recipient of the WA Premier Secondary Teacher Award 2022, and the UN Teacher of the Year in 2019.
Catherine discusses How providing education pathways for disadvantaged youth can empower them to overcome systemic barriers and Why collaboration between industry partners, social impact businesses and governments is required to generate meaningful outcomes for us society as a whole.
Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)
[Indio Myles] - To start off, could you please share a bit about your background and what led to your work in education, training and disadvantaged youth?
[Catherine MacDougall] - I was talking with a group of friends yesterday and I reflected on where I started with education. I remembered that I had a choppy education when I was younger; my family travelled a lot and worked across different systems like the American, English, and Australian systems.
I experienced a very disjointed education, but when I came back for my final years, I had a pretty hard time. It wasn't until I got into the work force and experienced the training side of education that I loved what I was doing, because it was practical.
I had a fantastic career as a chef, but as I became older and after I had met my gorgeous hunky husband, I thought I could maybe go back and tame this education beast. I went back and trained as a teacher, and I thought to myself, "wow, I'm not the only one affected by this really rigid system."
I’d had this beautiful life experience with food and developed a love and passion for working in classrooms. I was thinking about what could I bring to my job? That started this roller coaster journey of creating purposeful education through training.
One of the first things I ever did was to work with young people in creating meals for the homeless. It showed me that training and education are powerful ways of connecting the community and bringing lots of people together.
That’s how I began my journey.
As the founder of Prepare Produce Provide, can you share more about this organisation and how it's changing the lives of vulnerable youth?
I didn't think I would ever be sitting where I am today talking to you about starting a not-for-profit! I was inspired by a collaborative moment where a like-minded educator sat in a room and said, " we're onto something here, making meals for the homeless with [at first] all of our individual schools.”
We started then getting the schools to work together. In our first year we had 12 different schools participate, and we made 7,000 meals for the homeless. We then started the non-profit and were able to capture all these different schools and young people in these systems, not just youth in public education.
Young people, schools, and educators are all talking to each other, and we're onto something here. All these years later we’re now looking at other areas of engagement through purposeful projects such as the Djinda Ngardak Culinary Program. With Djinda Ngardak we’re looking at empowering young First Nations people to look at bush foods and work in an entrepreneurial, innovative way.
Educators and the boundaries of curriculum and syllabus are being stretched as well, and the needs of young people and communities are changing. We must find different ways of connecting, and I think social enterprise as the foundation of what we're doing is providing purpose and connections across different sectors.
We’re pushing and connecting teachers with industry in the classroom, and when you bring people together, it can be for good or evil. These are practical, happy, purposeful ways of making good things happen in the community.
What benefits created for young people who have faced more systemic challenges throughout their lifetimes?
The beautiful thing about education is (especially these days) it's very accessible. There is a lot of material online, so when you start something one year, it can build onto something else.
There are lots of stepping stones, and that's what I love about education and training, it doesn't stop when you finish with one degree. There are lots of different avenue’s action this behaviour and to learn something different.
As humans, we're always learning how to interact with each other in the world we live in, and education is a powerful tool to do that.
How can diverse stakeholders like governments, businesses, and non-profits come together to create an impact?
The biggest thing I'm seeing and what I'm putting into practice is there are powerful new ways of looking at education. For example, pairing education with making meals for the homeless means you're creating some work while generating learning in the classroom, but the final product has a social impact in the community.
It’s a good way of ticking many boxes with one activity. They're learning and connecting while their meals are made for a purpose, and I think that's a win for everyone.
We also need to be sharing resources; we don't have an endless supply of money. When people can share resources, that makes it another win as well.
As an AMP Foundation Tomorrow Maker, you’re currently getting support to develop and grow Prepare Produce Provide. What have been your reflections and learnings from the support to date?
I think the biggest thing I’ve gained from the AMP Foundation is wonderful friends and mentors who let you know you're not alone in what you’re thinking.
You've got a tribe out there who want to create a better world and who have quirky little ideas to do so. With the AMP Foundation, learning how to apply a social enterprise lens through mentoring has been a game changer for me.
What advice would you give to a change maker who wants to help others through creating something, whether that's a nonprofit or a social enterprise?
My advice is to be brave, create a plan, be the difference, do your homework, look for mentors and don't give up.
Social enterprise requires a different way of viewing what you do, and I think once you can turn that lens in your head, that's when things start to happen. To do things differently takes courage in the first place, and once you take that step, you are turning the everyday white picket fence thought processes, goals and milestones into something else.
In a lot of cases, you’re sometimes creating new pathways of thinking, that’s challenging, and you must be brave. Changing systems and not even knowing what the challenges are until you get there can be quite daunting. You've got to have your tribe around you, people like the AMP Foundation and mentors to back you up.
What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across creating a positive change?
There are so many. With all the people I work with at the AMP Foundation, there's not one who isn't outstanding. What I love about it is it asks me to look at life differently through their lens while working with them.
It’s important to keep your mind open, we are in an ever-changing world that has different problems, and a lot of entrepreneurs have solutions. It's very much about keeping your mind open and talking to many people.
What books or resources would you recommend to our audience?
I've got two books to recommend, and these are the ones I'm reading now. Atomic Habits is the first, because we all think we're changing, but sometimes we become stuck with where we're at. If you want to peel things back and make a little change at a time, this book is for you.
The other book I’ll recommend is the one I got on the retreat. It’s called How to Do the Work, and I think we're doing the work anyway. You can't work in a social enterprise and not reassess who you are and what you're doing at different stages. This book is quite powerful, and it helps you remind yourself you’re just as important as your social enterprise.
Your wellbeing is very important, and social enterprise is not an easy gig; it's one of the hardest things to do. You are putting yourself to the test building when you build a social enterprise, your thinking, how do things, and communications strategies are challenged every step of the way.
How do you deal with the stresses of social entrepreneurship and having to reinvent yourself and upskill constantly?
If I look at the changes, I've been through in the last 10 to 12 years, I've moved from thinking I'm going to change the world by having this amazing Djinda Ngardak program which creates First Nation apprentices.
The reality is there are so many hurdles, and you must compromise all the way while building your program. How do you manage that? I think it's by remembering to have fun along the way. I got so serious at one point about making changes, getting it right and being on target, but my hardest critic was myself.
I had to stop that and start enjoying the people I was meeting, because I've met the most incredible people through my experiences. I'm now doing things along the way I wanted to do that have topped me up, like taking First Nation Australians to Germany.
We went and worked in Jamie Oliver's kitchens and went and visited Australia House. Whatever boundary I'm breaking, I'll make sure I'm enjoying the journey I'm on. This is by getting to know some of these First Nation’s young people who were coming into the program.
I’ve been getting to know their families, their regions and their bush foods to make sure I was going along with that experience. I stopped setting it up so everyone else was having a great time, because I started asking myself what was I needing to learn?
My answer is I want to learn about Australia, the country that I live in and the culture I'm surrounded with. The bush foods reflect the country I live in, and through the stories I hear behind these bush foods my world has opened.
What I did to balance it all out was to bring my family on the journey. Next week, I'm going into the Central Desert. I'm taking my husband, and my family have been helping me prepare for this journey. They’re helping pack the cars and get all the booklets together to go out onto country and cook with these remote communities alongside my colleagues and friends.
How I balance things is important, because I'm on such a big learning journey and I want to be able to understand the clients who have come to me. I've taken my family with me and let them enjoy some of these experiences, so that's probably how I balance it. I'm always challenged by my integrity and moral compass. I think I've got a robust one, and I’m a teacher not just in the classroom.
