This page contains a lightly edited transcript of a conversation about Yalari, featuring Yalari Co-Founder and Managing Director Llew Mullins, Yalari alumna Marley Holloway-Clark, and Jenni Walke from Elephant in the Room Consulting.
The transcript has been edited for clarity and readability.
Introduction to Yalari
Yalari is a First Nations community-led organisation focused on providing access to quality secondary education for Indigenous children from regional and remote communities across Australia.
Since 2005, Yalari has provided full boarding school scholarships for the duration of a student’s secondary education, while also supporting alumni throughout their personal and professional journeys.
What Is Yalari?
Founded by Indigenous leader Waverley Stanley, who attended Toowoomba Grammar School as a boarder, Yalari was established after he and his partner recognised the need for greater educational opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
“Yalari is an organisation that offers scholarships for Indigenous children to go to boarding school Australia-wide. We also support our more than 800 alumni in their journey through life, whatever they want to be doing.”
Llew Mullins, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Yalari
University Pathways and Career Support
Interviewer: How many of them end up at university?
Llew Mullins: I’d say close to 50%.
Interviewer: That sounds like quite a good figure to me. What’s the model? How does Yalari help an Indigenous student achieve that level of success?
Llew Mullins: Firstly, we open their eyes to the possibility of going to university if that’s what they want to do.
Our Year 11 camps, and sometimes our Year 12 camps, take students to university colleges where we stay on campus for the weekend. We explore Indigenous support units and help students understand that university is a real possibility.
Then it has to be what they’re interested in. Throughout their secondary schooling, from Year 7 to Year 12, those conversations happen.
Mind you, if you want to be a plumber, a builder, work in childcare, or follow another pathway, we’re going to support that 100 per cent too. Whatever your passion is, we’re behind you.
The Yalari CORRIE Values
Interviewer: What are the values of Yalari?
Llew Mullins: We call them the CORE Values.
Interviewer: Explain that to me.
Llew Mullins: It’s Compassion, Openness, Respect, Resilience, Inclusiveness and Excellence.
- Compassion
- Openness
- Respect
- Resilience
- Inclusiveness
- Excellence
Those values are explained to everybody. Our sponsors, schools, students, alumni and staff hear about them right from the word go. It’s about living and working by those values.
They took a while to develop. At one stage it was just the first four. Then other staff came along and said, “Hang on, you’re really inclusive. You need to have that one.”
Then there was Excellence. That doesn’t just mean academic excellence. It means excellence in the way you show up every day, whatever you’re doing and whatever part of Yalari you’re involved in.
How Students Are Selected for a Yalari Scholarship
Interviewer: Tell me about the way someone is accepted into Yalari because it’s not because they have money and can apply. It’s a slightly different model than many school scholarship programs. How are they accepted into Yalari?
Llew Mullins: The very first thing is they need to be Indigenous or Torres Strait Islander.
We don’t ask for certificates of Aboriginality. We just don’t do that.
But we do interview families in their homes. It’s pretty clear when people are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. You can tell by the way people identify and the way they belong. It’s not just the colour of your skin.
That’s the first thing. This is an Indigenous scholarship.
The next one is need. You’re right, it’s not a moneyed one. There needs to be a financial need and a geographical need.
They’re not close enough to another good school, so they need to go away to board.
Those are our first two criteria. Then there are things like a willingness to try hard.
A Yalari Alumni Perspective
That’s Yalari Co-Founder and Managing Director Llew Mullins. Marley Holloway-Clark completed the Yalari scholarship program and today is part of the workforce.
The Support Behind the Scholarship
“Going to Yalari, staying at Yalari and being part of the family here is all about support.”
Marley Holloway-Clark
Not only from my brother, who was a year above me on the scholarship, but also from my parents every weekend when I kicked and screamed about having to go back to boarding school.
They kept telling me, “You need to keep going. You need to keep pushing through.”
It wasn’t only family support. It was thinking about doing it for the broader community as well.
The idea of not letting Llew and Waverley down was important too. They felt like another set of parents.
So I always had in my mind that this wasn’t just for me. It was for them, for my parents and for my siblings as well.
Leaving Home for Boarding School
Interviewer: You’re from Port Hedland, on the other side of Australia. What was it like being pulled away from your community, family and friends to attend school on the other side of the country?
Marley Holloway-Clark: Most definitely, it was difficult.
Being away from home and moving around a lot as a kid, because my father was a carpenter, was already a challenge.
Having to leave home and return to the boarding house was difficult.
But it built a lot of resilience and helped me focus on the bigger picture. A lot of students going through this program develop that resilience and mental fortitude.
What Completing the Scholarship Can Lead To
Marley Holloway-Clark: Completing this program meant completing high school and spending six years in the scholarship program.
Since then, I’ve completed an undergraduate degree and a postgraduate degree.
This program showed me there are so many opportunities out there. It boosted my confidence and gave me the drive to go out there, achieve things and say yes to opportunities.
Going Through the Selection Process
As a nine-year-old going through the screening process and being part of the earlier cohorts, it was an interesting experience.
I remember sitting in front of adults and talking about what I wanted to do and the dreams I had. They definitely saw that ambition in me.
At the same time, my parents wanted to understand the support available because they were entrusting their daughter to people they had only recently met.
Seeing the World Differently
That’s Yalari alumna Marley Holloway-Clark. Jenni Walke from Elephant in the Room Consulting says Yalari is, at its heart, an invitation to see the world differently.
“Fundamentally, it’s about providing opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children across Australia to build opportunities and see the world differently.”
Jenni Walke
Staying Connected to Community
Interviewer: They’re essentially asked to leave their community, where community is everything, and enter a very different schooling system. How does that work?
Jenni Walke: The first thing is that it’s an invitation. What Yalari does is invite children to see the world differently.
Students continue to return home throughout the year and stay connected with family through camps, school holidays, gala events and community activities.
Maintaining connection to family, Country and culture is considered critical to student success.
Preparing Students for Boarding School
Moving into something as significant as boarding school can be daunting.
The application and selection process helps prepare both students and families by setting clear expectations around life at boarding school, challenges, support mechanisms and success factors.
A Different Scholarship Process
The application process is more rigorous than many scholarship programs.
Families complete questionnaires and applications, and Yalari interviews students, parents and often members of the broader community.
Rather than relying solely on application scores, the process centres on conversation, trust and readiness.
Creating Opportunity Through Education
Interviewer: It’s not a handout. It’s really asking whether you’re ready to take the opportunity.
Jenni Walke: One hundred per cent.
Yalari recognises that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have historically faced barriers to opportunity through geography, access and circumstance.
The organisation seeks to remove those barriers and create pathways through education, support networks and community.
It’s not about the money. It’s about the support network and the community being created. The money is simply the facilitator.
Supporting Yalari
You can support Yalari by booking a corporate table at the September 11 Gala Dinner at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
For additional information, visit the Yalari website.
About the Contributors
The contributors featured in this discussion include Llew Mullins, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Yalari, Yalari alumna Marley Holloway-Clark, and Jenni Walke from Elephant in the Room Consulting.
