The generosity and creativity of students from The Glennie School, Toowoomba Grammar School, SCOTS PGC College and John Paul College were on full display at this year’s Pay It Forward Art Exhibition, at The Lighthouse Toowoomba.

Yalari’s Founder Waverley teaches students and alumni ‘If you can be anything in life, be kind and humble’. This kindness is expressed through the “Pay it Forward’ initiative where the Year 10 cohort create ideas and projects, such as the art exhibition, to raise funds so another student can receive a Yalari scholarship. Thanks to the generous support of everyone who purchased artwork or made a contribution, over $3000 was raised.

The exhibition showcased a diverse collection of artworks created by students and Yalari alumni, highlighting not only their artistic talents but also their commitment to supporting the next generation of young Indigenous leaders.

Painting a path between two worlds

One of the artworks featured in this year’s exhibition was created by Yalari student Kayleigh, a proud Gomeroi woman from Moree. Produced in collaboration with her father Jamie, a Yalari alumnus from the Class of 2011, Kayleigh’s artwork tells the story of family, culture, and the journey of walking confidently in two worlds. Together, they have captured their shared experience of leaving home to attend boarding school while staying connected to culture and identity.

My name is Kayleigh, and I am a proud Gomeroi Yinarr from Moree. I created this artwork alongside my Dad. It tells the story of our journey from leaving home to attending boarding school, while staying connected to our culture and identity.

The U-shaped symbols in the left corner represent my Dad, Mum, and little sister, who I love living with at home. They are my strongest support system. The Yurrandali (Goanna) is our family totem. It represents our journey from our home in Moree to the larger setting of boarding school. The larger Yurrandali represents my Dad, who is guiding me on this journey. He completed his own Yalari journey in 2011, and now is helping me begin mine.

In the top right corner, my symbol is surrounded by many others. These represent the new people who support me, including Yalari, my teachers, friends, and Student Support Officers (SSOs).

The image in the bottom right shows my Dad and me performing the traditional Gomeroi dance, Dhinawan Yilugi. This dance is deeply significant and reflects our strong connection to culture.

In the top left corner, my Dad and I are shown wearing our school uniforms. This highlights how we move between two different worlds, our cultural world and our school world, and learn to walk confidently in both.

The Dhinawan (Emu) above our heads represents that our culture will always be with us. It reminds us that our connection to culture is a lifelong part of who we are and our identity.

A special thank you to The Lighthouse Toowoomba for generously providing the exhibition space and helping create a welcoming setting for the event. We also extend our gratitude to Geneene Meijer for her moving Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony, accompanied by Yalari and SCOTS PGC College student Taygen on didgeridoo.

The success of the exhibition would not have been possible without the support of students and their families, alumni, our four partner schools, volunteers, and community members, including Channel 7 Toowoomba who featured our staff and volunteers on the day. Every artwork purchased and every contribution made is set to support a future Yalari student.

NAIDOC Week 2026 marked an important milestone: 50 years of recognising, celebrating and amplifying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, achievements, cultures and leadership.

At Yalari’s NAIDOC Week Tea & Yarns, those values were made real through the stories of alumni who have built meaningful careers, given back to their communities and opened doors for others.

Held at RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast and streamed nationally to an audience of over 300 homes, workplaces and morning team functions on YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, the event brought together Yalari alumni Curtley Oakley, Rachyl Cameron, Kiirra Bligh and MC Marley Holloway-Clarke, who reflected on their journeys from boarding school students to professionals, mentors, and community leaders.

In stories of leaving home, growing in confidence, building lifelong connections and embracing new opportunities, one message emerged clearly: education can change the course of a life, but it is people, relationships, and community that help make that change possible.

Leadership starts with connection

Many of the strongest memories shared during the morning came from alumni’s first days with Yalari.

For many, that meant arriving at orientation camp as Year 7 students, preparing to leave home and begin a secondary schooling opportunity that wasn’t available in their local community. It was often the first time they had met other Yalari students from across Australia who were about to embark on the same journey.

Rachyl remembers finding a sense of belonging almost immediately.

“From the very start there has always been a sense of family.”

That feeling was echoed across the panel. While schools, careers, and locations have changed over the years, the relationships formed during those early experiences continue today.

Alumni spoke about attending each other’s weddings, helping family members find accommodation interstate, and reconnecting at events across the country. As Curtley reflected:

“I didn’t really know what I was signing up for in a way, but instantly feeling that connection and feeling that support – that it’s going to be hard, but Yalari is there.”

Pictured: Alumni Kiirra Bligh and Marley Holloway-Clarke with Yalari Managing Director Llew Mullins

The advice that continues to shape a generation

One idea came up again and again throughout the morning: make the most of the opportunities in front of you. As Curtley put it:

“Yalari opens the door to opportunity, but we’ve got to go out and take it.”

For the alumni, that meant saying yes to boarding school, university, new careers, and experiences that often felt uncertain at the time.

Looking back, many of those decisions became turning points. Rachyl reflected on the role Yalari has played in her own journey:

“Yalari opened the door for us. And now we all, in turn, are opening that door up for other young people.”

It’s a reminder that opportunity doesn’t end with the individual. As students become graduates, professionals and leaders, they’re often creating pathways for the next generation too.

From scholarship students to community leaders

For supporters new to Yalari, the panel offered a glimpse of something not often captured in annual reports or statistics: what happens in the years after graduation.

Today, Yalari alumni are working across education, business, health, government, community services, and advocacy. Some have started businesses. Others are raising families, studying at university or supporting the next generation of students coming through the program.

The three alumni on stage reflected just a small part of that growing network.

Curtley now works in education and is training to become a teacher. Rachyl advocates for better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families through the community-controlled sector. Kiirra has built a career in business and property.

Their paths are different, but each spoke about using their experiences to create opportunities for others.

The four alumni on stage represented just a small part of a growing network of more than 630 Yalari graduates. Their stories were different, but each reflected on the opportunities, relationships, and experiences that continue to shape their lives long after leaving school.

Special thanks to our corporate partner RACV and the alumni panel

50 Years of Deadly – and the next chapter

The 2026 NAIDOC theme, 50 Years of Deadly, celebrates the people, communities, and leaders who have carried NAIDOC forward over five decades, while looking to the generations who will shape what comes next.

That theme surfaced throughout the Tea & Yarns conversation.

The alumni spoke about education not simply as a pathway to opportunity, but as a way to remain connected to culture, community, and identity while pursuing their own ambitions. As Curtley reflected:

“You do it with pride. You do it black. You do it deadly.”

For Kiirra, the impact reaches well beyond the individual student.

“It’s not just us you’re making changes to. It’s our family, friends and communities.”

Across education, business, advocacy, and community leadership, the stories shared throughout the morning offered a glimpse of what can happen when young people are given the opportunity to pursue their own path and then create opportunities for others along the way.

As NAIDOC Week celebrated community strength, leadership, and self-determination, the conversation served as a reminder that the next chapter is shaped not only by those who came before us, but by the young people stepping forward today.

Yalari Alumna Kayla Baker-Peris (Class of 2018, Kambala School) recently shared her experience as a New Colombo Plan Scholar studying in Japan. Originally published by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Kayla reflects on cultural connection, intercultural learning, and the opportunities that come from stepping beyond your comfort zone.

Building bridges between Australia and Japan with the New Colombo Plan Scholarship Program

Kayla Baker-Peris is spending a year in Gifu, Japan as part of the New Colombo Plan Scholarship Program. As a proud Yolngu Yawuru-Kidja woman, she’s taking her Indigenous culture and heritage with her.

For Indigenous student Kayla Baker-Peris, arriving in Japan as a New Colombo Plan scholar was the first time she’d ever truly been a visitor to someone else’s land. In Australia, her deep connection to Country means she’s always at home no matter where she goes.

“In Australia, as an Indigenous person, you are of the land. You are one with the space; you’re connected to it culturally,” says Kayla, who is studying the Bachelor of Communication (Digital and Social Media) Bachelor of International Studies at UTS.

In Japan, I’m a fish out of water. I don’t blend in. I speak some language, but not enough to say that I’m fluent. There are different cultural norms, different societal rules that you need to follow.”

Sharing stories of Indigenous Australia

In addition to receiving a New Colombo Plan scholarship, Kayla was also named the program’s 2026 First Nations Fellow. It’s a role that will leverage her leadership skills to promote Indigenous participation in the New Colombo Plan Scholarship Program and to share Australian Indigenous culture and history with others.

In Japan, that work has already begun: Kayla says that many students she’s spoken with are unaware of Australia’s Indigenous peoples and the colonial history that continues to impact them today.

“A lot of the people I’ve met were expecting the Australian students to be blonde-haired, blue-eyed white people,” she says.

“There are three UTS students here. One is Korean, the other is Vietnamese, and then there’s me. I’ve had that pleasure of getting to explain my history and my culture to them, which I think is really valuable.”

Born in Darwin and schooled in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Kayla has spent her life living between cultures. In Japan, she’s more than comfortable initiating conversations about Indigenous history and culture as part of her commitment to building cross-cultural understanding.

“My whole life experience has pretty much boiled down to intercultural communication and intersectionality. The New Colombo Plan program touches on that intersectionality and creates opportunities to communicate with people from other backgrounds,” she says.

“I always want to know about other people, about their stories, their culture, their background. I’m always curious about those things, so it just made sense to me that I would take that curiosity with me.”

Leading with Opportunity

The university study is just the first step of Kayla’s New Colombo Plan experience. Later in the year, she’ll start making plans to complete a professional internship, which is one of the core requirements of the program.

While she’s yet to finalise her placement, she’s been putting out her feelers to companies like Qantas and Jetstar. Working for a travel or transport business would make perfect sense, both in terms of the digital and social medial marketing skills she wants to build and as an opportunity to leverage her growing fluency in Japanese language and culture.

“If I were to do an internship in a travel or transport marketing team, I would be marketing Japan to the rest of the world or Australia to Japan,” she says.

“That’s a really nice connection. I’d be tapping into both my skillsets, using my experience from both UTS and Gifu to connect people to different destinations.”

She also wants to inspire other Indigenous students at UTS to experience the world beyond the place where they belong. This work is central to her role as a First Nations Fellow, and it also builds on her experience as an Indigenous ambassador at Jumbunna where she encourages her peers to engage with academic, cultural and international opportunities at UTS.

The New Colombo Plan Scholarship Program is one experience she doesn’t want them to miss.

“The doors that it’s opened for me already are beyond what I ever believed I would have for myself,” she says.

“Being a young Indigenous person in Australia, there are a lot of opportunities in the world, and we should always grab them with both hands. My whole life experience has pretty much boiled down to intercultural communication and intersectionality. The New Colombo Plan program touches on that intersectionality and creates opportunities to communicate with people from other backgrounds.”

Jemmah Ronsen grew up on Thursday Island watching helicopters fly. She knew what they carried – neighbours from the outer islands, families in emergencies, and people needing to reach the mainland. On a remote island, these aircraft are a lifeline.

Jemmah left the Torres Strait Islands in 2016 as a Yalari scholar, attending St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School in Brisbane before graduating from The Glennie School in Toowoomba. After a period as a Parks and Wildlife Officer in Cairns, a chance conversation with a Babcock pilot staying at her Nan’s Airbnb redirected her path back to aviation.

After interviewing with the team, she knew her direction.

“I can see myself here,” she says. “This is where I want to be.”

“It’s a privilege. Especially being from the community and then giving back. I know how much these resources are needed.”

By year five, Jemmah aims to be a licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, working in and for her own community.

Yalari’s long-standing partnership with Babcock shows how a shared commitment to education can create lasting change. The partnership reflects a whole-community approach, supporting young Indigenous students to pursue their academic goals, grow into future leaders, and access opportunities that strengthen outcomes for their families and communities.

“We are incredibly proud of Jemmah. Her story is a powerful example of hard work, determination and the real impact our work has in the communities we serve. Babcock is proud to partner with Yalari to support young people like Jemmah, as we work together toward our shared goal of creating lasting, positive change in the communities in which we live and work.” ~Babcock Australasia Acting CEO Leah Grantham.