40.9% of First Nations people are digitally excluded. The fix starts in the family home.

I just ran a full-day workshop with Werribee school students – worked through a Good Things Australia Digital Mentors Workshop in the First Nations Innovation Hub (virtual work space). The flow was deliberate: welcome desk, pre-check, workbook, role-play, Digital Help Plan, student links, reflection, follow-up. The training (Good Things Australia) paired basic digital skills with the qualities that matter: patient, kind, empathetic, flexible.

By the end, those students were a bit better prepared to help family, Elders and community members with the digital tasks Australian institutions now assume everyone can already do.

The 2025 Australian Digital Inclusion Index shows 40.9% of First Nations people are digitally excluded. For Australians aged 75 and over, the rate is 66.5%. The national First Nations gap is 10.5 points, widening to 22.8 in very remote areas.

“Digital first” service design assumes everyone has access, affordability and the ability to take part. Many do not. The gap gets paid for in unpaid labour, often by women and young people.

One workshop is not a program. But it is practical infrastructure – the kind bigger systems keep failing to deliver. Schools that want to run a Digital Mentors workshop with Barayamal and the First Nations Innovation Hub can get in contact.

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Massive thank you to Darcy Warneke, Werribee Secondary College and their awesome students / future leaders!