Ground Up Community Support Network Ltd (‘Ground Up’) is a charitable organisation established to deliver services to support the wellbeing of Indigenous people across Australia.

GROUND UP was started by two much loved and much respected Gija leaders: Mr. Peters and Ms. Thomas.
Some of the Ground Up members were living and working in the Warmun Community, in the East Kimberley region of W.A. Over a number of years, strong bonds were built with Mr. Peters and Ms. Thomas.

Mr. Peters and Ms. Thomas expressed their need for activities that were designed, controlled and implemented by their community and for their community. In 2009, Ground Up raised money to support bush trips led by Mr. Peters and Ms. Thomas. We funded a car, food and a video camera. This small gesture enabled many bush trips to occur where culture was transferred intergenerationally, mental and social wellbeing was nurtured and families spent time together. Ground Up saw the positive impact of this support and decided to continue to raise money to support endevours that were Indigenous-led.

Ground Up is indebted to both Mr. Peters and Ms. Thomas for their wisdom, insight, generosity and kindness. We miss them irrevocably.

Our activities have always focussed on facilitating the transmission of cultural knowledge and providing positive activities for young people. The projects have a broad range of outcomes – cultural, social and emotional, training and employment.

WHO WE ARE

We started as a group of individuals who are friends of Gija people and Warmun Community through a range of different connections. Inspired by the enormous commitment of Gija people to strengthening their community and improving and enriching the lives of their young people, our Board and members include people from a broad range of backgrounds with a strong interest in Indigenous community development. The group also hopes to honour and carry on the generous contribution Ned Sevil made to his Gija friends and to grassroots healing and culture projects before his death in 2010.

We are also fortunate to have been supported by many volunteers who have committed their time and energy to raising funds for Ground Up's work and supporting our development as an organisation. 

We do not yet have paid staff but engage contractors with relevant skills, experience and relationships to facilitate projects on the ground. For example, this includes Gija people in key roles as project bosses and/or teachers, and supports the training and development of young Gija people where possible. 

In recent years we have expanded to support Indigenous-led and designed projects across Australia.

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Joe Cavanagh has worked as a teacher, academic and researcher in the primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors. He is passionate about place-based education initiatives that genuinely reflect local perspectives, cultures and histories and he enjoys creative writing, sports and being outdoors. 

Anwen Crawford is a Sydney-based writer. She writes arts criticism for The Monthly and has been published in The New Yorker, The Age, Island, Best Australian Essays, and others. She has written about housing affordability and other social justice issues for Overland, Meanjin and Right Now, and has been involved in grassroots activism in Sydney for many years.

Leanne Craze has broad experience in policy development, research, program design and development, evaluation and training in fields including mental health, rural health, disability, family support, alcohol and drugs, emergency health care, housing and homelessness. She has an enthusiasm for and a focus of working with rural communities in relation to social, economic and climate related adverse impacts. In 2011 Leanne received the Australian and New Zealand Exceptional Contribution to Mental Health Services in Australia Award. She has a PhD from the University of New South Wales. Leanne is also very good at cricket. 

Christine Mason is a psychologist with thirty years experience in community development, drug and alcohol services, mental health, child protection and adolescent services. Christine also makes mental health educational films. Her latest film, “Psychosis: a Different Reality”, was made for Mental Health First Aid. In 2009 Christine’s son Ned Sevil, and his partner Anna Crane, were working and living at Warmun. Along with Elders Rusty Peters and Phyllis Thomas, they asked Chris to raise money to buy a car and camera for bush trips in Warmun. The Elders wanted independent funding from a source that would be responsive to their own ideas and projects; Ground Up was established in response to this. Before Ned died in 2010, he asked Christine to continue to support the Gija people, whom he loved.

Tom Sevil (aka Civil) is a mural artist, printmaker, independent publisher and community graphic designer. Tom has done workshops and talks in different communities, galleries and festivals about place-making through murals and the political nature of street art - including 3 weeks of mural painting with the community in Warmun in 2015. Tom’s connection with the Warmun community is through his brother, who lived and worked in Warmun, and who died from cancer in 2010.  Tom and Ned worked closely together and exhibited together in four art exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Armidale and Alice Springs. He lives in Melbourne with his partner Lou Smith and their son Freddy. To see more of Tom's work go to www.tomcivil.com and www.civilprints.com.

Lou Smith is a poet, independent scholar, editor and proofreader. She has edited publications for Warmun Art Centre and Breakdown Press and is currently the proofreader for contemporary art publication un Magazine. Lou’s writing has appeared in various Australian and international journals and anthologies including The Lifted Brow, Journal of Women’s History, Caribbean Quarterly, Overland and Wasafiri, and her first collection of poetry riversalt was published by Flying Islands Books in 2015. Lou holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne in Creative Writing. She has taught as a sessional teacher and guest lecturer for Creative Writing students at tertiary level and facilitated creative writing workshops for secondary students . Lou has been involved in community activism and campaigns for social justice and human rights for over twenty years. www.lousmith.net

Kati Watson has had a strong association with the Warmun community since 1997 and is one of the founding members of Ground Up. She has been involved since its inception as a small group of friends with connections to Warmun and a desire to help make positive changes at a grass roots level. She has been the driving force behind much of the fundraising activity of the organisation. Kati was trained as a doctor at the University of Sydney, and now works as a ceramicist.

Shaun Watson PhD FRACP is a consultant neurologist with a practice in Blacktown and at The Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney. He has been involved with Ground Up since it's inception and has had a connection with the Warmun community since 1997.