- Jackie Coates - CEO, Telstra Foundation
Why Digital Women Rangers are redesigning the future of digital skills
International Women’s Day has got me thinking about the time I’ve spent over the past year, with our Digital Women Rangers. They are an incredible group of First Nations women who are redefining what digital capability looks like in remote communities, and who are showing Australia that the best innovation happens when cultural knowledge and technology come together on Country.
This initiative is funded by Telstra Foundation and CSIRO and supported by Indigenous partners and Charles Darwin University (CDU). What makes it so special is that we (the institutions) sit deliberately in the back seat. The real leaders are the “digital boss ladies” who sit side by side with women researchers and guide the governance, shape the decisions, and keep us grounded in what matters for their communities.
Learning digital skills the right way, on Country, with culture at the centre
One of the most exciting parts of this work has seen the codesigning of digital badges that guide and recognise the cultural and technical skills needed to collect and use data to monitor Country. These aren’t dry, classroom-style learning modules. They’re built around real activities negotiating why and how data needs to be collected, learning how to use digital tools (like camera traps and acoustic monitors) to help rangers hear and see changes on Country, caring for data in culturally safe ways and engaging in peer-to-peer learning opportunities with other women rangers so women can learn and build digital skills together
Consent, speaking to Elders, checking cultural protocols, and tracking digital confidence throughout the process are all core components. The process acknowledges that knowledge is held in community, and that any digital skill must be embedded respectfully within that knowledge system.
As one ranger said while identifying birds through acoustic recordings recorded at a local billabong “it’s like a little music they’re singing to.” That line has stayed with me. It’s a reminder that technology becomes meaningful only when it’s connected back to place, story and Country.
A new model to build a program through long-term, place-based partnerships
What we’re building together is more than a digital inclusion and innovation program, it’s a new model of partnership. One where long-term relationships matter, local knowledge is the starting point, and the agenda is shaped by community, not institutions.
Every ranger group in the program nominates two women to the digital boss lady governance committee. Together, they decide what to support and how digital inclusion and innovation experiments will be tried each year, whether that’s public storytelling, trying new digital tools, or co‑designing ethical AI practices. Their leadership ensures the work remains grounded, safe and ambitious.
For us at the Telstra Foundation, this is exactly the kind of long term, locally led, nationally significant partnership we want to back. It reflects our commitment to supporting digital inclusion and innovation in a way that strengthens culture, builds confidence, and respects the knowledge that has been here for tens of thousands of years.
Australia has a cultural advantage
Spending time with the Digital Women Rangers who are building strong data and skills for Healthy Country makes something very clear: Western science and Indigenous science need to work together to build digital transition pathways for a sustainable future. Embedding digital tools into knowledge and stewardship practices is not just innovative; it represents an entirely new way of doing science and achieving our digital and sustainability goals. One where Country offers a nourishing and safe space to guide and embody First Nation ways of learning, offering opportunities to participate on one’s own terms, and to guide who and how data collectors and carers are included and recognised. I live in the city, and the knowledge I’ve witnessed, the way Country “speaks”, and Rangers respond, has opened my eyes to new ways we can nourish digital skills the right way.
Impact requires a long game
What inspires me most is that this is only the beginning. Each year will look different. The digital inclusion and innovation pathways will evolve. The stories about Country using data will deepen. And the women at the heart of this work will continue shaping it in ways that make sense for their Country and communities.
We are here for the long game, and this initiative while improving digital confidence also offers a blueprint for how Australia can harness its cultural advantage, to support a digital transition through responsible AI and digital applications, towards a sustainable nation.
If you’re curious to see a glimpse of this work for yourself, here’s the short film from our visit.
🎥 Watch the video below
