Interview with Dustin McClung, Founder of GADALI
ADAPTOVATE interviews Dustin McClung, Founder of GADALI
ADAPTOVATE sat down with Dustin McClung, founder of GADALI, to chat about his vision for the future.
GADALI is a Technology Consulting firm in Australia, supporting and elevating the indigenous community and society as a whole.
ADAPTOVATE have formed an alliance with GADALI, most recently being successful in NSW Government in AI initative. (read press release here)
Can you share with us the story behind the founding of GADALI and why you are pursuing an Indigenous Systems Integration company?
Certainly, my mob is from Ngunawal although my family moved to Gundungurra country before I was born. When I finished school, I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time and pursue opportunities and pathways not afforded to all people. As I progressed through my education and later my corporate career, I felt extremely privileged and lucky to have these opportunities in front of me. I have recently found myself at a point where I wanted to give back and help provide clearer pathways to allow more people to pursue a path that I often felt I was forging on my own when I was younger.
There are no shortcuts, it is hard work, and I believe in the adage “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” This is where the name GADALI comes from – it means “to hunt” and we are in the business of teaching how to hunt in this modern day. So why a First Nations systems integrator?
Three reasons for pursuing a First Nations systems integrator are:
Firstly, First Nations people are highly underrepresented in the ICT sector. Extrapolating ABS data from the last census would place the First Nations ICT workforce at around 6-7000 people nationwide, less than 1% of the total.
Secondly, Supply Nation has reported that every dollar of revenue generated by an indigenous-owned business delivers an average economic and social return of $4.41. This is a fantastic way for a company like GADALI to create win-win situations for customers, partners and the wider economy.
Thirdly, I believe that First Nations people are an underutilised resource in this country. First Nations peoples have always conveyed their history, knowledge, and spiritual teachings through storytelling and oral traditions, and we are at a juncture in the technology revolution where the next generation of tech professionals will require a mix of technical and people skills with the number one requirement being communication skills.
NAIDOC week is a significant event that celebrates the history, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. How does GADALI contribute to this celebration?
GADALI subscribes to the process of learning from the past, celebrating the present, and looking toward the future with hope to make tomorrow better than today. We cannot change the past, but we can write our own future. The acceptance of First Nations people is gathering momentum, and there is great community support between indigenous businesses, accessing the appropriate levers to contribute to the Australian economy and realise the economic and social gains for everyone.
GADALI is also working with partners (corporate, government and educational) to help provide technology solutions that will assist in meeting targets in the Closing the Gap agreement. We are utilising our professional and personal contacts to assist in this process, as this is no trivial undertaking, but an extremely worthwhile endeavour for all Australians with far reaching effects nationally and internationally. NAIDOC week is a fantastic initiative to remind everyone why this is a such a worthwhile cause, what it means to be part of this land, and that we have a shared responsibility to look after and care for the lands and people on it.
What are some of the unique challenges and opportunities that GADALI faces as an Indigenous Systems Integration company?
There are many challenges that we can identify. The underrepresentation of First Nations people in the ICT sector makes it difficult to find enough trained people in the areas for the contracts that are available. This plays well to our company goal of making a long-term human capital investment whereby we partner with companies with subject matter experts to provide our customers with a premium service offering, while embedding a First Nations person to learn on the job with experts in their field with a view to train, and mentor a workforce that will become the preferred SI company in Australia.
Another challenge is that ICT is not typically a chosen vocation for First Nations people. We are working with educational institutions and corporate partners like Microsoft to help change this, utilising the advancements in no code/low code tools and building targeted educational platforms to assist in the learning process.
A further, significant challenge is providing more than just a spot fix. Governments come and go, and policies change, so we must build a self-sufficient, profitable business that can stand on its own and provide a complete pathway from education, to training and then through to career, closing the loop by utilising the employees' skills to train new recruits and build further on Gadali’s human capital goals.
Could you share some of the projects or initiatives that GADALI is currently working on that you’re most excited about?
GADALI has been selected as the systems integrator in a consortium with Adaptovate and EncompaaS to implement an AI solution for development applications with the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure. This solution will aid in reducing the development application processing time to assist in the current housing market challenges. This is a very exciting project with great possibilities for further engagements and extending the AI footprint across more departments, as well as taking the solution deeper to help councils spend less time on administrative tasks and focus more on the communities they support.
Looking ahead, what are GADALI’s plans in terms of growth, innovation, and its continued commitment to Indigenous communities?
With continued support from government and corporate partners, GADALI will become the systems integrator of choice for any procurement officer, with an exponential growth of employees expected, delivering premium technology solutions for the business requirements of today and tomorrow.
We believe that given the right environment, tools and mentoring we can build a local brand in our metropolitan districts that will extend to regional and remote areas delivering an onshore technology base to compete with current offshore solutions that will provide data sovereignty, economic benefits and social advantages to all Australians.
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