An Aboriginal Initiative Needed

Diane accepted the challenge and asked David Wynne to work alongside her as a co-chair of the initiative. Over the next number of years, the initiative was moderately successful. More from the standpoint of educating HRMAM members about Aboriginal inclusion, but not in attracting Aboriginal individuals and communities to become involved in HRMAM. The main issue identified was the unique culture and traditions within the communities. This meant that traditional HR processes and practices would not necessarily work. Networking, which was one of the foundations of the initiative, did not work because non-aboriginal Human Resource practitioners did not fully understand the culture. Neither could they provide appropriate counsel or expertise to assist the communities to grow their Human Resource function. A second significant issue was many of the Aboriginal communities did not have a Human Resource department or practitioner in place. As a result, they did not understand or appreciate the need for Human Resources.