Shanaylah Edgar

Born and raised in Broome, 19 year old Shanaylah remembers her childhood with her grandparents in the bush, where they went hunting for Goanna. She attended Broome Primary School and Broome Senior High School, before leaving school in year 10. Shanaylah completed her Certificate II and III in Retail through a business training company from Adelaide, and worked at Pearlers Bar for three months to gain hands on practical experience as a waitress.

Despite enjoying her role, personal family circumstances resulted in Shanaylah moving to Fitzroy Crossing to work at Marraworraworra Aboriginal Corporation as a receptionist. Her role involved paying invoices, developing marketing material such as brochures, and servicing people looking for employment in the community 

I loved having a lot of responsibility in this role. I was guiding four people to do their job, and they looked up to me. It got stressful at times, but I made sure I had my personal space when I needed it.

Shanaylah Edgar

Through mutual networks at Nirrumbuk, Shanaylah secured an 18 month Traineeship with Centacare in Broome, an organisation aimed towards providing emergency relief, mental health support and homeless outreach services to the community.

Working at Centacare is accelerating Shanaylah’s learning by allowing her to service customers that are facing challenging circumstances such as reintegration into the community. Her daily duties involve providing food and clothing vouchers, responding to email enquiries, and ensuring all ad-hoc administrative tasks are completed.

Shanaylah is passionate about indigenous youth involvement in the community, and is hoping her role can inspire others to pursue their dream jobs.

Her advice to young people is:

Don’t give up! Keep trying your best, you will get somewhere.

Shanaylah Edgar