Work Integrated Learning with ACPIR: Rachael Murray
Master of International Development student Rachael Murray enjoyed a “sugar-rush of learning” and discovered new career possibilities when she completed an internship with ACPIR as part of her UniSC studies.
Rachael shares photos and insights from her experience in the Pacific.
Warm welcome to ACPIR
"You may not have heard of ACPIR - and I hadn’t, until they offered to take me on as intern via their in-country partners in Fiji. The Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research (ACPIR) is a multidisciplinary centre collaborating with Pacific peoples on a host of sustainability projects in diverse areas from storytelling, to agriculture and nutrition.
ACPIR academics, members and students are involved in projects such as developing high-quality pearl production, sea cucumber genetics, nutrition literacy, sustainable tourism and climate change adaptation in the Pacific."
Sweet stakeholders for sustainability
"I was introduced to one of the centre’s collaborators, the owner of a small-scale agrifarm and chocolate factory, KokoMana, in Savusavu, Fiji. ACPIR's Dr Richard Markham agreed to be my in-country host, with support from the team at KokoMana and other ecotourism businesses who form part of the network of sustainable tourism providers in the country."
WIL in Fiji
"My internship offered in-country experience and the opportunity to meet some of ACPIR’s partners and learn about the work they do. In collaboration with the centre and Dr Markham, we also designed a more specific project which would involve looking at perceptions of village ecotourism development and interviewing village members about their participation in the Duavata Conservation Leadership Programme."
Community perceptions
"Part of my project involved a homestay in the traditional village of Vusaratu, a picturesque community which sits beneath rolling hills, along the Natewa Bay. Vusaratu is home to about 40 families who have lived in the village for generations."
Livelihoods and lifestyle
"It was fascinating to see how these people build their lives with the natural resources around them, especially the women who were always working and making everything. From natural dye from mangroves, to mats and bags woven with voi voi, the leaves of the Pandanus trees."
"I’ve spent a lot of my time at different universities feeling like the student number that sits at the top of my assignments, but this opportunity, and working with ACPIR- a centre doing world-class research and projects, learning from people who are top of their field, was an unexpectedly confidence-building and career-propelling culmination of my Masters program.
This internship in Fiji led me to reconsider ideas about what a career in international development might look like, and consider the opportunities closer to home."
