Quarantine Wins Cultural Awareness Awards

Veterinary Officer, Emma Watkins is one of six staff from the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service - AQIS - to be recognised by the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia (FECCA) for her work in building a ‘cohesive and culturally respectful national community’.

Emma works for AQIS’s Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy in Darwin. For the past four years she has been actively involved in managing a program to assist in rebuilding Timor-Leste’s animal health and quarantine services. During this time Emma has learned Bahasa Indonesia so she can work effectively with her Timor- Leste colleagues.

Emma is also fluent in Khmer, from her time in Cambodia with Australian Volunteers Abroad, where she cared for animals ranging from elephants to chickens.

She maintains close links with the East Timorese and Cambodian communities in Darwin and has delivered the quarantine message to these communities via radio and newspaper interviews and multicultural events.

Like Emma, all the FECCA award recipients are proficient in a number of languages and are culturally aware. Those skills are a great advantage for AQIS officers in their work at Australia’s international mail, air and seaports and, in Emma’s case, in her work with the animal health authorities of our neighbouring countries.

This FECCA Award recognizes Emma’s contribution over a number of years in helping to build a mutually respectful and co-operative relationship between AQIS and the East Timorese and Cambodian communities in Australia. 

The award will be presented at Berrimah Farm in the John England Building Conference Room at an afternoon tea at 3pm on Friday 8^th April. 

Mrs Emma Sullivan, Senior Vice President, Multicultural Council of the Northern Territory (a FECCA member organisation) will be in attendance and you are invited to attend the presentation.

Media contact: Kay Carvan DAFF Media +61 2 6272 3232