Taronga Zoo's nurturing leadership

I recently had the opportunity to hear the Sydney Taronga Zoo’s unassuming CEO, Cameron Kerr, speak at a banquet dinner organized at the Zoo. Mr. Kerr; an excellent speaker, held the audience spellbound as he told us about the various sustainability and community initiatives of the Zoo. What particularly stood out (and was deeply moving) is the unusual yet highly effective community outreach program of Taronga Zoo for Aboriginal children. The program called the Burbangana Program (take my hand and help me up, in the indigenous language Dharug) is aimed at disadvantaged Aboriginal children around the ages of 11-17, already in the official out of home care system in Australia. These children are considered highly disadvantaged because of their history of serious abuse and neglect, and many have disabilities which exclude them from a formal education system.

As part of the Burbangana program, these children don the official zoo uniform (the only outsiders given this privilege) and are paired with Aboriginal mentors to care for the animals in the zoo.  Mr. Kerr mentioned that slowly but surely the children overcome their fear and suspicion, and come to trust their mentors and others at the Zoo. For example, it was common for valuables like IPads, mobile phones etc to disappear when the children first come in, but they would start reappearing in a while. 

Who would ever think that a Zoo could engage in such a significant endeavor? Yet, what better way to raise the self-esteem and trust of these children than making them care for animals? At the beginning of the banquet animal handlers of the Zoo allowed us the opportunity to observe many animals at close range. None of these animals were of the typical cute and cuddly category – but included a lizard, python, turtle and a porcupine. Yet, the sight of these animals quietly sitting in the trusted hands of their handlers, allowing noisy strangers to touch and flash photograph them, brought out the deepest sense of love and concern for them. One could understand how therapeutic caring for animals would be for the Aboriginal children in the program. The Burbangana Program was one of the only seven winners of the Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards in 2011.

Another aspect that stood out was the disregard for the need to be politically correct. The program is clearly called “help me”.  Another similar program of the Zoo, Walanmarra, translates as “make me strong now”.  We are only too familiar with the meaningless jargon rampant in organizations –participative leadership, empowerment, calling customers clients, calling employees partners – veneers that crumble at the slightest touch. Taronga Zoo with its bold commitment to “help” is clearly guided by its values shorn of any adornment. It is this focus that makes its Burbangana program a trail blazer for innovative leadership.