Central Australia Aboriginal Congress (CAAC)
Michelle McMasters is the Healthy Housing Officer at Central Australian Aboriginal Congress (CAAC) based in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. She was born and bred in Alice Springs. Michelle’s family is affiliated with the Ngalakan people from Roper River from her mother’s side and Garawa people from Borroloola NT on her father’s side.
Michelle works closely with six CAAC remote communities doing audits on each and every house checking if there is a need for maintenance and repairs. After each successful audit, every house receives a hygiene pack for welcoming her into their home. Michelle also talks about each product in the pack and explains how they are good for a healthy home. As a Healthy Housing Officer, Michelle has had an impact with many maintenance issues being fixed and feedback from people very happy with the short turn-around time.
Michelle’s commitment to the role is evident in the way she talks about it, as she says often “I love my job”. Michelle was celebrated as a CAAC ‘superstar’ on 11 October 2024, noting how much she enjoys her job and how much she had achieved in the 17 months she had been in the role. At that stage she had already completed 114 remote community housing audits and reports to NT Housing for repairs and maintenance, meaning she had helped 114 families.
As Michelle said: “in my role with Healthy Housing, I visit our community members homes to conduct audits, ensuring that everything is working properly and that there are no maintenance issues. It’s important to know that our mob have access to healthy living conditions”.
Michelle talks about the reward of seeing the happy faces and being thanked when the maintenance issues have been fixed.
In 2021 the Fred Hollows Foundation, Rotary End Trachoma program and Minum Barreng: Indigenous Eye Health Unit at the University of Melbourne jointly funded a new position at Central Australia Aboriginal Congress (CAAC) called the Healthy Housing Officer. This position was established to support CAAC remote communities with housing maintenance to ensure that the health hardware in homes is functioning. In order for families to practice Milpa’s Six Steps to Stop Germs and for kids to have ‘Clean Faces and Strong Eyes’. The communities that Michelle visits are: Amoonguna, Ltyentye Apurte, Imampa, Mutitujulu, Ntaria and Utju.
The role is currently funded by the Fred Hollows Foundation and supported by Minum Barreng: Indigenous Eye Health Unit and Rotary End Trachoma.