When VAN founder Charles Pakana first met Sophie Kahl, she was a collections officer at the Bundoora Homestead, an art gallery belonging to the City of Darebin in Melbourne’s North-East.

They quickly became great friends and Sophie very soon started volunteering with VAN, helping out with grant applications, relationship building and even researching.

In mid-2023, when Sophie decided to leave her full-time employment with Darebin Council, she continued to volunteer with VAN until coming on board as a contractor, taking on the role of Special Projects Manager.

Her first significant project was working with one of our most strategic and important partners, Reconciliation Victoria, on the launch of the VAN Leader Tapes series 1.

The incredible success of that event, along with her continued excellence in building strong relationships between VAN and local government authorities, Members of Parliament support staff, funding bodies and other organisations made it a no-brainer for Charles to ask her to take over partnership management.

In commenting on that additional role, Charles said: “Everyone I speak to tells me how much they love working with Sophie. It really seems that regardless of how much pressure she’s under, everything and anything is simply a case of ‘no problems’.”

Please contact Sophie at sophie@vicaboriginalnews.com.au directly for:

• Booking Charles for speaking, MC and panel moderation work
• Sponsoring Victorian Aboriginal News projects, such as the Leader Tapes and VAN Talks podcast episodes
• Organising media interviews with Charles
• Re-publishing of Victorian Aboriginal News original content