Coaltion of Peaks
First Peoples representative body — Closing the Gap policy work
The challenge
Coalition of Peaks is made up of over 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations, partnering with Australian governments on Closing the Gap, one of the most significant policy frameworks in the country for improving outcomes for First Nations people.
Their existing site had grown organically over time and showed it. The content was substantial but the structure hadn't kept pace with the organisation's growth. It was hard to navigate, hard to maintain, and hard to explain to a broad range of audiences: community members, government partners, media, researchers, and the member organisations themselves. The migration also needed to be handled with care. This wasn't a rebrand; it was a platform transition for an organisation with significant cultural authority.
My role
Content audit and strategy, information architecture, navigation restructure, platform migration from WordPress, UX and design, custom development, content load and optimisation. Ongoing project page development.
What changed
The project began with a thorough content audit, mapping what existed, what was duplicated, what was buried, and what was missing. The new architecture was built around two primary user needs: understanding what Coalition of Peaks stands for, and accessing the resources and updates that matter to communities and governments engaging with the Closing the Gap work.
The substantial content library, including policy documents, communiqués, research, and news, was reorganised into a resource portal that makes materials findable without requiring users to know in advance what they're looking for. Custom language and video recordings were integrated with care, reflecting the cultural protocols of the member organisations.
Since launch, the relationship has continued as an active working partnership. Coalition of Peaks regularly commissions new project pages for major national initiatives: the Independent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-Led Review of Closing the Gap, the First Nations Economic Partnership, sector capability analysis of Aboriginal Community Controlled Registered Training Organisations, and the establishment of a National Peak Body to address Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence. Each requires its own content architecture, navigation structure, embedded surveys and engagement forms, and capacity for ongoing updates as work progresses.
The outcome
A platform that has grown with one of Australia's most significant First Peoples policy organisations over multiple years.
Coalition of Peaks continues to use the site as its primary communication channel for national Closing the Gap work, with an expanding library of project pages that together document some of the most consequential First Nations policy and advocacy work in the country.
