When she was in her early 20s, neither Saudi Arabia nor the Arab world held any interest for the young Australian Fiona Hill. Then, however, in the early 1980s, her sister married an Australian-Indonesian engineer and moved to Abu Dhabi and Fiona decided to visit.
“I was traveling in Europe after university and my father suggested that I visit my sister. I had family issues on my mind on the way to Abu Dhabi so I wasn’t expecting anything,” said Fiona Hill, now executive officer of the Australia-Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry and owner of Almanar Consultancy which promotes Australian and Arab relations.
“It was a revelation going to Abu Dhabi,” she said. When Fiona went back to Australia, she enrolled herself in the University of Melbourne and majored in Middle Eastern Studies. She learned about the Middle East before and after the coming of Islam. She is now a fluent Arabic speaker who commonly uses the phrase insha’Allah (God willing) and Alhamdulillah (Thanks be to God).
Today, the work of Almanar Consultancy is like a lighthouse, particularly for Australians and also increasingly for Saudis.
“That’s the premise of Almanar and that’s what I do,” said Fiona. “I work as an anthropologist with cultural aspects encompassing all elements of culture which include economic, social and gender issues with their connections,” she added.
Almanar has a very broad platform with its clients. For example, Fiona has worked with corporate social responsibility, with oil and gas companies operating in Libya and with an entrepreneur who was creating environmental education software for children.
At an educational level, Fiona is doing a considerable amount of work with Australian universities. They are increasingly inviting her to talk to their staff and administration about Saudi students who are coming to the country on the King Abdullah Scholarship Program. The students, who are going to Australia in large numbers, pose new problems for the universities.
“Universities in Australia are used to having Muslim students but they’re not used to having Muslim students from the Middle East. And in terms of teaching and even administration, the Gulf Arab poses new problems. Also, what I have discovered is that many Australians unconsciously carry incorrect preconceptions about Muslims from the Middle East. Often these preconceptions are antagonistic,” said Fiona.
She noticed that many of the Saudi scholarship holders come to Australia with very little English and often with no experience of having traveled outside the Kingdom.
“So they’re in very high stress situations and nobody under stress behaves their best. Thus my role is to explain that to people,” she said.
Fiona came to Jeddah in November 2008 and is staying until the end of February of this year. The Australian government gave her an Endeavor Executive Award. The award allows Fiona to travel and represent Australia in Jeddah for four months working closely with the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Then I will go back to Australia to create some movement in the relationship. There is no mandate outcome for this experience, just my own personal experience that I will explain to the government,” she said.
She is also working with new Saudi recruits as part of the Saudization program in order to create training programs for them that fast track them into the workplace. “An Australian colleague and I are working with one organization in Jeddah, and hopefully others, to create training programs for Saudis,” she added.
“Women in Australia have contacted me since I’ve been here. I don’t know them and they are from all over Australia, working in aviation, live sheep export, anything. They said that they knew there was a market in Saudi Arabia, but they couldn’t get visas. That shows they’re not frightened of this place,” said Fiona.
Fiona expressed her satisfaction at the ease of doing business in the Kingdom, which is a relatively new and very positive development. The changes are significant for Australians who haven’t thought about Saudi Arabia because of the difficulties of getting visas and doing business in the country.
“It’s a great experience and honor to be here. My government feels very pleased at having sent a woman to Saudi Arabia. I think it was the right move at the right time and I feel there’s much more to be done,” said Fiona.
