For those intersted in the geography of the Tiwi Islands, the land council website link below has 22 maps, from land ownership to dugong and seagrass distribution: http://www.tiwilandcouncil.net.au/Land/Atlas/Atlas.htm .

Today Jacko, the abc Bush Cook (see http://www.abc.net.au/message/tv/ms/s548689.htm) walked us through the acquisition and preparation of bush tucker, as it applies to Indigenous communities and Indigenous health in the Northern Territory. This was within a broader PD focus on nutrition and health. Tiwi College is a five day a week residential college and nutrition is a key element of the school culture. This is no easy aspect, since all the food must first make its way to Darwin (fruit and vegetables from Brisbane; meat from Alice Springs) then to Melville by barge, then to Pickertaramoor on a refrigerated truck. The handling and preparation of food within a well-balanced diet, including bush tucker, is also key element of the school curriculum.

The staff and their families living in the college will order in food once a week. Chris and Jeff, the hospitality coordinators, have done an amazing job managing the logistics of feeding 170 people in a remote part of this island! And I imagine that Nicole, myself and the kids will soon have a new appreciation of the Stephen Street corner shop a mere 200 meters from home down Fourth Ave in Harristown. (Run out of milk love? Give me a sec and I'll jump in the Troop Carrier down to the barge at Pirlangimpi and head over to Darwin. Be back in about 2 days...)

I am appreciating more and more the centrality of education, especially literacy, for supporting and revitalising individual and community wellbeing in communities, and indigenous communities in particular. Studies undertaken by the Fred Hollows foundation have found that for every year of educaton given to an indigenous girl, four years will be added to the life expectancy of her baby. As for literacy, as Noel Pearson puts it, 'From literacy everything else follows. If we are not getting reading right, then children will struggle with underachievement'.