On Australia Day last Saturday we were at TIO Stadium to see the Tiwi Bombers take first place on the NTFL ladder! Not bad considering this is their first full year in the comp. I had the guitar and our bombers cheer squad pumped out such classics as a re-worked Men-At-Work downunder - 'come from the land of Tiwi', and 'swing low the aeroplane' (after the tiwi star 'the aeroplane' who kicked five goals). It got us on TV. I expect that if my All Black allegiance gets out, I will be kindly asked to watch the finals on TV from home lest the bombers collapse in the grandfinal.
Alex started Katherine School of the Air two days ago and is going strong. Nicole is doing a mighty job as his home tutor! The girls will start Tiwi College primary school next Tuesday, here at the Free Spirit until we get to the island in a few weeks. Very exciting. This will be Yentle's first year of school!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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'.
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'.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
On the weekend Brett repented and was absolved for a lifetime of reference to that 'sad little provincial code'. No greater love is there than to get in the suppoters gear and go nuts for the home side. (Boycie - you may have read in the Copland Diary of my recent Melville Island Richmond Tiger Epiphany - Like a Tiger). Here are the mighty and victorious Tiwi Bombers:
Though the spirit is willing, on Sunday night there was backsliding from the new faith in the form of the Rugby Hottest 7's finals. The Fijian South Sea Drifters defeated the Aussie Spirit to win the comp. The Groote Eylandt Chooks took out all others in the haka stakes with a unique chicken dance haka involving some rolling on the ground and interesting egg-laying manoeuvres.
Though the spirit is willing, on Sunday night there was backsliding from the new faith in the form of the Rugby Hottest 7's finals. The Fijian South Sea Drifters defeated the Aussie Spirit to win the comp. The Groote Eylandt Chooks took out all others in the haka stakes with a unique chicken dance haka involving some rolling on the ground and interesting egg-laying manoeuvres.Friday, January 18, 2008
Two Days on Melville Island
Mark and I and the other teachers (six in all) spent Thursday and Friday on the Tiwi Islands. We flew into Tiwi College at Pickertaramoor around 9 am and then spent the day visiting the communities, first Nguiu on Bathurst Island and then up to Milikapati on Melville. How do you sum it up in a blog? It is the most amazing thing I have ever seen.
Here's the short version:
Thursday 9 am in a small twin engine plane
Landed at Pickertaramoor
Friday and back through the forest plantation
To Three Ways then to Pickertaramoor with Tiwi youth
And their parents and leaders of the Tiwi Land Council.
This is actually happening and here are the 6 Family Group houses
Where 12 students will live in each huse five days a week.
Here's the short version:
Thursday 9 am in a small twin engine plane
Landed at Pickertaramoor
Into Tiwi College bus and to the college
Then to Three Ways, where main the roads meet
Then to Three Ways, where main the roads meet
Where the plaque errected last year by the govenor general reads
'The hopes of Tiwi generations have
Passed along these roads seeking
The vision of Tiwi leaders
Through three ways to the future'.
'The hopes of Tiwi generations have
Passed along these roads seeking
The vision of Tiwi leaders
Through three ways to the future'.
From Three Ways on the new Tiwi bus service
Packed with children and adults
To the barge landing near Paru
Then to Nguiu for an hour
Walking to the store and back
Packed with children and adults
To the barge landing near Paru
Then to Nguiu for an hour
Walking to the store and back
From Paru to Nine Mile water hole. Unbelievable.
Nine Mile to Milikapati
And to the beach, more beautiful than any you would ever see anywhere
And the water more deadly.
After tempting the six metre croc that has been in these parts now for weeks
And the water more deadly.
After tempting the six metre croc that has been in these parts now for weeks
We traveled back to the Pickertaramoor
Then to Maxwell Creek Forestry Camp for the night
Then to Maxwell Creek Forestry Camp for the night
Friday and back through the forest plantationTo Three Ways then to Pickertaramoor with Tiwi youth
And their parents and leaders of the Tiwi Land Council.
This is actually happening and here are the 6 Family Group houses
Where 12 students will live in each huse five days a week.
The school is being built before our eyes
Even our homes - polystyrene filled with concrete
Apparently cyclone proof.
Even our homes - polystyrene filled with concrete
Apparently cyclone proof.
To the water fall and water hole on the school
A swim in the stream
A swim in the stream
Then to the airstrip after an afternoon shower and a flight through Hector
To Darwin.
We will be back here teaching in about three weeks.
To Darwin.
We will be back here teaching in about three weeks.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
There's been a lot going on these past few weeks, but we're here at the Free Spirit Resort just outside Darwin and loving it. Many thanks to our friends and family who have supported and loved and farewelled us enough to get us this far.
It's now 4am NT time and we've got the airconditioning on full bore. I'm still getting a kick out of condensation on the outside of the windows. It's the opposite of winter in Fourth Ave Toowoomba with the gas heater on and our windows streaming on the inside of the windows - and much better since any mould colony should develop on the outside of the house.
I thought it rained every afternoon up here - 'set your clock by the afternoon storm mate'. When we got up on Saturday there was no afternoon storm. The kids were disappointed and I lost a little credibility with Sophie and Laura. I did get some of that back, however briefly, when it stormed at midnight and bucketed down through till late morning the next day (see the pics). It hasn't rained since. But it has been threatening to. I'm telling the kids that we're living in strange times with climate change and stuff like that (you know, to keep the rabbits out).
We're in a bit of a routine now. Nicole and Amber are exercising in the morning and when Nic gets back she logs on to the 'Sacred Space' website for some morning quiet time. This is hard, given that the six of us are living in a small two-bedroom chalet. While Nic centres and meditates on the reading for the day, we are climbing over her and the chairs to get from the bedroom to the table for breakfast, amidst the usual robust dialogue of siblings and a father yelling out to the kids to 'keep it down while your mother meditates'. There is a 'jumping pillow' in the complex and a pool (see pics) and enough to keep the kids entertained, at least for the next little while.
Mark and I started work yesterday (three weeks of pd in Darwin) and met most of the Tiwi College team during the day. The project itself is fantastic, unbelievable really and perhaps a little overwhelming (see below). But at the end of this first day the question on my mind is why people from all over the country (Tasmania, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and of course Toowoomba), and many with children (there are 24 children of the college staff who will be living in Tiwi College) have packed up houses and kids and either resigned or got leave from jobs to be a part of this. Andrew White, the Tiwi College project director, probably answered some of this during the day when he presented the history of the project and the understanding and insight that grounds Tiwi College.
It's hard to capture this in a paragraph (no justice here to Andy's fantastic presentation), but here goes. There seem to be two key aspects to the significance of this project. First, Tiwi College is an initiative from the Tiwi people themselves and is grounded in a 'capacity building community management' model, not a 'service delivery' model. It is a school that has grown out of the hopes and dreams that the Tiwi have for their future, and we who have come here to work and live in the college do so at the request and within the governance framework of the Tiwi. Second, since the school is a five-day per week residential college and is being built from the ground up in an uninhabited place on the Island (Pickertaramoor) the broader community elements such as housing, shops, etc. that make schools work must be created. This is a huge project, yet is an advantage nevertheless, since we are able to establish these elements to support the internal school elements such as school-wide pedagogy and curriculum. The Northern Territory Christian Schools Association have learned about these broader community elements through recent experiences elsewhere, particularly the residential school at Woolaning.
In theory, it seems there is every reason that this school will succeed.
In practice, there are a number of issues that will keep us focussed, one in particular: the accommodation is not yet finished on the island and school starts on February 6 (Waitangi Day), about three weeks away. Mark and I travel to Melville on Thursday for an overnight stay so we should have a better idea of where things are at after that. There is one plan that Mark and I will fly to the island to teach for the week, perhaps under tarps till the buildings are completed, and back to Darwin on the weekends. Nicole and Amber and the kids will stay on here at the Free Spirit. Did I start this post with 'we're at the Free Spirit and loving it'? We'll see how long that lasts.
It's now 4am NT time and we've got the airconditioning on full bore. I'm still getting a kick out of condensation on the outside of the windows. It's the opposite of winter in Fourth Ave Toowoomba with the gas heater on and our windows streaming on the inside of the windows - and much better since any mould colony should develop on the outside of the house.
I thought it rained every afternoon up here - 'set your clock by the afternoon storm mate'. When we got up on Saturday there was no afternoon storm. The kids were disappointed and I lost a little credibility with Sophie and Laura. I did get some of that back, however briefly, when it stormed at midnight and bucketed down through till late morning the next day (see the pics). It hasn't rained since. But it has been threatening to. I'm telling the kids that we're living in strange times with climate change and stuff like that (you know, to keep the rabbits out).
We're in a bit of a routine now. Nicole and Amber are exercising in the morning and when Nic gets back she logs on to the 'Sacred Space' website for some morning quiet time. This is hard, given that the six of us are living in a small two-bedroom chalet. While Nic centres and meditates on the reading for the day, we are climbing over her and the chairs to get from the bedroom to the table for breakfast, amidst the usual robust dialogue of siblings and a father yelling out to the kids to 'keep it down while your mother meditates'. There is a 'jumping pillow' in the complex and a pool (see pics) and enough to keep the kids entertained, at least for the next little while.
Mark and I started work yesterday (three weeks of pd in Darwin) and met most of the Tiwi College team during the day. The project itself is fantastic, unbelievable really and perhaps a little overwhelming (see below). But at the end of this first day the question on my mind is why people from all over the country (Tasmania, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and of course Toowoomba), and many with children (there are 24 children of the college staff who will be living in Tiwi College) have packed up houses and kids and either resigned or got leave from jobs to be a part of this. Andrew White, the Tiwi College project director, probably answered some of this during the day when he presented the history of the project and the understanding and insight that grounds Tiwi College.
It's hard to capture this in a paragraph (no justice here to Andy's fantastic presentation), but here goes. There seem to be two key aspects to the significance of this project. First, Tiwi College is an initiative from the Tiwi people themselves and is grounded in a 'capacity building community management' model, not a 'service delivery' model. It is a school that has grown out of the hopes and dreams that the Tiwi have for their future, and we who have come here to work and live in the college do so at the request and within the governance framework of the Tiwi. Second, since the school is a five-day per week residential college and is being built from the ground up in an uninhabited place on the Island (Pickertaramoor) the broader community elements such as housing, shops, etc. that make schools work must be created. This is a huge project, yet is an advantage nevertheless, since we are able to establish these elements to support the internal school elements such as school-wide pedagogy and curriculum. The Northern Territory Christian Schools Association have learned about these broader community elements through recent experiences elsewhere, particularly the residential school at Woolaning.
In theory, it seems there is every reason that this school will succeed.
In practice, there are a number of issues that will keep us focussed, one in particular: the accommodation is not yet finished on the island and school starts on February 6 (Waitangi Day), about three weeks away. Mark and I travel to Melville on Thursday for an overnight stay so we should have a better idea of where things are at after that. There is one plan that Mark and I will fly to the island to teach for the week, perhaps under tarps till the buildings are completed, and back to Darwin on the weekends. Nicole and Amber and the kids will stay on here at the Free Spirit. Did I start this post with 'we're at the Free Spirit and loving it'? We'll see how long that lasts.
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