Anangu Youth Workers’ NewsletterIssue 13, October 2009

Page 2

C O N T E N T S

Editorial .........................................................................................................................................................................2

Pukatja ...........................................................................................................................................................................3

Amata ............................................................................................................................................................................4

Iwantja ...........................................................................................................................................................................6

Pipalyatjara..................................................................................................................................................................8

Kalka................................................................................................................................................................................10

Kaltjiti..............................................................................................................................................................................12

Gateways Hamilton Downs Trip ....................................................................................................................14

Welcome, Aileen Shannon ...............................................................................................................................16

The Australian Institute of Social

Relations is a division of

Relationships Australia (SA)

Front Cover: Iwana Ken from

Kaltjiti community

Wai Nyura Palya?

Welcome to the 13th edition of Yungupala Kungkawara! This magazine is for young people and Youth

Workers on the APY lands.

Over the last few months you may have seen me coming around to your community. I am working with

the Department for Families and Communities to help get the Youth Sheds open and working again. A

kungka called Aileen Shannon (you can read about her on the back page) is helping me with this job. This is

important because otherwise you young fellas and kungkas don’t have much to do after school and on the

weekends. We are trying to make the shed rikina places to go to, with games to play and other things to do

like discos, concerts and movie nights.

For the Youth Sheds to work well, we need good strong workers to look after the tjitji and sheds. So if you’re

interested in being a Youth Worker, don’t be shy, come up and ask me or Aileen about working as a Youth

Worker. If you’ve got some ideas about what should happen in the Youth Shed, we would also like to hear

from you. Remember, all you young fellas and kungkas, the Youth Sheds are your place so it’s important you

have a talk about what you want for them.

In this edition of Yungapala Kungkawara! there are stories about the school holiday programs that NPY

Women’s Council have been running. Also read about the Youth Sheds and Youth Workers at Pipalyatjara,

Kalka and Fregon. These sheds have started to open after being closed for a long time. Thanks to Cameron

Cooper (Kalka), Herbert Nelson (Pipalyatjara) and Kenny Nelson (Fregon) for all your hard work in getting the

sheds ready and then looking after them while they have been open.

This year some of you may have gone on The Gateways Programs to Hamilton Downs, Roxby Downs or

Double Tank. We’ve got a story about the last trip for the year, where young fellas travelled to Hamilton

Downs to learn more horse riding skills. It was a great trip and everyone who went worked really hard to learn

about horsemanship and welding.

Palya then, remember don’t be shy come up and speak to Aileen or myself about anything you want done

with the Youth Sheds in your community

Palyo!

Andrew Groome

Page 3

PukatjaPukatja

The smell of smoke was coming from the dry river bed, the

boys were backfl ipping expertly down the sandy banks and

feet and legs were being buried by giggling friends. Yes –

we were kangaroo tail cooking in Pukatja, and we had a

great team of young people (and one parent) joining in with

the action. This was day four of the school holidays – a week

of sports, games, arts and crafts, dress-ups, hip hop dancing

and a motorcross day.

The Big Disco rounded up the week with everyone showing

off their fantastic new hair wraps, face paint and of course

their new moves on the dance fl oor!

Thanks to

Edith Geisoidt

and Miriam

Bond from

NPY Women’s

Council for

story and

photos

Page 4

AmataAmataRonya Moss and Katrina Stowe from the NPY

Women’s Council were down in in Amata last

holidays during NAIDOC Week. It was a busy time,

with lots going on.

We had some great bush trips, thanks Chris and

Ingrid and the other parents who came along to

help. We also recorded a couple of tracks up at

DASA with some of the young men; played plenty

of footy and softball (thanks Vannessa for the gear);

made some terrifi c bush tucker baskets out of paper

mache; had a basketball competition; had a fantastic

disco - thanks to Youth Workers Kimpton Miller

for fi xing the sound system and Kirsty Heff ernam

for choosing the tracks. We also painted up some

beautiful canvasses courtesy of Terrence Mitchell

(Social Worker, Families SA).

It was a great week... we look forward to coming back

again!

Thanks to

Katrina Stowe

and Ronya

Mossfrom

NPY Women’s

Council for

story and

photos

Page 5PaPaPaPaPPaPaPagegegeeeege 5 5 5 5

Page 6

IwantjaIwantja

In the second week of the holidays, Indulkana was the place for sports. Softball, basketball, cricket, soccer,

footy and even the peg game and sack races – what a talented team! Taking a well-earned break occasionally,

many of the young people contributed to painting the Youth Centre banner, enjoying the BBQ and getting

ready for the movie night.

Page 7

Hair wraps, face painting and french knitting again

proved popular with both girls and boys, and lucky for us,

the Iwantja Band played at the Friday Night Disco. With

a recently released CD, these guys played a great mix

of reggae and country rock. As always, some awesome

moves were seen on the dance fl oor, way to go guys!

Thanks to Edith Geisoidt and Miriam Bond from NPY

Women’s Council for story and photos

Page 8

PipalyatjaraPipalyatjaraSome great things have been happening

out at Pipalyatjara over the last few months.

After many years of not having a permanent

Youth Shed, the young people at Pip now

have a place to call their own. Thanks to the

hard work of the school staff , particularly Max

Thomas and Herbert Nelson (the new Youth

Worker at Pipalyatjara) an old community

shed has been cleaned out and set up as

a youth space. Herbert has been doing a

great job opening the shed and looking after

the young people. I caught up with Herbert

recently at Pip and asked him how the job

was going.

Andrew: So Herbert why did you want to work as a Youth Worker?

Herbert: I wanted to look after young people.

You know a couple of years ago a sad thing

happened to a young fella out here, he went

off alone and had no one around him. So

we’ve got to make sure we look after the

young ones. Sometimes though I have to

growl at the kids, like when they ask me for a

smoke I tell them ‘don’t ask me for a smoke,

you’ve still got good lungs, you shouldn’t do

that’

Andrew: And what have you been doing as a Youth Worker?

Herbert: I’ve been taking them out bush a

lot, we’ve got ngintaka (perentie), tinka (sand

goanna), maku (witchetty grub), tjala (honey

ant) and kipara (bush turkey) but no malu yet!

(laughing). We also took lots of kids out to the

caves near Kanpi. But when I was still in the

cave they ate all the sandwiches so I missed

out on lunch! (laughing again) I’ve also been

going to the shed, the kids have been playing

the games and sometimes they have an

argument over the game. When they do that I

close the pool table for a while until they start

listening to me again

Andrew: What are your plans for the Youth Shed?

Herbert: I would like to get a punching bag in

the shed, so if kids are angry they can punch

that bag instead of fi ghting. I would also

like to get some musical instruments for the

young men to play.

Story by Andrew Groome

Page 9

Youth Worker Herbert Nelson running activities on the

Gateways Hamilton Downs trip

Page 10

KalkaKalka

After a few years of being closed, the Kalka Youth Shed has started to open again. Youth Worker Cameron

Cooper worked with kids to clean out the shed and set up a container to be used as a storage room. The

shed has a new snooker table, stereo, TV and Xbox. The young musicians at Kalka have also enjoyed jamming

on the community musical instruments in the shed. Over the last holidays Cameron and the NPY Women’s

Council workers worked with kids to paint a mural on the shed. Even though the Kalka shed is small, its still a

great place for young fellas to hang around and have fun.

Story and photos by Andrew Groome

Helping to set up the Youth Sehd

Youth Worker

Cameron Cooper

working with kids to

paint the Kalka shed

Page 11

MimiliMimiliThis October school holidays

NPY Women’s Council workers

May Lai Swan and Lara Joff e

spent two weeks at Mimili

running the holiday program.

There were heaps of fun things

to do including, hoolahoop

dancing, face painting, basket

weaving and music recording.

There were two discos, one

of them was a huge outdoor

dance held on the basketball

court. Marlene Campbell, one

of the new youth workers at

Mimili, helped May Lai and Lara

do a bush trip out to Victory

Wells, where everyone made

damper and cooked malu wipu.

Young people also made a

maku shaped Pinata. A pinata

is a game from Mexico that

is played at birthday parties,

Christmas or Easter. The idea

is that you make a big animal

shape out of papermache and

fi ll it full of lollies or other nice

things. You then hang it up

and hit it until it breaks and the

lollies fall out.

Also congratulations to all the

dancers at Mimili for winning

the annual APY schools dance

competition. It was a great

performance!

Mimili youth at the

dance competition

Page 12

The Fregon Youth Shed has had a facelift. Ronya

Moss and Katrina Stowe from the NPY Women’s

Council went down last holidays with some

buckets of paint, after Kenny Nelson (new Youth

Worker at Fregon) had asked about painting a

mural on the walls. Plenty of young people helped

out, and there was heaps of positive feedback

about how it looked when everyone saw it

fi nished. Hopefully there’ll be more to come, as

people seemed keen to get started on the inside

walls as well. Start thinking up images! It was great

having the Youth Shed open each day, and great

how people were respecting the space.

KaltjitiKaltjiti

The Stockman’s training course was on while we were there. There are lots of good riders in Fregon! It was fun

to watch them all getting down at the disco after their week in the saddle. Some of the younger kids got to

do some riding as well which was lots of fun. All in all it was a really fun week.

Thanks to Katrina Stowe and Ronya Moss from NPY

Women’s Council for story and photos

Youth Worker Kenny Nelson

Page 13

The Fregon Youth Shed has also

started to open. Youth worker Kenny

Nelson has been working with

Richard Aitken and Andrew Groome

to get the youth shed started again.

After working out what rules were

needed to make sure the Youth

Shed is a safe and fun place for kids,

Kenny and Richard explained the

rules to young people at an opening

BBQ. Young people at Fregon have

been enjoying using the pool tables,

watching DVDs and playing music in

the shed.

Youth Workers Richard Aitken and Kenny Nelson explaining

the rules for the Youth Shed

Page 14

Gateways Hamilton Downs TripGateways Hamilton Downs TripIn August a group of young men travelled up to

Hamilton Downs for two weeks with the Gateways

Program. Gateways is a program that helps young

people across the lands to learn the things they

need to know in order to be ready to get jobs.

On this trip young fellas Lawrence Smith, Shaun

Brumby, Shannon, Carl Roberts, Bradley Roberts,

Warren George and Watis Ricky Brown, Peper Brown

and Tony Badenock were doing studies from the

Certifi cate II in Rural Operations. This meant that the

fellas worked with horses, and after hours did things

like orienteering where they also had to work hard.

Everyone had to be out of bed before the sun was up

to feed the horses, have breakfast and prepare their

own lunches, and then work all day learning about

catching horses, saddling them up the right way and

caring for them. Most of the fellas were already good

riders but their skills got even better! They learnt

how to train horses for mustering doing things like

circle work, fi gure eights and jumping.

At the same time as a group were gaining certifi ed

skills in Rural Operations a group of young men

(Kieran Roberts, Sam Ken, Sammy Ken and Clive Ken),

who were also staying at Hamilton Downs, travelled

to Alice Springs daily to learn welding at Charles

Darwin University. These Wati’s had already done the

pastoral program with Gateways and were learning

more skills that will help them get work in more

areas. This is how Gateways works, trying to fi nd

diff erent ways to help young Anangu get knowledge

and skills that are needed to get a job; Gateways

gives Anangu youth many and varied work based

challenges to give participants a ‘real experience’ that

is both challenging and rewarding.

The 23 participants that undertook the program

worked with and were mentored by Youth Workers

from the APY Lands. The Youth Workers (Herbert

Nelson, Cameron Cooper and Richard Aitken) helped

them learn the ‘work way’ to understand more about

work, and helped them through the long days and

challenges of their work. The Youth Work team were

fantastic, leading the participants through after hours

activities and leading the way with meal preparation,

which the students helped prepare on a daily basis. Youth Worker Richard Aitken helping out with orienteering

Page 15

This year Gateways has done numerous pastoral programs at Katherine Rural College and Hamilton Downs,

Conservation and Land Management programs through the Arid Recovery Program as well as helping

Anangu become employable, to learn about work through certifi ed training and experience lots of diff erent

types of work.

Gateways looks forward to working with all the organisations that work with Anangu youth to help Anangu

youth ‘step up’ and become strong leaders and workers, on and off the Lands.

Lots of photos from the Hamilton Downs training and other Gateways programs can be found on their

website www.anangu.gatewaysforyouth.com.au

Story by

Andrew

Groome

and Geoff

Deans

Gateways

for Youth

Photos

Andrew

Groome

and

Richard

Aitken

Australian Institute of Social Relations

Relationships Australia (SA),

49a Orsmond Street,

Hindmarsh 5007

Phone: (08) 8245 8100

Fax: (08) 8346 7333

Email: a.groome@rasa.org.au

Online:http://socialrelations.edu.au/

Institute/MenuBar/ResearchResources/

APYNewsletter.aspx

Department for Families and Communities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Services Division, PO Box 280,

Marla 5724

Contact: Jacqui Lawson

Senior Coordinator APY projects

Phone: (08) 8670 8100

Email: jacqui.lawson@dfc.sa.gov.au

Future Contributions

Email high resolution photos of your

APY Lands youth work activities, with

a brief written explanation of each

photo, to a.groome@rasa.org.au

Credits

Articles and photographs: Katrina

Stowe, Richard Aitken, Geoff Deans,

Ronya Moss, Shelley Madden, Edith

Geisoidt, Miriam Bond, Julia Willson

and Andrew Groome.

Editorial: Andrew Groome

Cover art:Iwana Ken from Kaltjiti

community.

Image copyright Kaltjiti Arts

Layout and Design: Kate McLoughlin

Hello my name is AIleen Shannon and I am the Youth Program Offi cer. I

work with Andrew Groome and our job is to help Anangu people who

are interesterd in becoming youth workers.

I lived in Mimili from 1980 to1982, when my father, John Shannon,

managed Mimili Station. For my education I studied with my mother,

Daisy, and then I attended Mimili school in the afternoon.

I am glad to have come back to the APY lands as I have very good

memories of growing up here as a tjitji, living and learning from father’s

family and friends.

Aileen

Welcome, Aileen ShannonWelcome, Aileen Shannon