RIG News – October 2012

News from the Remote Indigenous Gardens Network – www.remoteindigenousgardens.net

Welcome to RIG News October edition. The value of gardens as places that can contribute to cultural healing and social and emotional wellbeing is a theme of this edition that features stories about two special healing gardens. National Mental Health Week, October 7-14, highlighted the value of holistic approaches to health and wellbeing. We hope you’ll enjoy some good news in this edition at a time when funding and program changes in many regions, may be causing stress…

Celebrating Culture and Healing Features Banatjarl Bush Medicine Bush Tucker Garden

The Banatjarl Women’s Council held the grand opening of the Banatjarl Bush Opening Medicine Bush Tucker Garden at King Valley on October 11. Over 100 people Celebration: attended the celebrations that included the opportunity to join Elders and Jawoyn Women Rangers on a tour of the garden and the plants in it during the day. Banatjarl Bush Medicine Bush The Banatjarl Bush Medicine Bush Tucker Garden is a key part of the family healing and Tucker Garden resource centre that the Women’s Council has established on traditional Jawoyn land at Banatjarl (also known as King Valley) approximately 40km south of Katherine. The gardens have been designed for educational purposes and to provide a wide range of plant materials to make into bush products. Bringing together many traditional plants in one Mununjali place, the gardens are an important place at which Elders and others can pass on community led knowledge and skills to younger generations through camps, events and women’s healing garden “talkfests” that are held at the centre.

The Banatjarl Grup and the healing centre that they have established are built around a vision of cultural revitalisation, sharing and healing. It’s hoped that the garden will enable NT Gardens young people to learn more about their culture, bush tucker and bush medicine and website become stronger in themselves. Sharing with guests from different communities from launched and overseas, and with non-Indigenous women, through special open days and events, are all a part of the Banatjarl Grup’s vision.

Regional developments - The Murri Munchies Alliance

Other news Pictured at the celebrations, from left to from around the right: Esther Bulumbara, Diana Bruce, Roslyn Weetra, Mavis Jumbiri and Network… Jocelyn McCartney

Photos with permission from the Fred Hollows Foundation.

RIG News – October 2012, RIG Network’s Bi-monthly Newsletter, No.21 1 The People and Partnerships behind the Garden for weaving, colour for bush dyes, plants for other arts and craft applications and ornamental plants. The The Banatjari Women’s Council was formed in 2003 in garden is located closeby the other facilities at the response to Jawoyn women’s call for a focus on healing centre and is comprised of an orchard, a family, women and healing. It was renamed the hillside garden (the dry garden) and creekbed garden ‘Banatjari Strongbala Wumin Grup’, a kriol name, to (the wet garden) – each of which feature different recognise the council as a group of Indigenous women plantings and irrigation requirements. from many different tribal and language areas, all sharing the language of kriol and passion for a At the Garden Opening culturally strong, proud future for themselves, their families and their communities. Banatjarl members are Members of the Banatjari Strongbala Wumin Grup drawn from ten communities in the Jawoyn region and Council, the Jawoyn Association, Jawoyn Women include: Barunga, Wugularr (Beswick), Manyalluk, Rangers and representatives from the Fred Hollows Bulman, Weemol, Kalano, Binjari, Rockhole, Katherine Foundation joined other guests to enjoy music from and Werenbun. local bands, Shellie Morris, traditional dance and tours of the garden as part of the opening celebrations. The ‘Banatjari Strongbala Wumin Grup’ is part of a multi component Women’s Development Project, The opening of the garden also provided a special which began 5 years ago and is part of a collaboration opportunity for nutritionists from East Timor and between The Fred Hollows Foundation and the Indigenous health and community workers to learn Jawoyn Association. Every component of the project is about the use of traditional bush foods and medicines. under the control of Jawoyn women in Katherine East Eight participants from the Ministry of Health and the and is based on the premise that strengthening World Health Organisation in Timor Leste and ten cultural identity and increasing self-determination will Aboriginal participants from across the Northern result in positive health outcomes. The Women’s Territory came to the garden opening as part of a pilot Development Project has produced many outcomes, short course called, Nutrition and Food Security. The including the much loved Kukumbat gudwun daga – course is being developed by Menzies School of ‘Really Cooking Good Food’ cookbook that many RIG Health Research in collaboration with The Fred News readers may be familiar with. Hollows Foundation.

A key part of the Banatjari Bush Medicine Bush Tucker Mavis Jumbiri, Chairperson of the Council, was joined Garden story is the publication of Jawoyn Plants and by Miguel Soares from East Timor’s Ministry of Health Animals – Aboriginal flora and fauna knowledge from on ABC radio on the day. They both spoke about the and the Katherine area, honour and value of sharing knowledge between northern Australia, 2005 (see article by Glenn communities, countries and generations – things this Wightman, RIG News – August 2012). Presenting special garden is already achieving and looks well set ethnobiological information in and to seed into the future. English, this book has encouraged two-way research about and documentation of local knowledge and language. The book is an invaluable tool for local people both to preserve and to promote their plant and animal knowledge, and in various ways it has helped to inspire the Bush Medicine Bush Tucker garden.

In 2010 the Banatjari Strongbala Wumin Grup Council commissioned a consultant to help design and establish a useful plant garden and orchard, the outcomes of which can be seen in the garden today at the healing centre along with the report Banatjarl Useful Plants and Bush Tucker Garden. The report presents the garden design, maintenance plan, and a detailed listing of plantings, propagation methods and plant uses (with common names and those of four local language groups for each plant). The Report is Above: Wes Miller A/CEO and Ryan Baruwei, Chairperson an excellent resource and may be obtained, by of the Jawoyn Association, with Timor Leste guests in the Banatjarl Bush Tucker Bush Medicine Garden. request, from the Fred Hollows Foundation. ABC interview with Mavis and Miguel, see About the Garden http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3609779.htm. To request the Report Banatjarl Useful Plants and Bush Tucker Garden, contact: Alison Rogers, [email protected]. The garden plan appears to include some sixty different plant species! The plant species selected To learn more about the Banatjarl Strongbala Wimens Grup have been identified by the Banatjarl members and Council, explore ways to support the healing centre visit: their uses include bush tucker, medicine plants, fibre http://www.jawoyn.org/community-services/banatjarl-centre

RIG News – October 2012, RIG Network’s Bi-monthly Newsletter, No.21 2 Placemaking garden at Beaudesert underway Community Engaging Community for a Bright Future

Starting a community project can be a daunting task to say the least, but the Mununjali Housing Development Company had the foresight, a little good luck and support from the community to plan and design landscape improvements to a key place in the community, the Mununjali Jymbi Centre.

Using a participatory design process to create a vision and design that incorporates a range of attractive features the community wanted, plans are well in place to build upon the ‘hardware’ features that have been built by a local team to further create a welcoming garden where people can meet, socialise and access a range of services.

The Mununjali Housing Company had identified a long term project within the Mununjali Community Hall to provide improved facilities for the established family support and counseling work that is done at the Mununjali Jymbi Centre. The regular Playgroups, Homework Club, Men’s and Women’s groups as well as counseling meant the hall was constantly in use. However the outdoor areas were lacking basic comforts such as shade, seating and privacy, meaning they offered limited use. With no undercover outdoor shelter, no disabled access and little visual appeal, the hall’s landscape was in need of an upgrade. The Mununjali project coordinators Karyn Perrett and Deanne Viellaris put a plan in place and secured funding from the Healing Foundation to commence the project.

A Civic Solutions program was secured to work with Mununjali Housing Company on various projects including the community hall. This partnership gave a local group of young men the opportunity to have on-the-job landscape construction training & work experience. Furthermore, it gave the project a solid work crew for 10 weeks, who could focus on the upgrade work and bolstered the modest budget by covering the labour costs.

Mununjali wanted to create a community led project and so the project coordinators asked the community what their vision was for the hall and how the hall could be improved. The response was to improve the landscape features, provide play areas for children, create a welcoming space to gather, to talk and a place to listen....a healing place. Working with Delve Consulting, a landscape masterplan was drawn up, and distributed to the community for feedback. The comments and input received were encouraging and work soon got underway, with support sought and gained from local businesses that provided in-kind support and helped source materials. A range of existing materials from the site was reused in the new design.

The landscape masterplan has incorporated all the elements requested by the community and Mununjali Housing Company. The design provides a natural playground for the children with a water efficient water pump / waterway, stepping stones and fallen logs in sand for play and texture, a large outdoor covered workshop area, quiet seating / listening places, as well as yarning circles for counseling and private conversations. Proposed native gardens will provide shade and landscape character with a healing story garden of bush tucker, medicinal and other local plants.

This hardscape stage of the project is near completion with the Civic Solutions crew having two weeks before they complete their training course. Karyn says “They have helped us cut costs a lot...they have been great to work with and we are right on schedule”. The pathways, timber shelter, garden furniture, yarning circles and waterway mud play area will give the final touches to the garden hardscape and present the gardens ‘formed up’ ready for celebratory community planting days.

Pictured below, some of the garden’s hardscape features:

Above left to right: 1. Under the shade of the new timber shelter, Deanne, Karyn and Mike discuss the project 2. Final stages of the hard landscape construction and earthworks. 3. The yarning circle with open views 4. Recycled fence palings reused and made into garden furniture

RIG News –October 2012, RIG Network’s Bi-monthly Newsletter, No.21 3 The next stage of the project is the engagement of local aboriginal artists to commence a series of community workshops to create artworks within the landscape communicating stories through stencils, sculpture and murals etc. Deanne says, “There is going to be a lot of interest and a lot of involvement around the future project”.

The Mununjali Community Hall Landscape Upgrade project has provided a framework and place for many wonderful new ways of healing, celebrating and being together.

Mununjali Housing Development Company and the Mununjali Jymbi Centre are located at Beaudesert, some 60km south of Brisbane and 60km west of the Gold Coast within the subtropical south east corner of Queensland.

Story and images kindly provided by Emma Baker, Delve Consulting, Brisbane, with acknowledgement and thanks to, and permission from, Karyn Perrett and Deanne Viellaris, the Mununjali Project.

If you or your community are interested in working with Delve Consulting to help design and create gardens where you are, contact Emma Baker, Landscape Architect, Delve Consulting, [email protected]

Linking gardeners and gardens in the NT NT Gardens website launched

Reducing the burden of malnutrition and associated lifestyle diseases by improving access to local fresh foods and improving the continuity and sustainability of community and school gardens in NT communities are key drivers that have contributed to the development of the NT Gardens website that was launched in October.

The website has been developed by Dr Andy Hume, a GP registrar who has lived and worked in the on and off since 2006. In a project funded through a General Practice Education and Training grant and supported through the Menzies School of Health Research, Andy has created the NT Gardens website to document and promote community and school gardens in the Northern Territory.

Andy is a member of the RIG Network, and we’re very pleased to have contributed to and to be affiliated with the NT Gardens website that provides a practical way for remote communities and gardeners to create their own webpage to i) share information about what they are doing, and ii) access one another’s contact details so that they can get in touch to share ideas, resources and support. It is free and quick for gardeners to start their own garden page on the website: go to http://ntgardens.org and click the “add a garden” button. This page remains yours to keep and is easy to edit and add photos to.

There’s a long history of gardens ‘coming and going’. It is hoped the website may help to create and share greater continuity of information and along the way contribute to building better projects by enabling people to learn about what’s underway, what’s working – and what has gone before.

There are currently over forty known remote Aboriginal food gardens in the top end of the Northern Territory. These gardens are growing fresh fruit and vegetables in schools and communities, employing local people, and providing fresh food to those involved. In schools they are providing nutrition, life skills and horticultural education to the next generation of territory gardeners.

In an interview with ABC Rural, Andy said:

"There's evidence that if you increase your fruit and vegetable intake, then you can significantly reduce your risk of certain cancers and of death by stroke or heart attack. I think people have always thought fruit and veggies are healthy, but we've now got real evidence about how good they are.

So the idea is to link people who are working remotely and show them other people who are doing the same thing and bring some public attention to the benefits these gardens provide.

I want people to get onto the website and see what's working in other places and talk about what they're doing in other places. My hope is that it becomes a resource which people can use to get in contact with each other and it'll bring the public knowledge of remote food gardening up a bit and hopefully help those who are out there and make their jobs a bit easier".

RIG News –October 2012, RIG Network’s Bi-monthly Newsletter, No.21 4 The NT Gardens website is an exciting initiative – one we all hope people involved with gardens in top end NT communities will access and use. In the recent RIG Feedback Survey it was suggested RIG “become a web based support resource for community gardens in tropics and other remote areas to help counteract the high turnover in staff and momentum, community/organizational memory and knowledge consequently lost in communities”. Great suggestion – and something now underway through Andy’s great work that with time (and funding!) may grow.

For more information about the website or the project go to http://ntgardens.org or contact Dr Andy Hume at [email protected].

Regional enterprise development and support The Murri Munchies Alliance, Queensland

The Murri Munchies alliance is a multi-facetted initiative that works to support social and micro enterprise and community development projects in the Wide Bay/Burnett region of Queensland that are based on native foods, agriculture and culture. The alliance brings together knowledge and expertise from communities, Councils and industry. It aims to help coordinate and drive business development, marketing and support services for Indigenous owned enterprises and projects in the region.

The concept of Murri Munchies got underway several years ago. In May this year the alliance celebrated the establishment of Murri Munchies Ltd, a company that will direct the alliance’s business activities that include strategies to enable members to market their products with the support of the Murri Munchies logo and route to market partnerships that the Company and its alliance members are putting in place.

The Murri Munchies Alliance was formed with recognition that within regional areas many organisations have very similar goals and objectives, however often work in isolation. With a unified approach to the establishment of micro, small business and social enterprises the Alliance is working to ensure greater access to expertise, knowledge, skills and experience throughout the Wide Bay / Burnett and neighbouring regions. All projects rely upon the local and traditional knowledge of the Elders and community groups coupled with expertise from industry and educational organisations as members within the “Associate” framework.

Murri Munchies Ltd is a registered company limited by guarantee (Not For Profit) with ASIC, and is controlled by an Indigenous Board of Directors. The companies directors are ‘active’ Alliance members who are producing a good and/or service for sale and currently include some 8 Indigenous owned enterprises from the region. Associate members are organisations and/or individuals that provide support and expertise for the “Active” members and their enterprises. They include local Aboriginal organisations, regional councils, Landcare groups and peak industry groups within the Wide Bay/Burnett region.

Communities from Cape York, the Northern Territory and southern New South Wales have expressed interest in becoming involved with Murri Munchies project, however for now the Board has first set its sights on proving the operation within the Wide Bay/Burnett area.

Across a suite of projects, the Alliance works to provide local Indigenous organisations and businesses with support in the following areas: mentoring, training, business development, production, quality assurance, marketing, distribution and logistics and administration and governance. Potential products that are being explored include a wide range of Native Salad Greens and Herbs, Native Vegetables, Fruit trees and shrubs, land and sea wild harvest, nursery products and inputs, along with value added products such as chutneys and sauces, creams and therapeutic products. Supporting community projects, such as local school veggie and sensory gardens, community working bees and landcare activities are among the many activities that the Alliance is helping people within the region to get together on. Murri Munchies Ltd’s board of Directors enjoy the support of an Advisory Group and a Project Manager who is based in Bundaberg. To learn more or contribute to the work of Murri Munchies in the Wide Bay/Burnett region contact Andrew Normoyle, Project Manager, Murri Munchies Ltd, by email: [email protected].

Left: Products from the Dillybag and Allan Knight Product range, part of the Murri Munchies alliance.

RIG News –October 2012, RIG Network’s Bi-monthly Newsletter, No.21 5 News from around the Network

Central Australia Sustainable Food Network

Following the desertSMART Regional Food Summit in August, participants have met again and decided to establish the Central Australia Sustainable Food Network to take forward recommendations and actions from the Summit. Six working groups have been established, in the following areas:

o National Food Plan submission o NT Greywater Policy o Alice Springs Urban Greening/Food in public Spaces/Guerrilla Gardening o Camel Products and Other Local Meats o Food Recovery, Redistribution and Waste Composting o Local Food Sourcing and Distribution

Progress to date includes: o All groups have met and are establishing objectives and linking to relevant experts and key decision makers in their respective areas. o Second Bite from Melbourne have recently signed a contract with Coles Alice Springs to take all edible food waste a distribute to Alice Springs Town Camp residents through Tangentyere Council. They are looking to expand this to other agencies through the Food Recovery working group. o The Urban Greening group will run a native seedling propagation day before Christmas with the plan of planting out a number of identified sites around Alice Springs. Food trees will be propagated next year for planting out as soon as possible. o The Greywater group has been working to identify and bring key experts into the group. A lot of work has been done in this area in the past, needs to be consolidated and progressed further. o The National food plan submissions group prepared a group submission on behalf of the network and successfully lodged it with the DAFF consultation process (see DAFF site for all submissions).

To learn more go to http://desertsmartcoolmob.org/?page_id=838. If you’re interested in joining one of the working groups contact Alex McLean for further information: [email protected]

Northern Territory Farmers Association Inc.

The Northern Territory Farmers Association Inc. (NT FARMERS) was officially incorporated on 22 May this year and commenced trading on 1 July. NT Farmers is an amalgam of the former Northern Territory Agricultural and Horticultural Associations. Our organisation is the peak body for plant industries in the Northern Territory.

For more information about the amalgamation process, please call 08 8983 3233 or go to www.ntfarmers.com

Northern Territory Coordinator-General for Remote Services

Progress Reports- Report #5, June 2011 to August 2012. The Northern Territory Coordinator-General for Remote Services fifth report outlines current progress and recommends pathways forward for improving service delivery and raising standards of living for Territorians living in remote areas. The report has been formally presented to the Minister for Indigenous Advancement. A copy of the report can be found at: http://www.rdia.nt.gov.au/indigenous_advancement/coordinator-general

Note – the Office of the Northern Territory Coordinator-General for Remote Services has recently been disbanded by the new NT Government….interesting times.

Indigenous Voices OCEANIA 2012 Darwin, September 21-23 Three critical steps for the future of north Australia

From the NAILSMA website:

In his Plenary Session The Future of Indigenous Land and Sea Management in North Australia, Joe Morrison, NAILSMA CEO, called for a fresh look at how we value Indigenous landowners and managers and their unique traditional knowledge and stressed the importance of Indigenous people managing their land and sea as the rightful and inherent owners of country. He also explained how the concept of community based land and sea management evolved into the uniquely Indigenous Caring for Country movement, a vision initially conceived in the

RIG News –October 2012, RIG Network’s Bi-monthly Newsletter, No.21 6 early 1990s by Gurrgoni man Dean Yibarbuk, then leader of the Djelk Rangers in Maningrida, East . Joe said, “But there are two different discourses taking place across the country: on one side is the Indigenous understanding of Caring for Country which is embedded in a spiritual reality, connectedness to country and inherent responsibilities; and the other sees people in the landscape as an externality and gives precedence to the scientific aspect of natural resource management.”

Joe Morrison concluded his Plenary Session by outlining three key steps critical to the future of Indigenous land and sea management, and therefore conservation in northern Australia. • "We need a populated landscape, managed by highly skilful and dedicated people with the right tools available to them - both Indigenous and non-Indigenous tools. Indigenous rangers and native title groups are well positioned to take up that challenge. • "Indigenous groups need sound governance and accountability. Governance, because local autonomy based on land ownership should be the basis for making decisions about land, including its management. Accountability, because Caring for Country must be accountable back to the owners of the lands or the community. We need to ensure that the dominant ‘value for money’ discourse does not cripple the development of Indigenous land and sea management in the long run. • "There needs to be support for the emergence of commercial or market based fee-for-service opportunities. Particularly the abatement of greenhouse gases in northern Australia presents a unique opportunity to generate a livelihood for people (both black and white) located in rural and remote parts of northern Australia. The Carbon Farming Initiative offers a way in which people can connect with the market to manage fire in northern Australia. The spinoffs are not just greenhouse gas reductions, but biodiversity and cultural places can be better managed and repaired through a skilled workforce that has a long standing connection to them."

Coming Events

“Putting Theory into Practice…Challenges at the Local Level” Exciting health promotion CPD event and interactive workshop in Darwin, featuring Bernie Murphy B.Ed, MPH, who will provide an interactive session on the above. Thursday 8 November, 6:00-7:30pm, Darwin Sailing Club. RSVP/further information: Alana Booth, [email protected] Organised by the Australian Health Promotion Association, NT Branch

Many RIG Feedback Survey respondents said they would like to provide stories for future editions of RIG News. Please get in touch so we can plan to include your news and stories in future editions!

Forward feedback and suggestions for the next RIG News to [email protected] If you would like to be removed from the RIG News email list, please tell us so by emailing us, as above.

RIG News is written and produced by Anthea Fawcett for RIG Network. RIG Network is a project initiative of Southern Exchange, Sydney, 5A Duke Place, Balmain, NSW, 2041

REMOTE INDIGENOUS GARDENS NETWORK – RIG NETWORK WHAT? RIG Network is a national information sharing, networking and research initiative. Our core programs are: i) Networking and information sharing – the RIG website, RIG News, community workshops. ii) Strategic research, advocacy and outreach projects. WHY? To help address food insecurity in remote areas – social & economic development – food sovereignty - local action for more affordable & accessible fresh food – health & nutrition - sustainable livelihoods, better resource use & lower food miles - ‘fusion’ gardens, bush foods, fruit & veg & other food production – enterprise development & employment - life skills & skills for employment – caring for culture & country, capacity building & cultural respect . HOW? Strategic projects – useful information & resources, case studies, contacts - new cross-sectoral conversations & partnerships – industry & community linkages - better practice - advocacy, applied research & outreach.

RIG News –October 2012, RIG Network’s Bi-monthly Newsletter, No.21 7 We acknowledge and warmly thank RIG Partner Organisations & Sponsors …thank you CEA for renewing as a Strategic Sponsor in 2012-2013 RIG Partner Organisations Centrefarm Aboriginal Horticulture Limited Charles Darwin University Horticulture Aquaculture Group In-Scape-Out Living Systems Marra Worra Worra Aboriginal Corporation CDEP CuriousWorks Savanna Solutions Pty Ltd Significance Heritage & Archaeology

RIG – Sponsors

New Strategic Sponsors 2012-2013

RIG News –October 2012, RIG Network’s Bi-monthly Newsletter, No.21 8