International House Melbourne Davis Project for Peace Proposal
Harmony in the Northern Territory
Community Partner: East Arnhem Regional Council Community Partner Liaison: Vanessa McInnis (m: 0429075451, e: [email protected]) International House Liaison: Jacqueline Beech (m: 0499316888, e: [email protected]) Student Participants*: Jacqueline Beech, Larnie Hewat, Genevive Kroussaniotakis, Brett Stone, Indah Cox-Livingstone, Deni Stewart, Maggie Greenham, Inika Reinhardt, Amanda Low, Maya Raj, Michael Elliot-Jones, Phoebe Frost, Jay Gordon, Monique Edwards Travel dates: July 13 – July 26 Location: Northern Territory, Australia
Background: Indigenous communities in Australia face a variety of challenges as a result of their past, their living conditions and negative sentiment displayed towards them. According to various reports, compared to other cultural groups within Australia, Indigenous Australians are disadvantaged in areas of health, educational achievement, employment opportunities, and racism (Eckermann et al., 20061). Studies have also shown that many Indigenous children feel rejected by the wider community, and it is speculated that this correlates to poor mental health outcomes (Pedersen et al, 20052). Indeed, there remains a long way to travel on the road to reconciliation. Being a young Australian who has been fortunate enough to be exposed to an Aboriginal community and study Indigenous culture, I believe that much of the prejudice that exists in our country today stems from a lack of awareness, understanding and respect. It is our hope that this project will bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to promote a mutual respect between both cultures whilst encouraging positive social behavior and academic engagement among the youth. We considered school holidays and the fact that in some communities, boredom during this period can lead to social problems. As such it was decided to organize a holiday program for students in two Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. In Yirrkala, one of the two communities, culture and tradition remain strong but youth workers have expressed concerns regarding school disengagement, boredom and anti-social behaviour. Meanwhile in the second community of Gapuwiyak, there is a much smaller amount of alcohol-related issues, whilst Marijuana use among older youth and lack of job opportunities present significant challenges. Based on the community needs identified, the program structure in the two communities will be slightly varied.
Project Description: The project outline is for a small group of students from International House Melbourne to work with the East Arnhem Regional Council to facilitate a holiday program for school aged children in Yirrkala and Gapuwiyak during the July school vacation. The program will be open to kids within the designated age range, and attendance encouraged by schools and social workers. Pre-holiday workshops will be planned by International House students and sent to youth workers and teachers in the two areas as a means of introducing new and exciting material into their curriculum and to build anticipation which will encourage participation in our holiday program. Feedback from the community members regarding these activities will also serve as a guideline for types of tasks that resonate well with the kids. Successful activities would then be recorded as lesson plans for future use.
*these students will be heavily involved in the pre and post departure planning and initiatives, whilst only 5-8 will be travelling
1 Eckermann, A.-K., Dowd, T., Chong, E., Nixon, L., Gray, R., & Johnson, S. (2006). Birum Goonj: Bridging cultures in Aboriginal health. Chatswood, Australia: Elsevier Australia.
2 Pedersen, Anne, Shannon Clarke, Pat Dudgeon, and Brian Griffiths. "Attitudes toward Indigenous Australians and Asylum Seekers: The Role of False Beliefs and Other Social-psychological Variables." Ed. Nikolaos Kazantzis. Australian Psychologist 40.3 (2005): 170-78. Indigenous Allied Health Australia. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
In July, the group of 5-8 International House students would travel first to Yirrkala a few days prior to the commencement of the holiday program to work with a number of older students and youth workers from the community. The focus would be explaining the program curriculum and demonstrating different methods of running sessions. Following the days of workshopping with the senior students, the actual holiday program would begin. The program would be run by the students who had participated in the facilitation workshops to give them ownership of the program, and help develop their own leadership skills and confidence. Several International House students would remain in Yirrkala for the duration of the program in merely a support capacity to help with the kids and participate in the activities. A second group of International House students will travel to Gapuwiyak after the initial few days to begin a similar training process for the holiday program there. The programs will include recreational, scholastic and entrepreneurial focused workshops, varying in complexity by age group, as discussed with our community partner. The priority will be to provide students with a safe, fun and constructive environment for youth to engage and socialize, encouraging them to return each day. We hope to also be able to address some of the immediate community needs through our project so that these may continue to be of ongoing use. Gapuwiyak has identified that their Youth Music Studio is in current need of refurbishing. Given the enjoyment of music by the kids and the potential such a space has for an ongoing program with youth, we hope to be able to assist in the purchase of some musical equipment to be used during the holiday program and into the future.
Sustainability and Continued Impact: With the support of community youth workers, we believe that by providing engaging activities during school holidays, students will be discouraged from substance absue. While this is an ongoing issue which our program will not immediately solve, we hope that typical trend of high usage in midst of holiday boredom will be decreased. It is hoped that working with student leaders will help encourage a sustainable future for the program as they would hopefully return to help in a mentorship capacity for future years. All equipment purchased would also be looked after for future use. As such, the issue of substance abuse may be tackled on a consistent basis. The refurbishment and equipment for Gapuwiyak’s Youth Music Studio would have a tangible lasting impact because not only will this be useful to the holiday program specifically, but will continue to be of use to those in the community once we have left. We are optimistic regarding prospects for positive change in the lifestyles of these children as it has been reported by other Indiengous communities within Australia that music groups and workshops have proved successful in encouraging constructive past-times and increasing school attendance. One of the more subtle, but no less important, aims of the project is to foster a mutual respect of each others culture. While issues faced by both communities fuel many prejudices, through the positive experience of International House students, we aim to break down these negative misconceptions and encourage better understanding of Aboriginal people. Returning home, the Internatinal House students are expected to share their experiences and what they learned about Indigenous culture to help promote conversation about Indigenous people in a positive light to break down prejudice and misguided judgements of Indigenous people. This will be done in both a formal and informal context at the residential college. From a grass roots understanding of these issues, the students would be better positioned to question the media's portrayal of such community groups and better informed to understand government treatment of such issues. While reconciliation in our country is still a while off, and issues within Aboriginal communities continue to be a challenge, we know each small contribution to a positive future is valuable and a step towards a more harmonious and accepting Australian society.