Oombulgurri community dispersed

By John Telford

A new chapter is being written in the troubled journey of the people who have lived most recently in the Oombulgurri settlement on the Forrest River in the East Kimberley region.

Due to social problems occasioned by uncontrolled access to alcohol and its attendant ills, many families had moved away from the community in recent years. By early this year, the number of families remaining had fallen so low that the government decided that it could no longer maintain services to the community, so these families have now been relocated to other Kimberley communities.

From 1973 to 1978 the ICA had staff living and working at Oombulgurri after Community Elder, Robert Roberts led his people back to his land to escape the degrading living conditions in Wyndham, the nearest town. They had moved into Wyndham when the Anglican Church mission had closed down in 1968.

Over the five years that we worked alongside the Oombulgurri people we saw their self-esteem and confidence rise to the point where they defied the government when it wanted to relocate them in 1978 because the government wanted to exploit the diamonds found on their land.

After ICA staff had left, a Uniting Church agency worked well with the people into the ‘90s. But for the past 15 years the community has had a troubled journey – just one manifestation of the inability of governments to work with communities to provide appropriate services and support local initiatives.

Fortunately, in some Aboriginal communities the Indigenous art movement has provided the opportunity for creative engagement and the resources to sustain a viable future. One example of this is the Mowanjum community where ICA staff also worked in 1971-2.

The ICA presence had a profound and long term effect on the community which is still being manifest today. Last year I visited the Mowanjum Gallery of Art and Culture, a magnificent space where the community artists can work and display their beautiful art.

The Mowanjum artists, descendants of three tribal groups, are custodians of the Wandjina image, a representation of their supreme spirit beings, the creators of the land.

To see some of their art and read more of their story, go to www.mowanjumarts.com/
Also, in Murrin Bridge, in central western New

South Wales, the community is still in being and engaged in various activities. Craig Cromelin, who was a teenager at the time when ICA people lived in the community, subsequently became a key leader in the development of a wine producing enterprise, and he now represents the Wiradjuri region on the NSW Land Council, and was recently elected as the Deputy Chairperson. On a couple of occasions he has been a member of a delegation to the Indigenous Peoples Forum at the UN in New York.


John Telford is a member of ICA Australia


Extending school partnerships across Asia

By Robyn Hutchinson

EXPANDING HORIZONS is a partnership between schools in China and Australia. In 2007, the Sydney Region of the NSW Department of Education and Training formed a working party of principals and regional State curriculum officers to identify key strategies to enhance learning and teaching in the Sydney Region through a focus on Asia. As a result we now have a vibrant working relationship with schools in Nanjing, Chengdu, Yangzhou and the Pudong District of Shanhai, as well as strong friendships with authorities in Beijing, Zhengzhou and Jiangsu Province.

This partnership is now being extended and developed with schools in India.

Sister School partnerships, a professional learning program in Asian Studies for teachers, a Principal shadowing program, video-conferencing between schools and regular communication and visits between countries and schools, are a few of the initiatives of the Expanding Horizons project.

Over the past 2 years exchange concerts have been held, with 220 Sydney Region students participating in the world Expo in 2010. In August this year, Sydney Region hosted a large contingent of Chinese students who joined Sydney students in a Gala Concert in the Opera House, Sydney.

Ashfield Public school in Sydney is one of the 22 Sister Schools. Robyn will participate in the next Principals’ training conference in Beijing in September, 2011.

This is of course a model that is and can be applied at any level, inside and outside of any country, and is particularly relevant to building relationships of learning between Indigenous and less Indigenous schools in Australia and elsewhere. It is partnerships such as these that we can build on as we move forward on our work for the Global Conference in Nepal in 2012.


Robyn Hutchinson is a mebmer of ICA Australia.
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