Areyonga

The Red Dust team received an extra-enthusiastic welcome as the cars pulled into the community, with kids running up to meet the cars and greeting them with cries of ‘Red Dust, Red Dust!’. One can’t ask for a better reception than that!

The team spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with the kids and community, with new team members making fast introductions and the regulars reacquainting with friends and finding out what they’ve been up to since our last visit.

The week’s programme saw the team warming up with the students in the mornings, getting the blood flowing and brains ready for learning. In the classroom, they assisted with literacy, reading one-on-one with the kids and helping them with sentence structure and comprehension.  Lifestyle Education Programme activities included sessions on bullying and how to deal with it, as well as who to turn to when it does happen. The students drew pictures of how their bodies feel when they are being bullied, creating images of hurting hearts, shaking knees and red faces. Other classroom activities saw the role models and students discussing friendship and what it means to be a good friend.

Outside of the classroom, the students participated enthusiastically in warm-ups, stretches, soccer matches and AFL clinics. (It should be noted that the girls won the first goal-kicking comp!) The kids took special delight and pride in showing the team their community, leading them on long walks amongst the canyons to show them the amazing views of Areyonga, as well as taking them to the local billabong, where few were game enough to brave the chilly water.

The programme finished on the last day with the students creating flags that depicted what was special to them and their community, as part of the Qantas ‘ALL OF AUS’ campaign. It was a special reminder to all that we should take a look around us a bit more often and recognise what is important to us.

The Red Dust visit seemed to bring the kids back to the classroom, with 100% attendance reported the throughout week.

Kintore

After a full day of driving – six hours of corrugated roads and red dust – the team was travel weary but very keen to dive into the week-long visit with our good friends at Kintore.

Much of the classroom activity throughout the week centred around hygiene, with a special identity flag session for the Qantas ‘ALL OF AUS’ campaign. The team also assisted in the classroom with the school’s literacy program.

The music component of the program also had the theme of ‘ALL OF AUS’, with the song ‘Walungurru’ created by Peter and the students resonating with themes of community pride. The rest of the team helped with the workshops and fillming of the video, with some members now considering a career change…!

Outside, it was too cold to swim so the team delivered much of the sport program on the basketball courts (it stays warmer there!), honing ball skills and wheelchair wheelies.

The team was greatly appreciative of the community’s hospitality, as always, and especially enjoyed sharing tea and a stunning desert sunset with the Yirarra teachers.
 
The end of the week saw the team presenting their masterpiece song and video to the students and teachers, who were thrilled with the result. After some sad farewells the team hit the red dust once again for the long drive back to Alice Springs, already looking forward to the next visit.

Yuendumu

This tour’s visit to Yuendumu involved a special project that Red Dust was commissioned to deliver through FaCSHA. This ‘Safe Places’ project saw the Red Dust team, comprised of several experienced role models, spearheading a tremendous effort to paint five large shipping containers by the end of the week. These containers were to be used as ‘cooling down’places for the men in the community, and the objective was to make them approachable and appealing. Red Dust worked in conjunction with Greening Australian, who was responsible for landscaping the area, and engaged community members to join in the efforts.

Armed with 20 tins of paint, roofracks loaded with scaffolding and a commercial spray gun, the team welcomed the assistance of 20 young men from the community. Red Dust role model Raymond Walters Japanangka, an accomplished indigenous artist, guided the group in designing artwork that would appeal to the men and create a welcoming feel to the facilities. 
 
By mid-week, the team was in full swing in their aim to complete the task…except for one hiccup: no more white paint. With the last container set to be adorned with the traditional Yuendumu Magpie colours of black and white, there was no alternative but to put out the SOS call to the car full of Red Dusters who were heading out to Yuendumu that day. The call came just in time and the paint arrived safely with the other four team members, who had spent the first part of the week in Areyonga.

After the finishing touches were made to the last container on Thursday, the team hosted a community barbecue to officially launch the facilities and introduce the finished product to the broader community. Over 140 people attended and the facilities were well received.
 
The week ended with sports clinics conducted by Kyle, Mark, Christian and Daryl before heading off to Alice Springs to reunite with the other teams who had headed out bush that week. The teams were pleased with another successful tour, as well as great results for the special project.