kayleehazell
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6/3/2008
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12/15/2008
| Name: |
kaylee hazell |
| I live: |
Sydney |
I AM an actor, an activist, a drama tutor, a producer, a music lover, a performer, a festival lover, a drummer, a singer,a songwriter,a glockenspeil player, a student of life, a dreamer, a believer of peace, an observer of beauty,i have a love and respect for Australia, for the land, for indigenous people and their culture. I am a room mate, a friend, a daughter, a sister, an admirer, a grandchild, a cousin, a niece, a woman, a member of an artistic community.
I AM ALIVE
I AM FREE
MASTER OF MY OWN DESTINY
I AM A PRODUCT
OF MY FAMILY.
I have had a strong love and curiosity for Australian Indigenous culture since I was a young girl growing up in Taree and Port Macquarie. I moved to Sydney at 18 to go to drama school and pursue a career in performing arts. After drama school I started teaching acting workshops with youth and realised I could join my love of performing arts with indigenous culture and run workshops in remote indigenous communities
ActNow challenge seemed a perfect opportunity to explore what it’s like to work with youth in a remote Aboriginal community in a supported yet challenging environment
I hope the Act Now Challenge allows me to gain further experience and confidence to shape the ideas in my head into a career for myself that will aim to benefit the life and wellbeing of young indigenous Australians through the performing arts. I hope to gain more knowledge and understanding of contemporary and traditional Indigenous cultures and to learn more about the history of my own country. I hope to be welcomed into the community so I can share my own journey and listen to everyone else’s. We all have so much to learn from each other...
This work is licenced under an Attribution-ShareAlike licence.
© 2008. First published on actnow.com.au
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This weekend Jess and I had the opportunity to go and camp under the stars overnight at Mt Theo. We decided to miss out on the artist centre Christmas party in Alice Springs as we thought it was more important to see how this highly praised program was run.
Elders of the Yuendumu Community initiated the Mt Theo program in 1993, with additional support from local organisations. The program and community successfully fought petrol sniffing through a dual approach. The first step was the movement of those sniffing petrol to Mt Theo Outstation, some 160km from Yuendumu community. At Mt Theo Outstation, Yuendumu elders cared for the youth, as part of a cultural rehabilitation program.
We drove to the outstation in a troupie with Scotty one of the carers, Amelia a youth worker and her brother Ben who was visiting from Canberra. I was interested to see how things are run at the outstation. The youth have been taken there for a period of time as a result of anti social behaviour. When we arrived we unloaded the troupie which was full of supplies for everyone. There was lots of soft drink, tinned fruit and veg, heaps of meat and tea. We opened the freezer to stack the meat and were greeted by a massive bush turkey, feathers and all which we would be having for dinner that night! The two young males taking part in the mt theo program were playing a game with their four older carers. They had invented a game similar to naughts and crosses using bottle caps and a maze painted on the concrete. Amelia said they would play it all afternoon.
Jess and I were given a tour of the out station by one of the female carers Glenis Napanangka. She showed us one of the small rooms that stood alone “This used to be the only shed out here, that’s all we had”. The outstation has developed over the past few years and it’s a pretty good set up. There is a big shed/shelter that has girls and boys areas, showers and toilets a big kitchen and pantry space and a common room with a TV, everything is run by solar power. Jess and I went and sat out in front of an old shed and interviewed each other with our Act now video cameras on our time so far.
When the boys finished their game it was time to go hunting! About 10 of us jammed in the troupie and one of the guys in the front had a big rifle out the window ready to shoot any kangaroo, bush turkey, emu or camel that went past. We didn’t catch anything; they all ran off too fast. I think I was relieved about that.
When we came back to the outstation another family had arrived to visit. I started talking to Connie a woman who was camping out with her husband and four grandchildren. I found out we knew a lot of her family who are artists at Warlukulangu. Connie was amazing, her English was great so it was really easy to communicate. Then she went on to tell me she was a linguist and knew six different indigenous languages, I was in awe of her knowledge. It surprised me that she was ok with the Governments plans to enforce bilingual schools to teach in English for the first four hours of every day “They get enough Warlpiri at home, it’s important to learn English” she said.
After playing basketball and running around with the kids we set up our swags outside. About 15 of us set up metal bed frames in a line while the kids watched Step up 2 and the fire crackled away cooking our bush turkey and vegetables. After my first taste of bush turkey, playing some hide and seek and drinking tea under the stars we retired to our swags and watched shooting stars before falling into a blissful slumber in the outback.... until the rain came! “It’s raining” I awoke and stumbled around moving everything under shelter it was 4am. We then went back to sleep and was woken by the kids at about 6am wanting to play!
We woke up and went on a trip to see the place of the rainbow serpent. We were driven out to a massive hole in the ground where we were told the story of the rainbow serpent coming out of the ground and creating the mountains and landscapes surrounding. We were then taken to a few of the other surrounding outstations which were now deserted. There was one where a few families used to live in the “ration days”. There was about four sheds/houses, a little shop and a cattle holding pen. It was now empty. After a long drive back to Mt Theo we started to pack up all our belongings and said our goodbyes and began another drive back to Yuendumu.
On the way home we got to stop at the Emu dreaming place. It was so mystical in the rainy weather, the grey sky made the red rocks take on a purple hue. Napanangka and her husband pointed out some bush berries we could eat they were like mulberries so delicious! There was a beautiful memorial plaque for an 8 year old boy who died in 1987 on one of the rocks, he was the son of a white family who had lived on a nearby outstation for 30 years.
It read “He was a child of the universe, like the trees and the stars; he had a right to be here....”
Rain in the outback is a beautiful sight. It’s also very loud on the tin roof of the barn and has inspired Jess and I to sing many songs about rain. Here are just a few, Fleetwood Mac - as used for my title, Madonna – Rain, John Williamson - Raining on the rock... you get the point.
We decided to go for a walk in the rain around the airstrip and the gloomy weather was making us quite nostalgic and reflective of our time so far. We took some lame photos and I rejected Jess’ constant requests of “You should dive in the big puddles it would be a mad photo!”
The following day on our walk there were puddles everywhere and from a distance we saw about ten kids swimming in a ditch full of water near the road. We walked up and said “Ahhh mud monsters!” they were all so cute, but of course we forgot our camera this time, that would be right!
The best thing about the rain is the swimming holes and dried out river beds that fill up for the kids to swim in. For youth program we drove out to mission creek with a bus load of kids and two youth workers form Mt Theo. It was a hot day and I enjoyed the swim and being tackled by the kids in the murky water, until I got back to town and was told “Mission creek, oh yeah I was there the other day. Big dead horse in the water, watch out for maggots in your hair” “hmmmmm, not funny” I replied, while running my fingers through my hair with my heart thumping fast.
You know the aboriginal story of Tidalick the desert frog? He gets very thirsty and drinks all the water from the land and causes a great drought. All the other animals try to get the greedy Tidalick to open his mouth and share the water but he refused. The animals got together and thought of a solution, they would make him laugh! They succeeded and the water flowed again.
Well at mission creek I saw hundreds of little fat Tidalicks. The kids were running around catching them and collecting them in bottles. The poor little froggies! Amelia one of the Mt Theo youth workers thought she got all the frogs out of the troupie before we left but when Jess sat in the back some naughty little kids tried to shove them down her clothes. We stopped the car and Jess sat up front with me. I don’t think I would like to any more frogs for a while. “Ribit, Ribit!”
Jess and I were walking around the airstrip at the end of last week and reflecting on our time in Yuendumu. The ups and downs, the people and places and the different experiences we have shared. The most important thing to both of us so far has been the connections and friendships made with people from the community.
It was hard at first for me. A lot of white people come in and out of the community and I understand why people keep distance as it’s easy to think “They are just here to have an experience for a few weeks and then leave. What’s the point in getting close?” I remember thinking this about exchange students in high school, but then when I finally opened myself up I got to learn about a whole other culture and make new friendships. I feel at the end of week 7 only now are we making friendships and that’s when the question arises... “So when are you guys leaving?” “Three weeks” I told my new friend.... no response
I’m starting to think about how hard it will be to leave. Even though I would love to think some of the girls could come visit me in Sydney it’s all pretty complicated. It’s hard for the girls to leave their family and travel with their babies and to get the money together for a trip. I still believe there is a good chance though. I would love to show them around and introduce them to my friends.
I have never really experienced being a minority before and it was a struggle at first to be treated like just another Kardiya (white person – outsider) coming to have an experience and study the local culture. I didn’t see myself this way. I have always had an incredible love and interest in indigenous culture, it was amplified in year 8 when I asked my Nan about our family tree for a religion assignment and she said “there is nothing to know”. Dad told me she was ashamed of our Aboriginal heritage. To this day I still don’t know the whole story, but I’m working on it. It explained a lot of feelings though. Being here has really made me want find out about my roots because family is so important here, I believe it’s imperative to know your family history because it helps you grow. Just like the roots of a tree help it to grow big and stand strong.
Night Club is a program run by the Mount Theo here in Yuendumu. It’s a place where young people over 16 can come and hang out at night and do activities. Most of these young people have dropped out of the school system and night club is aiming to re-engage them in a more relaxed learning environment. It sounds great in theory and I was really excited to be involved in the program, but it’s much harder than it sounds...
Firstly the boys will rarely interact with us; they tend to come to the door see us there and walk away or go straight to the computer ignoring us or go in the other room to watch a movie. There is quite a divide between females and males and I was told by one of the youth workers that a single young white female is the lowest rankings in status here. It’s easier to interact with the girls because most of the girls have little babies and when you start playing with the babies, conversation starts to flow with the mothers. In the radio interviews one of the questions asked was “What do you think you’re bringing to the community?” Before I even arrived I was thinking of all the workshop ideas and activities I could try to do with the youth, but none have them have really eventuated like I was playing them out in my head. It’s hard because the girls and boys find it hard to interact without getting ‘shame’ and people are constantly coming and going and there are always lots of babies to look after. But I think it is more important to just hang out and try to establish a connection with community members who don’t often interact with ‘kardiya’ (white person – outsider).
With all those obstacles we have had some really cool moments, sitting down and painting with the girls and straightening the young ones hair. This week though I feel we made a strong connection with a few of the local girls when we sat song and started writing a couple of songs. Tali, who is a youth worker here, got a few of the ladies together who were keen to have a sing along. Jess plays guitar so she sat down and started playing some chords and we decided to write some lyrics about Night Club. In two hours we had written two songs! The other was how we don’t need men causing trouble in our lives, It was very Beyonce inspired. I will post both the songs up for you all to read. We are hoping to record these two tracks so we can give a copy to the girls so they can remember our stay and be inspired by what they wrote.
This week Jess and I had lots of interviews with radio stations to spread the love about the Act Now website. Monday I talked to 2ser and Jess talked to Edge radio in Hobart, Tuesday was Sin Fm in Melbourne and Fbi 94.5 in Sydney and Jess was interviewed by 4zzz in Brisbane. It was great talking to Fbi, it felt like things had come full circle. The first time I heard about Act Now Challenge was from the producer’s booth at Fbi where I was working as a producer for Arvo’s with Alison Pitrowski.
Fbi reminds me of Act Now as they are both aiming to connect young people with opportunities to get involved in their own community. Without either of the two I wouldn’t be in the middle of oz right now, experiencing something I have wanted for a long time.
While painting canvas in the shed at the artist centre I have been listening to Alice Springs radio station which is made up of segments from a lot of neighbouring remote communities. It’s really cool to hear traditional language on the radio. Some English words are used especially for dates, times and numbers as there are no traditional words for time. The music played by most local Yapa (Aboriginal) bands is very strongly reggae influenced. One of the boys told me most bands used to play lots of rock music but now it’s mostly reggae because it has a better beat and rhythm and it’s easy to write songs with reggae chords.
Music is a big part of the community here. There are five churches in Yuendumu and its seems nearly every day you can hear live music coming from a church service. Walking through the streets you can hear people jamming in their houses or playing cds of local popular bands. Then there is the younger generation that shake their booties to the more commercial songs at the disco which is held every Friday and Saturday night. There are two songs which are played repeatedly; ‘Dangerous’ by Akon and ‘Low’ by Flow rider. I’m pretty sure I know all the lyrics now from hearing them about ten times a day! A lot of the kids are really into American hip hop and R & B, you see a lot of young people wearing G-unit and 50 cent clothing and quite a few little ones have names like Lekisha and Timeka. Sensing maybe a bit of cultural exchange going on with good old America....
Jess, Micah, Shaun and I headed off on an adventure to see footprints of a caveman set in stone for the last 4000 years only 10km from our house. Shaun - a local ‘yapa’ (aboriginal person) told us the story of the giant. He used to kill a lot of yapa so everyone got together and killed the giant. We walked up the hill and saw quite a large footprint surrounded by little rocks and further along we saw a footprint set in stone that was 10 times the size of an average foot. It was pretty crazy to think this footprint was created by a giant caveman 4000 years ago!
We then headed up the hill to see where the cave man lived in a massive cave/hole in the rocky mountain. I was expecting a normal looking cave, but this was pretty phenomenal. We were walking up the rocky hill and all of a sudden the ground dropped down into this massive hole, that very wide and extremely deep. Shaun told us about how the cave man threw ‘yapa’ into the hole to kill and eat them. Shaun said he has climbed all the way down and the cave turned into a passageway that stretched to the mountains in the distance.
We were going to cook up some kangaroo tail in a fire outside the giants cave but it was getting dark and a big dust storm was headed our way. We drove back to the barn and tried to light a fire but the wind storm wouldn’t let us. The boys skinned the kangaroo in the kitchen and we chucked it the oven, contemporary style. This was my first taste of kangaroo. Verdict – Nice, kinda like lamb shanks!
Photographer : kaylee hazell
It was Monday, the only day the pool is closed, and so after school Amelia, Jess and I took the kids to the basketball court for youth program activities. Amelia and Tali are the two youth workers from the Mount Theo Program. Each afternoon they run homework centre where the younger kids come and do some reading with us, then its youth program which is generally swimming in the new pool or at Wollorah dam and then at night more activities are run as part of a ‘Night Club’ program for the teens. Jess and I get to participate with most of the three programs on Monday to Wednesday.
The basketball game was fun until one of the kids rocked up with an emu leg! I don’t know where she got it but it came out of nowhere and all of a sudden I was being chased around the court with this scaly three toed foot. The kids were pulling the tendon and moving the toes, it was freaky!
The following day we went out to the dam to swim because the filter in the pool was broken and it had to close. The bus trips to the dam are always full of excitement and loud sing-a-longs. Jess and I had a wicked sing-a-long to TLC ‘No Scrubs’ it always takes me back to PCYC discos in Port Macquarie. Those were the days. All of a sudden the kids yelled at Amelia to stop and everyone piled off the bus. One of the boys had spotted a big lizard, but it was already dead and a bit squashed so wasn’t good for eating.
When we were out at the dam I told the boys they had to practice a song and I would come over and see their performance. They had an old oil drum and some sticks for the drum kit and another big stick for a guitar and a microphone. There is a very popular song in the community based on the classic hit “give me that old time rock and roll” but is sung with the Warlpiri word Jukurrpa, meaning dreaming story “give me that old time Jukurrpa”. Everyone loves it and the boy’s rendition was awesome.
After a big day we arrived at ‘Night Club’ pretty weary, but to our delight Warlpiri media had set up a screening of the Yuendumu AFL team winning the grand final this year and a bbq was cooking! The film was edited by some of the local youth. It was cool to finally see the victorious game we had heard so much about. The win meant a lot to the community of Yuendumu and there is still immense pride around town for the mighty Yuendumu Magpies!
PAW Media is a non-profit community organisation that works to create and broadcast local media as well as media for a broader regional and national audience. www.pawmedia.com.au
This week there has been no youth program with Mount Theo as a young member of the community passed away last Saturday. When this happens there is quite a long period of time given for sorry business. It’s something we have to be sensitive towards.
Our week was still spent at Warlukurlangu Artist centre each day from 9am to 2pm. I’m starting to get into more of a routine now and rotating with different jobs around the gallery which consist of mixing paint, putting paint in tubs, making tea and lunch for artists, painting canvas, un-stretching canvases that are ready to log into the online gallery and place in price points in the real gallery. I will be honest some days are a bit monotonous, and there is constantly paint in my fingernails, but then something happens and I realise each day I have been learning something really valuable just by sitting and observing.
One of the main things I have gained is a stronger interest; I’d even go as far as saying love, for indigenous art. As I log the paintings into the data base a picture of the artist and a description of the dreaming (Jukurrpa) comes up on the screen. The Jukurrpa is passed down to the artist through ancestors and skin names. I love being able to read the story that is associated with each painting. I’m even starting to recognise the ‘kuruwarri’ which is the word for the design of the dreaming story, so I can pick up a painting and say ‘this one is possum dreaming’. I’ve already picked out one painting I want and it was very funny to read the dreaming associated with it. It went along the lines of a man standing in the bushes looking at a woman and she saw him and chopped his penis with a digging stick and he turned into stone! Pretty good choice I reckon.
Photographer : kaylee hazell
Photographer : kaylee hazell
A big marquee was erected outside the pool where all the media had set up to record the proceedings of the grand opening. Minister for indigenous affairs Jenny Macklin welcomed everyone to the ceremony and spoke of the effort and generosity that went into raising funds for the pool to go ahead. It was really heartening to hear all the names of people who contributed to the project to create a better and brighter future for all the youth who will benefit from the pool. Supposably members of the community have wanted this pool for 30 years! I felt privileged to be in Yuendumu to share the occasion with all the happy kids who have become familiar faces for us now.
A symbolic black and white ribbon was cut and the gate swung open to an avalanche of kids all wearing bright yellow Yuendumu pool opening T-shirts ran into line to have a shower and dive in the bright blue swimming pool. The kid’s smiles were catching; it’s amazing what a bit of cool water can do on a hot day. After a big swim we lined up again for a big lunch. There was a BBQ with steak, sausages, three salads, bread, bottled water and apples and oranges. Jess and I took full advantage of a free feed because we are waiting on our bush order from Alice Springs to arrive...we only have baked beans and rice left.
The swim and BBQ really picked up my spirits so I’m sure all the kids must be beaming. The school have come up with a ‘YES SCHOOL, YES POOL’ policy which I think is a great idea. A more rewarding positive slogan than ‘No school, No pool’. I think that’s what today was all about, celebrating the positive instead of dwelling on the negative. The pool has created more employment and training for local residents, positive media attention, community solidarity, political partnerships and most of all fun for the present younger generation and opportunity for the future of Yuendumu.
Photographer : kaylee hazell
