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Emma Inglis’ Red Dust trip to Alice Springs

February 23, 2012
Category: Game Development,
Emma Inglis’ Red Dust trip to Alice Springs

Earlier this month, representatives from Cricket Victoria, led by Commonwealth Bank VicSpirit captain Emma Inglis, and Red Dust travelled to Alice Springs to visit remote Indigenous communities.

Red Dust is a non-profit health promotion charity that seeks to improve the health and wellbeing of disadvantaged youth in remote communities.

They utilises positive role models from the fields of sport, music, art, health and business to deliver its Lifestyle Education Program which encourages healthy lifestyle decisions and promotes education as a path to personal development, employment and readiness for community leadership.

Below is Emma’s diary from the trip.

For more information on Red Dust, visit http://www.reddust.org.au

DAY ONE:

On Thursday morning I found myself heading to Melbourne Airport to travel to Alice Springs, where I would be part of a group of six participating in a Red Dust cultural experience to a remote Indigenous community.

I didn’t really have much information on what was to come but I was excited nevertheless.

I met up with the rest of the group which included Alex Kerr and Rob Wyatt (vice-captain and assistant coach of the Victorian Imparja Cup Team) and John Watkin (General Manager of Game Development at Cricket Victoria) and his daughter, Lucy.

Upon arriving in Alice Springs we were met by our ‘tour leader’ and Red Dust founder and director John Van Gronigen.

Being in John’s presence I couldn’t help but be excited for what lay ahead as he had an aura of excitement and passion for the trip we were about to embark on.

Before heading to the community we picked up some supplies.

We went to Coles and picked up food for the trip, packed it into the Esky and loaded the back of the ute.

It should be noted that even though there were only six of us on the trip the Watkins saw fit to purchase enough fruit (mainly apples) to feed an army.

We then sat down for a quick lunch and John took us through some history of the communities and some of the issues facing the community including health care and education.

These issues may seem simple fixes on the surface but cultural beliefs, as well as trust of the government, and the want for intervention, add more complexity.

We started the three hour trip out along sealed roads and had a stop at Glen Helen Gorge.

It was not your average rest stop, the Gorge included a picturesque water hole and wedge tail eagles overhead…a bit different to the old country servo!

Back for our final stint on the road, we drove over a creek bed at high speed and nearly lost our bumper and sustained some whiplash at the same time!

Needless to say we slowed down a little after that.

We also spotted some wildlife along the way including two goannas that tried to play chicken with the car, a family of wild brumbies and numerous wild donkeys…yes you did read that right… wild donkeys in the outback!

Before long we arrived at the community of Aryonga, which is tucked away in a valley at the end of the MacDonnell Ranges.

During a quick drive we were greeted with waves and smiles from the kids playing in their yards.
It was refreshing to see the kids having fun and playing outside without a Playstation or iPhone in their hands.

Although it was a bit confronting to see so many people all living in one small house, in run down conditions.

After the quick stop we headed five minutes out of town to a dry creek bed where we set up camp for the night.

A bit of team work saw us collect firewood and unload the swags from the ute in no time.

A quick walk up to the top of a nearby hill gave us an amazing view back over the valley and our campsite and also worked up our hunger for dinner.

I don’t know whether it was the long day or the grill plate over an open fire but the steak sandwiches we ate for dinner were beyond delicious!

As the evening came to an end the moon lit up and even after the lantern was turned off everything could still be seen clearly…but it wasn’t until waking in the middle of the night, due to the nearby rustlings of wild donkeys, I was treated to a sky full of the brightest stars I had ever seen.

Not only were they bright but there were trillions of them!

It was breathtaking.

DAY TWO:

We were woken in the morning with the sun rising over the hill and the loud donkeys in the distance…I had no idea how annoying and loud donkeys were until this trip!

Having previously roomed with Elyse Villani, I thought I could handle just about anything but obviously not.

After a quick breakfast and pack up at camp we headed into the community to check out the breakfast program that was being run.

It was an initiative set up to not only make sure the kids get a nutritious breakfast but also to encourage them to go to school.

All kids enrolled in the program must attend school.

The menu included porridge, scrambled eggs and baked beans all washed down with a Milo.

I have to admit I was a tad jealous!

After breakfast the kids headed across the road to the school.

First on the agenda was activity time.

The kids got out the totem tennis, with the teacher on rotation duty.

After their initial shyness I managed to get two young girls involved in some footy…wow, not bad skills for a five year old.

Within 10 minutes basically all the kids were getting involved with the whole team in a range of games.

Most were better than me and I started wishing they went back in their shell!

Many of the girls were fascinated with Lucy and I and gave us some new hair styles, as well as join in with some hopscotch.

I look forward to trying out my new look at Gala Awards this year.

The kids just seemed to be fascinated by all of us.

They wanted to hold our hands, get piggy backs and give us hugs, or just call out our name and wave from across the playground.

It was amazing to be able to connect to these young kids who have grown up in a completely different culture.

After activity time we headed into the classroom to do some maths and reading.

This made me a little nervous as maths has never been my strong point.

I sat down with the class and instantly had three kids sitting on my lap ready to read!

I read the class a story and then their teacher Caroline read them a story in their native language, and they all joined in.

It was adorable.

The class then split up for maths.

This is where the gap in their education really hit home for me.

Their task was to count around a circle one-by-one up to ten, and most of them really struggled to complete it.

The concentration span only lasted about 10 minutes into maths before it was time for inside games and then lunch.

After lunch it was time to run our cricket clinic.

With the temperature pushing 40 degrees only a handful of kids were joining in from the start.

Before long we had a full blown game of tip-and-run going and the competitive nature of some was fully on show.

Beam balls and bouncers were in the repertoire but had to be banned and the favourite shot seemed to be to cow corner… which is where most fielders were parked.

The excitement of the game also drew some of the kids who had earlier found it a bit “too hot” to join in.

The hand eye co-ordination and ability to learn new skills was amazing for such young kids.
I was very impressed.

The hour long clinic seemed to fly by and before we knew it the day had come to an end.

Before leaving we received hugs from the kids and also enquiries as to whether we had any lollies for them.

In searching through the eski we found an excess of apples and grapes that we were happy to dish out and that the kids were lining up to take.

As they ran back to their houses with smiles on their faces I couldn’t help but smile too. What stood out was how little they had, yet how happy they were.

I could not be more impressed with the Red Dust Role Model program.

They are able expose the communities to the kind of opportunities that are available to them and work with both the government and the communities to improve the health and education, whilst also being culturally sensitive and not forcing westernised culture where it is not wanted.

At the same time they are also able to give people like myself a first-hand experience of the challenges faced by remote indigenous communities and the complexities in providing solutions to them.

I had an amazing experience interacting with the children of Areyonga and hopefully the games and clinics we ran were a fun and novel experience for them.

I can’t thank Red Dust or Cricket Victoria enough for the opportunity to go on this cultural experience.

It has given me a greater appreciation of the educational opportunities I have been given and the way of life I get to lead.

Hopefully I can put the knowledge and skills I have learnt to good use and help to provide greater opportunities to these communities in the future.

Emma Inglis

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