rig news december 2014 - remote indigenous gardens | rig ... · rig news – dec. 2014, rig...

RIG News – Dec. 2014, RIG Network’s Quarterly Newsletter, No.31

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Wishing everyone happy, safe holidays and the best for 2015 Welcome to December RIG News. As the year draws to a close, many small remote communities face an uncertain future as funding responsibilities for them shift from the Commonwealth to the States and Territories. Groups everywhere await the outcomes of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy open grant round, now due mid March, and RJCP providers and communities are anticipating change with the new work for the dole and other changes to commence mid next year. A power struggle over the administration of Aboriginal land is brewing following the October Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting at which Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the NT and Queensland governments and the Commonwealth would "urgently investigate" the administration of Aboriginal land. Google ABC News for more about these developments and responses to them from the Northern Land Council. In the face of growing mining, agriculture and other development pressures, Australia’s biggest native title claim covering 14.6m ha (36m acres) of land and waters was lodged in the Federal Court in Brisbane on behalf of nine Cape York traditional owners last week. As the UN year of Family Farming draws to a close, ongoing drought across north-western NSW and western Queensland continues to make life tough for too many families. So, we very warmly wish all readers, their families and communities the very best for a strong, happy and safe Christmas and summer. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to RIG News in 2014. Your news and stories ‘make’ RIG News and we look forward to exploring and sharing more news and resources with you in 2015. It has been a busy year for all of the Foodswell team – huge thanks to our Board, our lovely ‘uber’ Secretary who keeps us all on track and to our fabulous Patron and Ambassadors. EduGrow has grown on and we’re excited to have received community grants from Australia Post and Medibank for new NSW programs in 2015. Working with four student teams from UTS was also a highlight this year – warm ‘thanks’ to each of them and to all of the UTS Shopfront team for creative, generous support. I forward to being back in touch in the New Year, Anthea.

RIG News – December 2014

" News from the Remote Indigenous Gardens Network – www.remoteindigenousgardens.net

In this edition:

• EduGrow Award Winners • Training & enterprise • Community Greening NSW • Some Oz highlights – Year

of Family Farming • Network people • Summer reading ideas…

‘Termite Santa’ pic courtesy Robyn Wing. He is on the Great Northern Highway between Wyndham &

Halls Creek, has solar lights & a visitors book!


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EduGrow School Garden Awards - Arnhem 2014

Winners announced - Every participating school a winner!

Great gardens, food, community connections and learning are growing in creative ways at Arnhem schools large and small. The EduGrow Awards 2014 overall theme ‘Food, Family, Community’ and new Special Theme Awards encouraged schools to explore and try a wide range of gardening and learning activities. All eight entries demonstrated creativity, commitment and innovation, so judging was tough! Huge congratulations to all participating schools and very special thanks to EduGrow’s Judges, Sponsors and Partners, Ambassadors and the NT Department of Education who all help make the Awards possible! “From the biggest well resourced schools to the littlest schools, with less resources, all made a fantastic effort to do a great job with what they had” Professor Michael Christie (Professor of Education, National Fellow, Australian Learning and Teaching Council, The Northern Institute, CDU) who has judged the Awards since they began in 2012, said. Participating schools ranged from homelands schools with 30-50 students to schools at larger centres with 300 or more students. The EduGrow Award categories are designed to encourage schools of all sizes, with or starting school gardens in 2014 to enter and enjoy growing good food, good learning and good times. The Grand Overall Prize winners were: Jointly Awarded to Gawa Christian School and Shepherdson College, both from Elcho Island – $2000 each. Prizewinners by Major Category and for each Special Theme Awards – more fun in pictures!

"Happy times at the EduGrow 2014 Awards Ceremony held at Shepherdson College, Galiwin’ku, November 13."

Milyakburra School, Bickerton Island. First Prize: Category 1, Schools with < 150 students with est. garden infrastructure. Winner: Special Theme Awards: Best Compost or Soil Improvement (fab use of seaweed!) and Best Student Film.

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Garrthalala Homelands School, YHS. Second Prize, Category 1. Winner: Special Theme Award: Garden Longevity & Continuity

Baniyala Garrangali School, Third Prize, Category 1. Winner: Special Theme Award: Best Garden Feature that uses Recycled Materials

Shepherdson College, Elcho Island. First Prize: Category 2, Schools with > 150 students with an est. garden. Winner Special Theme Awards: Best Waterwise Garden (sponsored by Power and Water), Most Artistic Garden, Best Enterprise Project (sponsored by ASIC MoneySmart Teaching), Best Healthy Food activity or project, Best Student Film. Shepherdson College have an amazing blog – visit: http://letsobtainayield.wordpress.com/

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Nhulunbuy High School: First Prize, Category 4 (third overall!): Schools with > 150 students starting from scratch. Winner Special Theme Award: Best School Garden Team garden integration with other school programs. Fabulous whole of school approach with Men at Work Crew!

A real highlight of the overall Awards this year, was to see schools with established gardens integrate their gardens with learning activities across many curriculum areas in creative, exciting ways and to see ’new’ participating schools (who were either starting from scratch or with very bare bones!) create fantastic, productive food gardens and learning activities in just two terms. The Awards are helping build and share momentum, skills and ideas - and in just three years have contributed to raise awareness and build interest to integrate school garden programs into whole of school health, wellbeing and learning programs. The new ‘special theme awards’ introduced this year proved popular (great artwork, enterprise projects, waterwise gardens, student films, community partnerships and more….) as were the community based workshops EduGrow ran in Yirrkala and Nhulunbuy in August led by Foodswell’s Ambassador Emily Gray. Going forward we aim to build on these elements and, with support, offer the Awards program to more top end NT schools in 2015. Shepherdson College staff and students kindly hosted the Awards ceremony and created a great day for students, family and community members who came along to tour the garden and join in the activities. Garden Team Leader Wendy Hughes, students and colleagues led garden tours, prepared and shared garden giveaways, screened EduGrow student films and presentations, and cooked up a storm for the fabulous Café Shep that was held after the Awards ceremony. The Sheppie ‘chooks’ received a lot of love and attention and Mulberry trees and sunflower seeds headed home with lots of visitors. Congrats and thank you to all of the Shepherdson Team! A fun day. Pictured below … Awards Ceremony day at Shepherdson. The Garden tour and some of the great food at Café Shep.

Yirrkala School: Category 2: Second Prize. Winner Special Theme Awards: Best Community Partnership (Yolgnu Strong Men), Best Garden or Gardeners Photo.

Gawa Christian College: Category 3: First Prize, schools < 150 students, starting from scratch. Winner Special Theme Awards: Best Bush Food, Biodiversity & Elders Involvement; Best Student Artwork

"" Gapuwiyak Primary School. Category 3: Second Prize. Winner Special Theme Award: Best Garden Club.

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EduGrow is made possible with the support of lots of great people, sponsors and supporters. The support of ALPA, EduGrow’s Founding Sponsor, is invaluable to the program and to school teams who regularly work with staff at their local ALPA store to collect food waste, paper and scraps for compost and more. We were thrilled that Henry Harper from ALPA (a very experienced community gardener himself!) joined Professor Michael Christie (CDU) and Duncan Poulson (ASIC) to judge the Awards this year. It was wonderful that Henry, Richard Gandhuwuy (ALPA Board Member) and ALPA colleagues were able to attend and present prizes at the Ceremony – thank you ALPA! This year EduGrow also enjoyed support from new sponsors and participation partners Miwatj Health, Miwatj Employment and Participation, NT Power and Water, The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) and ASIC’s MoneySmart Teaching Program. Power and Water sponsored the Waterwise Garden special prize, ASIC donated an ipad for the Best Enterprise prize (already well in use by Shepherdson students!) and ILF donated fabulous books that found their way into the prize packs each school received. Also included in prize packs was a USB with a collection of 13 videos in Yolnu language from the ‘Sharing The Full and True Stories About Chronic Conditions Project’. Warm thanks to Dr Anne Lowell (CDU) for the ‘many hours’ she kindly spent ‘loading’ each USB and to Rosemary Gundjarranbuy, Project Co-ordinator based on Elcho Island, who attended the Awards Ceremony. The JLF team and TEABBA helped spread the word about EduGrow throughout the year. Big thanks to Don Baylis and Thecla Brogan for interviews throughout the year and wishing you and all of the TEABBA team ‘happy 25th birthday’, celebrated in November – love your work! Very special thanks also to the eLearning and Information Services Teams at the Department of Education who have provided support to create the EduGrow Sharepoint site, assist teachers with videowork, provide a welcoming venue for judging each year and have provided communications and other support to promote the Awards and help distribute prizes to each school this year. Congratulations to all participants and thanks to all who supported EduGrow in 2014 – have a great summer break!

Pictured: Top left – Duncan Poulson, Emily Gray, Anthea Fawcett, Henry Harper and Professor Michael Christie Top right – Alan Mu, Harley Johnson (Sharepoint team) and Margaret Littler, eLearning Services, NT Dept. of Education Centre left and centre: Stuart Forsyth, School Garden Team Leader, Gawa Christian School and their award winning student artwork. Centre right: Prize pack! Bottom left: Yirrkala School’s Award winning best garden pic, Merrki receiving ‘probably’ the last tomato of the season, and right….the spirit of it all!


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Training and enterprise Batchelor College – Science supporting Traditional Knowledge Imran Naveed from Batchelor’s Desert Peoples Centre Campus shares news from Central Australia. The training delivery of the theory and practical components of the Certificate I in Conservation and Land Management program in Central Australia through the Vocational Education and Training in Schools (VETiS) program to local Arrernte students from Santa Teresa (Ltyentye Apurte) Catholic School was completed in late November. The program comprised two core units from Certificate I (Work safely and Maintain the workplace), with four electives selected from certificate II (Recognise fauna, Recognise plants, Perform basic water quality tests, and Observe & report on plants and/or animals). Batchelor Institute VETiS lecturer Benjamin Cavuoto said the core units focused on Occupational Health and Safety in the workplace, while the electives were able to draw upon traditional ecological knowledge from Arrernte elders engaged with the program which highlighted the connection of looking after country in a traditional sense with the integration of western science. Paul Wighton, Ltyentye Apurte Catholic School Middle School teacher reported that Middle School classes at Ltyentye Apurte Catholic School have enjoyed the collaboration with Batchelor Institute and that program highlights included a group trip to Emily Gap, Jessie Gap and Ellery Creek. “We were privileged to have Arrernte elder Veronica Dobson come and talk to the students about bush foods and animals that could be found around Alice Springs. At Ellery Creek the students did water quality testing and were supported by the Ltyentye Apurte rangers. The rangers have provided excellent assistance, guidance and role-modelling for our students and shown them that there are tangible employment opportunities in community after they finish school” Paul said.

Left: Ltyentye Apurte Catholic School students, Santa Teresa Central Land Council rangers, Middle School teachers, Arrernte elder Veronica Dobson, Batchelor Institute VETiS lecturer Benjamin Cavuoto and Science Laboratory Technician Katie Degnian at Jessie Gap Nature Park, MacDonnell Ranges National Park, Central Australia. Right: The group at Ellery Creek Big Hole, MacDonnell Ranges National Park.

Broome Master TreeGrower Course Kim Courtenay from the Kimberley Training Institute (KTI) has long been involved in research, training and practical field work to develop gubinge ‘savannah enrichment’ planting. Kim and KTI recently teamed up with the Australian Agroforestry Foundation (AAF) to deliver a specialised Master TreeGrower course from December 1-5, that explored bush food market potential and specialised cultivation techniques. Some 26 people attended the course that included sessions on:

• The importance of agroforestry for country and people • Bush food species and products • How to grow gubinge and other local species • Markets for products – value adding – storage • Bush land management/savannah enrichment • Research and extension for agroforestry development • Carbon, biodiversity and other environmental services.

AAF is a not-for-profit organisation committed to providing education and extension to support farmers, landowners and communities. They have delivered more than 105 Master TreeGrower courses in Australia involving more than 2000 landholders. To find out more about what they do go to: http://www.agroforestry.org.au


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FoodSwell Partners Royal Botanic Gardens Trust Community Greening Program The Community Greening Program is run by the Royal Botanic Gardens Trust in Partnership with Housing NSW to encourage and promote communal garden projects in social housing throughout NSW. The Trust also has a Youth Community Greening team who work with schools and youth services. Foodswell is a keen supporter of the Community Greening teams and the work they do. We’ve been getting to know each other this year and worked together to submit a proposal to the Indigenous Advancement Strategy open grants round that we will learn the outcome of in March 2015. Phillip Pettit, Community Greening Coordinator, provided the following information and images for RIG News readers. The Community Greening Program regularly travels out to regional areas. For example, in Spring, the Youth Community Greening team visited Dubbo. Team members Brenden and Peter visited Schools and community projects including Bunniyong Public School and Allira Aboriginal Pre School. The team helped get some gardens growing and provided support to teachers looking to link their garden activities into the curriculum and trouble shoot any garden problems. Peter and Brenden had the support of local Elders, Dubbo City Council and Wambangalang Environmental Education Centre over 3 days. In September, the Community Greening Team visited Albury where the local Community Garden kids put on a Spring Garden Show! The team regularly looks forward to trips to Taree, Kempsey, Griffith and Wagga and other regions and towns in the State. If you would like some support in your School or Community Garden please visit the community Greening web page at http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/education/community_greening and the Youth Community Greening web page at http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/education/community_greening/youth_community_greening for information to find out if your project may be eligible for assistance. You can also call 02 9231 8399.

Centre: Brenden Moore helping decorate the Toland Community Garden in Wagga Wagga. Right: Phil with Albury Community Gardeners.

Network people The end of year often brings moves and farewells, so I’d like to acknowledge and wish the ‘very best’ to three special women who it has been fabulous to know and work with as they move to take up new things. Hilary Furlong has worked with the South/West CLC Community Development Region for many years and has been a much loved, tireless contributor to those she has worked with. Prior to working with the CLC she established various new artistic initiatives with Ernabella Arts and in recent years has worked, often behind the scenes, to advocate for greater practical and strategic support for families and communities experiencing kidney disease. Hilary retired on November 28 and is heading east of Alice Springs to Mt Tamborine, Queensland to retire. Susan Wills is a passionate sustainability educator and advocate who has worked with numerous Darwin schools and as Director of the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens and NT Herbarium where she instigated creative initiatives that have enriched the Gardens community engagement and outreach. Susan was a member of the organizing group for the EduGrow Strategic Stakeholders Workshop that was held at CDU in 2011 and has been a valued friend and mentor to RIG Network. After many years, Susan, her husband Andrew and their two boys are leaving the Northern Territory to head south to Tasmania to develop their organic farm and business. Gianna Bonis-Profumo is well known to many Darwin RIG News readers and a key person at many a good Café session at the Tropical Garden Spectacular. I met Gianna when she was working for Red Cross back in 2009/2010 where she was doing great work at Bagot community. Since then she has continued her passion for sustainable


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food at Milkwood Farm in NSW and completed a Masters of Development at Sydney University. In December Gianna presented at the Barilla, International Forum on Food and Nutrition in Milan. She was one of ten finalists in the Young Earth Solutions – and won! Congratulations Gi! See Gianna’s presentation about integrated gardens, chickens and nutrition (go to minute 10 or so…) here: http://www.barillacfn.com/en/forum/forum-2014/?video=y As the UN Year of Family Farming draws to a close… Some OZ highlights & summer reading The Right to Food: Putting Food on the Table The Right to Food Coalition’s inaugural food security conference Putting Food on the Table: Food Security is Everyone’s Business was held on 13 & 14 October 2014 at Casula Arts Powerhouse Centre, Sydney. Over 200 delegates from across Australia, ranging from policy makers, academics, community development and health professionals, came together to be inspired, explore solutions and initiate action on the governance, community, population and communication issues causing food insecurity. Initially conceived mainly to address food insecurity issues in the south west Sydney region – the conference garnered strong interest and attendees from across the country. Discussions are now underway to scope further national action to get hunger and food security on the Australian agenda and encourage the government to progress its commitment to implement the recommendations from the World Health Organisation (WHO) Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. To read more about conference outcomes, view presentations from great speakers that included Joel Berg from the NYC Coalition Against Hunger, Karen Beetson, Tharawal Aboriginal Corporation, and Ronni Kahn, OzHarvest or to get involved visit: http://www.righttofood.org.au Paul Newman’s Own Foundation – Congratulations to 2015 Grant Winners Fantastic to see support recently announced for rural and regional groups in the space RIGN works in that include:-

• Watch this space in 2015! Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) focuses on enabling communities to build their social capital and economic resilience by engaging and providing resources for projects that create the change that communities aspire to achieve. The grant will support the Fresh Food for Rural, Regional & Remote Australia Program which aims to increase fresh food production, accessibility, education, and consumption, through community & school gardens, integrated town agriculture and small scale local farmers and market gardens.

• Foodbank Northern Territory the largest food relief organisation in the Northern Territory. The grant will support the School Breakfast Pilot Program, which will provide free, highly nutritious food in 15 Northern Territory schools over a 12-month period and facilitate nutrition education in school communities.

• Gunawirra Limited seeks to create fundamental improvements in the lives of Aboriginal families, especially infants and children from pregnancy to five years of age. The grant will support the Big Ideas Nutrition Program which provides nutritional education and development for Aboriginal children in preschools all over NSW through initiatives including breakfasts, gardens, lunch box programs, nutritionist visits and cultural education.

Innovative open source projects connecting growers and consumers directly Innovative ‘food’ projects that link growers and consumers directly are growing ‘everywhere’ it seems, especially in Australia’s larger urban areas. Two exciting ‘online marketplace’ projects enabling greater financial returns for food producers in the spirit of sustainable food systems and well worth time to dig into are RipeNear.Me, out of Adelaide, and the Open Food Network that that connects consumers with local producers and food hubs (based out of Victoria). Check them out by Googling RipeNearMe and Open Food Network. Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) AFSA have had a busy, productive year, recently elected their new committee for 2015 and launched the Fair Food – the documentary that tells stories from some of Australia’s fair food pioneers. AFSA does many things – popular and strategic, including Fair Food Week and initiating diverse partnerships and research programs. They promote action to support and keep farmers on the land; to help them develop as diverse, financially viable and ecologically sustainable systems as possible; and critically, to promote and help build pathways for young people to enter agriculture.

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All critical as Nick Rose comments the on the AFSA blog: “This was highlighted a few weeks ago, on October 16th, World Food Day, by the new UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Professor Hilal Elver. She pointed out that 70% of the world’s food depends on family farmers, most operating farms of less than 2 hectares. That’s right: small-scale family farmers, who, we’re often told, are ‘inefficient’ and ‘not productive’, feed the world, not giant agri-business”. Visit AFSA at http://www.australianfoodsovereigntyalliance.org where you can also see a trailer for Fair Food – the documentary and sign up to host a community screening. Summer reading… My favorite ‘must read’ recommendations are Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book and Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu: Black seeds, agriculture or accident? Read about Bruce’s book, his research findings and linkages with Bill Gammage's The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines made Australia, 2011, here from the ABC http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bushtelegraph/rethinking-indigenous-australias-agricultural-past/5452454. Have you heard of the Foodtank – The Food Think Tank? Visit Foodtank.com Foodtank is US based, but internationally focused, with a mission of building a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. They spotlight environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty and create networks of people, organizations, and content to push for food system change. Lots of interesting materials on their site, including quarterly reading lists of good reads. The ‘winter’ one is just out and includes interesting, free titles that include: Deep Roots Published by Tudor Rose and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Deep Roots examines family farming on multiple levels including policy, youth involvement, food security, and nutrition. Currently, a digital version of the publication is available for free. New resources to improve nutrition communication in remote communities A new resource package focused on improving health communication and practices in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities will help to strengthen efforts to support good nutrition, health and wellbeing. With funding from the Fred Hollows Foundation, Menzies School of Health Research has developed the teaching and learning resource, Food and health communication across cultures. Read more here: http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/about/news/2761 Rural health impacts of climate change (2014) This fact sheet provides a brief overview of the direct health impacts that climate change will have on people living in rural and remote Australia. The resource provides information on heat-related illness and death, mental illness and suicide, malnutrition, and infection and disease. Read more here: http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/key-resources/bibliography?lid=28680 Gunawirra have published a new book Trans generational Trauma and the Aboriginal Preschool Child - Healing through Intervention, Edited by Norma Tracey. To obtain a copy call 02 98103212 or 0448419049 or email [email protected]. All proceeds go to Gunawirra’s work with over 30 country preschools in NSW. And last but not least – Thank you to all who voted for RIG Network to receive a Medibank Community Grant and to those of sent in pics to help celebrate UN Year of the Family Farming and the end of the year! Congratulations Heather Thorpe from Tasmania and Kirsten Grant from Tjuntjuntjara Community, WA – some seed packs will be heading your way early in 2015.

Donations to Foodswell can be made via GiveNow at www.givenow.com.au/foodswell Donations to Foodswell are tax deductible.

Foodswell acknowledges the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community.

We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to Elders both past and present."

RIG News is written and produced by Anthea Fawcett for RIG Network, Foodswell Limited, ABN 16 163 396 736. © 2013. The Remote Indigenous Gardens Network is a program of Foodswell – a registered DGR and Tax Concession Charity. 5A Duke Place, Balmain, NSW, 2041. www.remoteindigenousgardens.net, www.foodswell.org.au Contact: [email protected]""

rig news december 2014 - remote indigenous gardens | rig ... · rig news – dec. 2014, rig...

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