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Inside this issue ...

Visit to Scotch

College

Girls’ football

prowess

Athletics

champions

Welcome

AFLNT

B2M music

workshops

Catering skills

at Milimika

Festival

Girls’ culture

camp

And much,

much more!

Term Three, 2012

Tiwi College News

Editor: Ailsa MacFie

By Natasha Bennett

After a successful Tiwi College Athletics Carnival in Term Two, the school took five age-group champions to the Cluster Athletics Day in Darwin. Cecillena Mungatopi, Shauna Apuatimi, Patrick Puautjimi, Alex Kantilla and Ella Wonaeamirri all placed in the top three of their events, doing Tiwi College and themselves proud!

Each athlete who placed in the top three was then chosen to represent the Top End in the NT Athletics Championship, again held in Darwin. Three of our five talented athletes were able to attend this three-day event.

In an inspiring effort on Day Two, each of them made it to the finals of the 100m sprint. The Girls 16 and Under 100m, the last event for our

students before the break, was running late and it was an extremely warm day. Shauna and Patrick had finished their events for the day so we all gathered to watch the last race. We were not disappointed, as Cecillena brought home the silver medal for second fastest in the race.

Day Three saw Shauna compete in the long jump and produce some excellent jumps, which was a fantastic effort by her. This topped

off a great first-time entry into the NT Athletics Championships for Tiwi College!

Visit to Scotch College, Melbourne By Joshua Mackenzie

Tiwi College is very proud to have a wonderful relationship with Scotch College. Since the year the college opened, Scotch College staff have brought groups of students to our school on both cultural awareness and football trips. Scotch College is very supportive of the Tiwi leadership (Tiwi Education Board) and the two schools enjoy a growing sister-school relation-ship.

This year, teachers and students from both schools have worked together to develop an online program through which students from both schools interacted in weekly classes. The climax of this learning was a trip to Melbourne for the ten Tiwi boys involved, to reward them

for their attendance and hard work at school.

Scotch College generously provided this opportunity for the boys and made sure that the Tiwi students had the time of their lives. They attended

classes at the school, had meals at the boarding house and were treated to a number of exciting activities around Melbourne including:

Visiting the zoo and feeding the giraffes and seals.

Visiting the Eureka Skydeck and taking part in the “edge experience” which involves standing in a small glass room with 10cm of glass separating us from the 88-storey drop to the ground below.

Continued on Page 2

Best of the best: Aths Championships

Tiwi College

Pickertaramoor

Melville Island

NORTHERN TERRITORY

Ph: (08) 8970 9024

Fax: (08) 8970 9025

Postal address:

LMB 127

Winnellie, NT, 0822

Principal: Ian Smith

[email protected]

News

Tiwi College Newsletter: Term 3, 2012 page 2

Continued from Page 1

Taking a tour of the MCG and attending the Essendon vs Richmond match.

Being part of the Marngrook Footy Show live audience and watching one of the Tiwi College teachers, Austin Wonaeamirri, starring on the show.

Visiting Melbourne and Collingwood football clubs.

Scotch College recently donated $500 to the newly opened Tiwi College Library. Austin and I were able to accept the donation on behalf of the school at a Scotch College assembly. I thanked Scotch for the donation as well as their ongoing support of Tiwi College. I also took this time to thank the students of Scotch College for the

generous donation of the air-conditioners from the year 12 class of 2011. Austin presented the school’s library with a Heidi Smith photo books as a sign of our appreciation of their donation. He also spoke proudly about his country and his father’s role in developing the partnership between Tiwi College and Scotch College: something he hopes will continue into the future.

A highlight for both the students of Tiwi College and the Scotch families was the Tiwi students’ eagerness to share their culture. They painted themselves and performed for their host families in a night of culture and dancing. They also danced in the main school assembly for over 1000 people. This was very emotional for all involved and Austin and I were very proud of all the students involved, especially Noel Tipungwuti who showed great leadership on the trip and particularly in the culture activities.

Throughout the trip, the young Tiwi represented their school, their people and themselves extremely well. They always did what was asked of them and never stepped a foot out of line. Every report given to the school about their trip has been positive. Thanks to

everyone who made this trip possible, especially the elders who took the first steps in creating the Tiwi-Scotch Partner-ship. Your contribution to our school will never be forgotten.

Scotch visit: cultural exchange, new experiences

Sharing music: Timor to Tiwi By Sila Pati

When Skinnyfish Music first emailed the school about organising a music workshop for the students, we knew this was an opportunity not to be missed. Tiwi Islands’ own band, B2M, came along accompanied by Ego Lemos, a musician from Timor-Leste (East Timor).

The workshops allowed Ego to share his culture and musical traditions.

B2M also showed a video about their visit to East Timor to share their respect for cultural traditions and the importance of music.

It was fantastic to have our students show respect in wanting to know more about Ego and East Timor. Their keen interest in the workshops also allowed them to show their hidden talents to Ego and B2M.

The students were involved in recording music with Ego and B2M singing songs using Tiwi words. There was no holding back amongst the students as they participated in all the workshops and at the end of the day they were singing the songs after school.

Term 2, 2012 News


Taste It, Do It, Live It at Milimika Festival By Alistair Portaminni

In August we had a festival at Nguiu called the Milimika Festival. It had music, lots of entertainment, dancing, the Strong Women’s choir, Sista girls, activities and the Tiwis Got Talent grand final. The festival was next to the oval and pool. It was the second time the festival was on. Next year it will be even bigger.

Adam from Morris who runs the Taste It, Do It, Live It program with our school was in charge of cooking for the people working and that were in the festival.

I volunteered to help cook because I like to cook and everyone was too scared to vol-

unteer. I was Adam’s main helper. Some other kids came and helped, too. Also, Mr Smithy, Ms Annie, Ren and Ms Ailsa came and worked.

There were hundreds of people that we cooked for. I cooked break-fast, lunch and dinner. The foods I cooked were buffalo burgers, curry, bacon and eggs, chicken wraps and a whole lot of other delicious stuff. The other kids and I did things like chop up food, mix ingredients, cook at the stove, use equipment, serve the food and wash up.

Because I was helping Adam with every meal for the weekend, they gave me a key to sleep at the Territory Alliance accommodation. There are lots of dongas there like a motel plus the big kitchen where we cooked.

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen

Garden Foundation visit By Ailsa MacFie

At the start of Term Three, Jacqui, Karen and Marcelle from the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation visited the college to continue working with staff and stu-dents. Family Group Home parents spent two sessions learning a variety of delicious and healthy recipes suited to our climate and available ingredients. Academic staff were introduced to the Kitchen Garden Program used in many primary schools all around Australia and given the opportunity to consider how it could be best adapted for our school.

The following day, the visitors ran cooking sessions with the students. Inspired by Ms Ailsa’s recent trip to India, the Middle and Senior Young Women had a cultural morn-ing learning about Indian culture, getting dressed up in saris and then making dahl, rice and samosas. The young men’s classes made Vietnamese spring rolls using fresh ginger and Vietnamese mint from the school farm.

Since the visit, gradual changes to cooking and eating habits are starting to ap-pear. Aliti’s dahl with roti bread has become a regular feature on the Community Dinner menu and is very popular. The school plans to bring in a regular, school-wide cooking session on Fridays in Term Four so that students can cook new reci-pes together—and hopefully have leftovers to take back to their families!

From the Principal


A simple formula:

attendance = improvement Awuna,

Term Three has been a challenging yet pleasing one. With the public holidays and the tragic loss of loved ones, it has been difficult to maintain our routine. However, “family comes first” and our staff respect this and have responded to these situations well. Our deepest sympathies go to those families affected by the recent deaths.

When our reports were sent out last term you will have noticed that we have changed them to make our system easier to understand for our Tiwi Community. We are emphasising rigorous testing, so that a student can see how much improvement has taken place. After reading the reports, those students with the higher attendance rates tended to be the students with the greatest improvement. Attendance = improvement: an easy rule for everyone to follow!

This term we have noticed some remarkable improvements in student behaviour. We have had some testing situations, but the way most students have stayed away from an incident or walked away from a scene has been pleasing. Many of our students are embracing the culture of “Peaceful Picka”. We want all people, Tiwi and non-Tiwi, to feel at peace living here and this mindset is starting to be embraced by the young Tiwi.

This term, Middle School students have begun our well-being literacy program called the “Hero Book”. Students are making a book about their goals and the challenges they face as a person and in their community. They will look at ways they can overcome any challenges in order to be happier and stronger people as they grow older.

Our VET program has been successful this term. Our Senior Boys have experienced projects in Horticulture, Carpentry, Welding and Construction. The Senior Girls have had tuition in Business Management Cert II. Next term will see the introduction of VET-related work experience. Unfortunately our VET Coordinator, Phil Collier, is leaving at the end of Term Three due to family reasons. We thank him for his selfless manner in his approach to work. He established an excellent strategic plan for career pathways and we wish him much happiness in the future.

The structure for our full after-school program is now back in place. We welcome Ian Brown, the AFL Regional Development Manager, to our “Picka family”. Football trainings are now well organised and students can train for carnivals and competi-tions organised by Ian. We welcome AFLNT as a partner and people will notice that we are now an “AFLNT School of Excellence”. Some great programs lay ahead of us.

Our Family Group Homes “Lifeskills” program has blossomed. Students and FGH parents are working hard in their gardens and cooking with the produce. We are investigating having days where all students and all staff harvest vegetables from the HaydenWay farm and our gardens, share meals and prepare takeaways for families in the commu-nities.

I’d like to thank staff for their conscientious approach this term. Next term we wish to see all of our students back so that the young Tiwi can learn as much as possible and be happy.

On behalf of our Picka Family, I wish all of our students and their families a safe and relaxing holiday.

Mana,

Ian Smith

Education inside and

outside the classroom After what has been a very busy term, I am taking a moment to sit and reflect on what we have done in Term Three. Without a doubt, the school has had some memorable experiences.

We had the launch of the AFLNT Academy Program here at the college and welcome our new staff member, Ian Brown, to join our team in working with the students, and also to liaise and coordinate the running of the Tiwi Islands AFL Competition. Our Growing Young Women

Coordinator, Natasha Bennett, took some students to Darwin earlier this term to compete in the Northern Territory State Athletics Championships, and more recently took girls to compete in a 9-a-side Female AFL Competition. There is more news about their victories inside the newsletter.

A selected group of Middle School Boys, under the guidance of their teacher, Josh Mackenzie, and assistant teacher, Austin Wonaeamirri, went to Scotch College in Melbourne for a week. Well done to the students and to Josh and Austin in your roles as ambassadors for Tiwi College. The Senior Girls class undertook a cultural education camp, spending time in the bush with senior Tiwi women from both Bathurst and Melville Islands.

We had staff from the Steph Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation working with the Tiwi College staff on programs both in the academic area and in the Family Group Homes. We had our regular visits from Sister Anne who comes across from Nguiu to work with the students on her Religious Education Programme. Mission Australia and Alyson Evans from Community Arts in Darwin were also part of the timetable. Youth workers from Mission took the Middle School girls for team-building activities while Alyson continued to work with Ailsa, Dianne and the Senior Girls on their Tiwi history play. We also had visitor Rebekah Oppenheim come to the college to work on the Hero Book concept, and Adrian Hendry from Charles Darwin University and CSIRO come to the college to work with the Senior Boys on the Certificate I Course in Conservation Land Management.

Other visitors to the college included Xavier College, who returned for another football match (which we won compre-hensively!), St. Edmunds from Canberra, Narangba Football Academy from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, B2M and Ego Lemos from East Timor. We will also have Kings College from Sydney visiting us in the final week of this term.

I thank the staff for their tremendous efforts. I commend you all for initiating educational, cultural and sporting programs for our students. I also thank you for having belief and faith in these students in providing them with discipline with some TLC to nurture them through challenging times. For your positive attitude, respect and support over this term, I thank you wholeheartedly and look forward to next term as we work together for these Tiwi students.

Mana,

Sila Pati

Primary School


By Stephanie Redgment

This term the Primary students have been working hard on their reading and are all jumping ahead in their reading levels. We have been focusing on improving the students’ knowledge of basic phonics. The students are really coming along with this. Their increasing confidence in reading is fantastic to see.

Their skills in mathematics have also improved and they are becoming much faster at answering questions.

The students have enjoyed playing more tennis. They are naturally talented in this area. The students and teachers in Primary School have been practicing their skipping skills,

too, with a brief cameo by Mr Smithy!

The students have been enjoying going to our new library. The students have also been learning about working with money and advertising in our classroom shop.

We have had lots of visitors to our classroom which is always lovely and the students have benefitted greatly from this. We were lucky enough to have another visit from Margaret James, author of the Honey Ants Readers.

Another term down and one to go for 2012! How time flies. Well done to the Primary kids for all their hard work this term.

Improving in leaps and bounds

Our work!

Term 2, 2012 Middle School Young Women


Our class news By Aggie Puruntatameri, Shania Puruntatameri

and Jessica Stassi

With Miss G this term we have been doing number pattern and algebra and we have done a Maths assignment on ‘patterns and rules’. We are still learning financial literacy where we learn about profit and loss. We also do ‘study ladder’ Maths for IT.

With Miss Ailsa in Literacy we have been studying on a movie called Yolngu Boy where we have to write about the movie plot and characters. We also did creative writing where we pretended to be the characters and changed the ending of the film. We have also been reading books at different levels. There are three levels, the green level is the learning to read level, then the purple level which is not so easy or hard and there’s the orange level which is hard.

For Connected Program we learned about sustainability and the environment. We are learning about the sustainability of our ‘Picka farm’. Sometimes we go for a walk to the farm.

We also learned about group work in class and how to share the house work between family members.

For Art and Culture we have written about Tiwi culture and painted about Tiwi stories. We write stories about the olden days when we weren’t born yet.

In PE with Miss Tash we have been doing touch football but sometimes we do other sports such as basketball, football and other sports.

With Mission Australia we have done a tourism poster for Tiwi Island.

In free time we have been doing number and word puzzles including colouring the Tiwi college emblem.

After school we have the G.Y.W program where we have to do training. On Tuesday and Wednes-day we do our homework. On Tuesday it’s Maths homework and on Wednesday it’s English homework. We start homework at 7.15 and finish at 8.00pm.

After homework the staff on duty put the court lights on so we can play. After Family Group Home dinner we play a little game of footy plus the girls dance a lot.

Middle School Young Men


By Josh Mackenzie and Austin Wonaeamirri

The Middle School Young Men have had an exciting term. For Literacy they have been studying the movie Yolngu Boy. In Maths they have studied number patterns and algebra. Their most exciting work has been an integrated study unit combining Science, Geography, Biology and Art.

In their integrated unit they have learnt about sustainability, particularly in regards to mangrove swamps. At the start of this term, students participated in an excursion to explore a mangrove swamp. Students were split into teams and sent into the swamp with a camera and a checklist of things they needed to find. Students returned from the swamp smelly, muddy and with some bush tucker. As part of their challenge the teams collected mud mussels, long bums and mud crabs. We finished the day cooking the bush tucker and having a swim at Tarra-cumbi Falls. This was a fun day for students and a great way to start the term.

Learning in the bush

As the term has progressed, students have learnt about mangrove swamps and how they contribute to the sustainability of ecosystems on the Islands. Students learnt about the different animals that live in the swamps and their different classifications. In learning about how important mangrove swamps are, students learnt about countries and towns, all over the world, who have chopped down all their mangrove swamps for housing developments. Since harvesting their mangroves, all these places have had a decrease in wildlife, an increase in pollution levels and have been exposed to harsher weather conditions. Students were able to compare situations overseas to their own and realised how important mangrove swamps are to their country.

This term has been very productive for the Middle School Young Men and we look forward to next term where our focus will be on ‘Explaining Change.’

We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and we will see you after the break.

Term 2, 2012 Senior Young Women


Literacy – Maggie Kerinaiua and Ms Ailsa

In Literacy this term, we have been working really, really hard without having any free time! At the start of term we watch the film Mabo about Eddie Koiki Mabo and his battle for his land rights. We did a research project about Mabo and other land rights court cases. We each researched different questions then shared our answers. We learnt how to write a film review about characters, setting and plot. Recently we did speeches about inspiring Indigenous Australians. We chose one person who inspired us and wrote about him or her. Then we rehearsed our speech and presented it to the class and some invited guests. Miss Annie wrote us a letter and said, “I was very impressed with how you stood up in front of the class and spoke very clearly and confidently.” The next week we did the speeches again in front of the Middle School girls at homework time. At first we didn’t think we could do it because we felt really nervous about them laughing but in the end all of us did our speeches. We also learnt how to do debating. We looked at the topics ’Should facebook be banned?’ and ’Are the Olympics a waste of money?’. We thought up arguments for each side.

Numeracy – Caitlyn Moreen

In our Maths class this term, we have been learning about algebra and a bit of sign language. It’s hard to do Maths when numbers and letters are together. We enjoyed class the most when we were learning how to do the sign languages.

VET Business and IT—Alex Guy

In our VET class we have been doing a lot of hard work. We have been learning how to touch-type letters using the right fingers. We have also been learning what equipment you need to have in an office and how to use it. We learnt OH&S which means Occupational Health and Safety. So we thought about dangers in an office that could hurt you (like water and electricity, broken equipment, items on the ground and lifting up heavy items) and we also learnt how to stop them. We studied how to create a business letter with the

correct layout and words (like Yours Sincerely) and how to print it properly using a letterhead.

PE—Caitlyn Moreen

In PE this term, we have been learning how to play different sports. In PE the sports we already played are

cricket and touch rugby. We also did fitness games and relays. The most challenging sport was touch rugby because we haven’t played touch and didn’t know the rules. But we all enjoyed playing touch rugby because it’s fun. We practiced fitness, passing the ball, running, teamwork and positioning.

Drama and History Project – Ella Wonaeamirri

In Drama we continued making our play about a

character called Mia. Every Wednesday when Alyson comes from Darwin, we play some drama games to warm up and practise our speaking and acting skills and then we plan a scene for the play. We have six scenes in the play, going from Tiwi in old times right through history to Tiwi in the future. Doing this project helps us to feel more confident about speaking in front of an audience. The activities are about trusting each other, thinking quickly

and getting organised. We feel a bit nervous about our performance at the end of term but we will try to do our best and we are proud of our ideas. We have been doing after school rehearsals and making props and costumes. We will tell you about the performance in the next newsletter.

Music – Vanessa Daniels

Music isn’t on the timetable this term, but when we have time we practise our song

that we wrote in Music last term. (The song is about the problems ganja causes and how we have to stop it to make our communities strong.) The lyrics are all finished and we are just practicing getting the sound right. Next week we will do a proper recording then enter it in the anti-cannabis song-writing competition. We performed it for B2M and Ego Lemos when they visited, and they were really impressed. We also sang it for the Strong Women who came on culture camp and they really liked it.

Senior Young Men


By Alex Marshall and Phil Collier

In Numeracy this term the Senior Young Men studied the number patterns. They learnt the importance of under-standing mathematics when they are in the workforce. They learnt about fractions and decimal numbers, and how this knowledge can be used in different practical situations.

In Literacy, students did a film study of Yolngu Boy, a movie about the coming of age of three teenagers. They studied character, plot, and practiced written sentence construc-tion.

The Senior Young Men continued their VET course in Con-servation Land Management. Their two VET teachers, Red and Mick, from Charles Darwin University visited Tiwi Col-lege several time this term in order to instruct them. This course is designed to prepare students for work as a Rang-er. In this term’s sessions, students learnt about the struc-ture of an engine, the different types of engines, and how to look after engines that they use. They learnt about safety in the workplace. They also learnt about using chemicals and weed killers at work. They learnt many important skills de-signed to make them ready to join the workforce.

The senior boys are also completing internally-run VET courses in the areas of: Horticulture, Maintenance, and

Woodwork. This term they continued on with the work started in the second term and are currently involved in numerous projects around the school. The boys shifted into different areas this term, and this came about because of the rotation system that was put in place so that they could experience the different aspects and skills being taught in the three areas that the college identified.

The Horticulture team, under the supervision of Jason and Anthony, has continued with the ongoing work in the school gardens (planting, mowing, weeding, etc.), as well as setting up watering systems at some of the Family Group Homes.

The Maintenance team, under the supervision of Phil Harm-er, has been seeing to the upkeep of the College buildings, fences, and large scale watering. There have also been the-ory classes outlining the important aspects of the upkeep of the College buildings and surrounds.

The Woodwork team has branched out into collecting nu-merous items that outline the history of the College grounds before the school, and have collected and cleaned down pieces of machines involved on the previous Forestry camp, with the intention of setting up feature pieces around the school, as well as some students trying their hand at welding.

Hayden Way

Garden By Jason Ryan

It has been another successful term down in the Hayden Way garden. Students are still showing a keen interest, wanting to learn every step

of the way. There have been several new additions to the garden such as a new dam and a shed.

The VET class with the Senior Young Men’s class has contin-ued for the term. Students have had to apply themselves in many different areas. Some of these areas include painting an old shipping container, setting up new farm plots mixing fertilizers and running irrigation lines to these plots. There has also been the usual of lessons on the John Deere gator

and if you ask any of the kids they will tell you they are an expert at Gator driving and will happily take you on a tour of the College in it.

I briefly mentioned the construc-tion of a dam earlier. The dam is 40m long by 20m wide with the deepest part being a little less than 2 metres. The dam will in-crease the aesthetics of the area as well as provide a swimming place for all the ducks. The student had to take levels of the dam from a scaled drawing initially to ensure the dam was put in the right place.

It has been an exciting term not only in the garden but for the entire school; students continue to show interests in many different fields, making it an enjoyable experience for everyone. Term Four is not far away, and I hope to see eve-ryone back again.

Term 2, 2012 Learning outside the classroom


Tiwi Art Travels South By Anne McMaster

Homework art sessions are still very popular at Tiwi College. This term, Senior Young Men and Senior Young Women have participated in Art sessions.

Students have painted mini cricket bats to use as gifts for important visitors to the school. Tiwi College students pre-sented four of these bats to Members of the Australian

Cricket team when they visited Garden Point in August. Ricky Ponting was there to accept our Tiwi gifts.

An Art highlight this term was learning that the Mid-dle School Girls were to

have their art work shortlisted and exhibited in Melbourne. In Term Two, the girls made designs in lino printing tech-niques and had them printed onto thick archive paper to create contemporary Tunga baskets. The Silkcut Award for Lino Prints opened 7th September at the Glenira Gallery in Caulfield, Melbourne and runs for 3 weeks.

AFLNT School of Excellence


New partnership with AFLNT By Ian Brown

Term 3 saw the beginning of a new partnership between Tiwi College and AFLNT of which I am so proud to be the inaugural facilitator. It is fantastic to see so much talent in one location and I am excited about following the football journeys of the boys and girls who attend Tiwi College.

Although I have been here for only a month, so much has happened and so much more is coming up in the near future.

Narangba Vipers visit Once again Tiwi College hosted the Narangba Valley Vipers with an en-tourage of 23 making the trip. Tippa and myself met the guys at Paru and after the trip from Darwin on the boat several of the young Vipers were wishing they hadn’t eaten such a big breakfast! From Paru it was a short trip to the College and then some time to settle in before the afternoon football clash.

Josh, Mark and Aussie took on the coaching roles and the traditional coin toss gave way to scissors/paper/rock to decide which way each team would kick. The Tiwi boys who had been starved of competitive football for some time displayed a big appetite for the football and it soon became clear that the Vipers were no match for the speed and skills of the locals. At half time Tiwi College had a lead of nearly 20 goals and in the best interests of the day a number of players swapped guernseys to create equally matched teams. The second half of the game was much more evenly matched and when the final siren sounded all the players gathered in a circle to congratulate each other.

The visitors enjoyed a fishing trip and a dip at Taracumbi Falls, but the highlight of the trip occurred later that evening when both groups got together around the campfire and shared stories. This was followed by the Tiwi boys entertain-ing the Narangba boys with the dances of the various totems. The Narangba students then tried to reciprocate with dance moves to current music only to be amazed by the Tiwi moves to the same music.

The Vipers returned to Darwin the following day but in their short visit I’m sure they had experiences they will remember for the rest of their lives.

Xavier vs T.C. sports day Just recently Tiwi College also hosted Xavier College with the girls competing in basketball and the boys playing off in AFL. Josh Mackenzie coached the boys to a comprehensive 76-36 victory, emphasising that the structure and discipline dis-played by the young men is a reflection of their efforts each day here at school. The girls played a round robin with mixed results; the Tiwi College side suffered from the absence of so many girls at the 9-a-side football competition in Darwin. Angela Kerinaiua was recognised as the best Tiwi College player, as was Kevin Portaminni in the AFL match. Importantly, all the games were played in good spirits, continuing to build the goodwill between the schools.

Term 2, 2012 Growing Young Women’s Program


Tiwi girls: unbeatable! By Natasha Bennett

The Growing Young Women’s program has continued as usual this term with 2 after-school trainings each week and a number of trips on offer for stu-dents who have good attendance and behaviour.

Term 3 started off fantastically with 4 of our girls heading down to Ade-laide for the 16 & Under Female AFL championships after making the NT squad earlier in the year. It was a fantastic experience for them, and coming away with a win against ACT was a great achieve-ment. Hopefully next year we can have more Tiwi College young women represent the NT in the team!

Later this term we had a chance to put all of our hard after-school training into action, when the Top End Ryco Cup 9-a-side female football tournament was run in Darwin.

As we reached Palmerston oval early on the Thursday morn-ing, the girls were excited to show off their skills amongst the 14 teams participating. Before lunch, our girls had played three games and dominated due to their impressive skills, claiming an unbeaten run. Another game after lunch secured our supremacy with extremely convincing wins to

finish Day 1 of the tournament.

Friday saw tougher competition as we hit the finals stage of the tour-nament. With the girls starting off quite sluggish, it was looking even at half time, before a bag of sweets from Smithy kicked the girls into overdrive, bringing home the win!

As Tiwi College were unbeaten through the rounds, we secured our spot in the Grand Final against a forceful competitor in the Palm-erston team. Within minutes our girls were taking hits and falls, and a strong opponent had the upper edge. However, a never-doubting

and fearless Tiwi team played only as they know how… with courage and skill, and some classy skills by our youngest player secured the win by 7 points. Tiwi College are unde-feated female footy champions of 2012!

Women’s culture camp By Ailsa MacFie

Another important aspect of the Growing Young Women’s pro-gram is health and culture. The school aims to increase its cultural education program, and our Women’s culture camp this term was a step in that direction. The Senior Young Women’s class spent two nights camping with Tiwi elders from both Bathurst and Mel-ville Islands. I’ll leave the girls to tell you more about what they got up to. We hope to extend this cultural education to the Middle School Girls next term, and to have a bigger scale camp next year.

Ella Wonaeamirri: We all had a great time together for the two and a half days. It was excellent learning about the Tiwi past and also learning about how to make baskets, armbands and headbands. We had a good time going out hunting, col-

lecting some of our bush foods. Hope to see all of the Strong Women next year when we have a cultural camp again.

Bobette Minniecon: The senior girls asked the old la-dies if they could teach us how to do more Tiwi dancing from the old days and how to sing our dreaming songs so in the future when we are all older we know how to

do Tiwi dancing and how to sing our dreaming songs.

Vanessa Daniels: we learnt how to do weaving with the Tiwi Strong Women at Karslake. We learn lots of new things on our camping trip. It was fun to be camping out, and they told us stories about a long time ago when they were in the Mission. We all had a wonderful time.

Trips, excursions and activities


Term 2, 2012 Family Group Homes


By Solomone Radaniva Tuibua

As we come to the closure of yet another term, please allow me to focus on FGH parents in this edition. This is a group of married men and women who have come to understand the enormity and im-portance of their role in a totally new and unique setting. Mutual love, trust, and respect command their day to day activities and unity has been superbly displayed as they carried out their roles.

A culture for the FGHs has been adopted in regards to staffing. We have recruited staff that we believe to have a stable and healthy fam-ily lifestyle. I hope that this will be a learning base for our students as they see and experience successful family life demonstrated before them.

Like all people, FGH parents have gone through trials and tests. Their characters and attitudes have been challenged by each other, staff and, of course, students. All these have provided them with opportunities to learn, grow and become better in their service. Their journey as parents for more than 5 days a week and over 38 weeks a year is certainly long and hard and their sustaining power to hang in there must be commend-ed. Many have come and gone, but this current group I believe have ex-perienced something more valuable to live for in this very remote area. Their job retention rate is remarkable.

It is truly heartening to see that all FGH parents have decided to come back next term. I sincerely commend each member of our staff for their untiring commitment. They do understand the enormity of the challeng-

es they have been facing, yet they have given assurance that they will return.

I believe that most FGH parents have handled confronting situations and issues very well and have helped to keep the school on an even keel this term in regards to work and family pressure, students’ atti-tudes and behaviour, and workplace relationship issues. We will con-tinue to stand together as we try to contribute positively to the dreams and vision of the Tiwi people.

I have included a list of all houseparents and their families, for the rec-ord.

To the students and staff, have an enjoyable and meaningful break.

Much love!

Solomone Radaniva Tuibua

Boarding manager: TUIBUA, Solomone Radaniva

FGH FGH Parents Children

1 RAVULA, Apisalome and Meaghan Talei, Maikeli

3 TUIBUA, Akanisi; WAQAIRAGATA, Isoa

4 SOQALI, Filipe and Aliti

5 VEA, Timoci and Viola

6 LYONS, Anthony and Stefanee Kloe, Abel

Family Group Home Co-ordinator’s Report

Family Group Homes


Family Group Home 1 By Meaghan Ravula

The end of another term and what a great term it has been here in FGH 1! This time we have decided to ask the stu-dents about their term in our Family Group Home. We inter-viewed Isadore Fernando, Patrick Puruntatameri, Anton Kantilla, Jarius Tipungwuti, Gilbert Alimankinni, Kevin Por-taminni and Kieran Apuatimi, and here are some of their responses to our questions:

How was Term Three in FGH 1 for you? Gilbert – “Good, I like it here!” Kieran – “Good fun.” Isadore – “Good, because there was a lot of good stuff going on.” Kevin – “It was fun and we had a great time!”

What were the highlights for you in FGH 1 for this term? Jarius – “Projects in the garden!” Isadore – “Dancing, singing and XFactor with our FGH fami-ly! Watching movies, having pool competitions with Pisa and playing Xbox!” Patrick – “Gardening, cooking and eating good food!” Anton – “Playing pool and the Xbox 360, Pisa telling funny stories, and listening and dancing to Azonto!”

Can you think of something funny from this term? Kieran – “Pisa telling funny stories.” Isadore – “Pisa always makes us laugh.”

What are some things you have learnt in your FGH this term? Kevin – “Gardening and making fences.” Jarius – “I learnt how to clean the house properly!” Gilbert – “Gardening and cleaning up.” Anton – “Gardening and washing our own clothes.” Isadore – “How to use the dishwasher and the washing ma-chine.”

What is something you like about your FGH parents? Patrick – “They cook good food for us and always keep the house clean and teach us to clean up after ourselves.” Gilbert – “They make it fun for us.” Anton – “Pisa always makes things fun.” Kevin – “They look after us and make good food. They help us learn and encourage us. They do everything for us!” Isadore – “I like the way they cook for us and I appreciate it!”

What is your favorite Pisa quote? Kevin – “You should get your passport and come to Fiji with us.” Patrick – “Time to get up boys!” Gilbert – “Look after yourselves, don’t smoke and make the right choices.” Anton – “It is funny when Pisa makes funny faces at us.”

See you next term!

Meaghan, Pisa, Talei and Maikeli



Family Group Home 3 This term has seen some positive things from the students living in FGH3. A major one is the attendance rate: this term we averaged 10 students each week in the house. It was also great to see a student who had been suspended for most of last semester pick himself up and improve weekly over this term. Another student who was known to be troublesome in the community had a 98% attendance rate this term, which is great.

Most of the boys from FGH3 went on the trip to Melbourne and their effort was commendable: after being away for sev-en days, they all went home for just an afternoon visit and then came straight back to school to start the new week of study.

This term the focus has been from gardens to cooking. The boys, with the help of Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation staff, cooked a couple of dishes and enjoyed the variety of the different menus. Laughter and stories around the dinner table and looking out for each other has become a second nature to the boys. Knowing and having a sense of the daily routines and schedules is most noticeable.

Another highlight of the term was the footy match against Xavier. During the game, one of our boys who is known to have a bad temper was tackled by someone three times his size. I was pleased to see that he didn’t say a word when he was tackled. Instead he walked to the sidelines to get rid of his anger and cool off, then he came back and re-joined the game. This showed great self-control.

Term Three has seen an improvement in the boys’ attitude towards school, training and also having a sense of what edu-cation is all about. And when they’re not in the kitchen, they’re working hard to get their garden (which had been eaten by buffaloes and horses over the bush holidays!) back up and running.

From Isoa and Akanisi

Family Group Homes


Family Group Home 4

During this term, all our girls had a chance to take part in many interesting activities. Many girls from our house learned to cook and one of them learned to cook really well as she loves baking. A few of the girls help me every Thurs-day in food preparation for the community dinner.

We are very proud that some of the girls from our house were selected to represent Tiwi College in the 9-a-side footy carnival in Darwin and they won gold!

We have watched and help some of these girls grow into fine young women. We can see how some of them strive and achieve new goals.

We wish you all a safe break and look forward to seeing you all back next term.

From your houseparents,

Aliti and Filipe

Family Group Home 5 Love and greetings from FGH 5! Ni sa bula vinaka!

Third term has really passed by so quickly for us. It has filled our hearts with excitement. We cherished a lot of wonder-ful moments with your children during the term and bond-ing between us has becomes more real and stronger. We extend our most sincere gratitude to all parents for vesting your trust in us. It was a joy to serve your children.

As we have a group of lively Middle School age students in our care, you can guess how our home has been a hive of healthy interactions throughout the term. Ours is a happy childlike home. We love each one of them so dearly.

It has been the custom at Tiwi College to reward students at the end of each week with an award. From FGH 5 the op-portunity for such a weekly moment was not an easy task to assess. Many have had the honour to have received the award.

We would like to mention a special thank you to Reginald Mungatopi as the most consistent performer throughout the term. This is based on his good character, behaviour and attitude and by the number of occasions when he has received the weekly award. We also would like to congratu-late his parents for his good upbringing.

Have a pleasant break. May the Lord bless and keep each one of you and your family. See you again at Tiwi College next term.

From your houseparents,

Tim and Viola

Filipe’s garden:

before and after!



Family Group Home 6 It has been an exciting term for Family Group Home 6 with a large majority of the girls making the 9-a-side football com-petition in Darwin. Even better, the girls brought home the trophy, which was very exciting for our house.

The girls have shown excellent behaviour and respect this term. They have had a willingness to train hard in sport and work hard at home with the life skills program. This term we have been focusing on cooking. The girls have prepared a meal for the whole house to eat for dinner. Some of the dishes the girls have cooked are chicken curry, home-made pizza and spaghetti. I have personally enjoyed the meals the girls have prepared: they have been very delicious.

The girls have also been very excited to help out with babysitting our youngest child Abel. The girls enjoy cuddling and kissing him, with the occasional cheek pinches from Ella, which made him cry. As a family we love the girls taking part in spending time with our kids and we can see them building great relationships with them, especially Caitlyn with our daughter (they call each other ‘homie’).

Stefanee and I are very proud of what the girls have achieved this term and we look forward to them pushing even harder next term.

from Anthony, Stef, Kloe and Abel

Tiwi College News


The Tiwi Ashes 2012

Monday, 22nd

October, starting 10am

Tiwi College, Pickertaramoor

Come and join Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer,

Matthew Burke, Wendell Sailor and more…

Traditional Tiwi bush tucker: crabs, fish, buffalo, turtle...

Traditional dancing...

Rage with B2M...

Cricket fun for the kids and adults...

Face painting and Tiwi arts...

Matthew Hayden bowled out by an Ullungura...

Justin Langer caught by a Mungatopi...

Oh yeah, I’d really like to see that...

Transport from your community to Tiwi College starting at 8am…

BE THERE!

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