Traditional Aborigine gets through School to University - first time for Australia

IT WILL NOT GATHER MUCH PUBLICITY
that an English-as-a-second-language-remote-area-aboriginal graduated from Year 12 to commence Law at CDU in 2012.

It should of course!
It is only 100 years since the Tiwi Islands were colonized - and a bush aborigine has pushed through the undergrowth of our education system to make it to university! A First!

It took 110 years for prodigy of the Irish Famine Refugees to make it to University. It is a staggering achievement that a hunter-gatherer aboriginal has succeeded in a mere 100 years!

This feat blows away: Walkabout, .... Stone-Age-People talk, it blows away common, wrong, and prejudicial assumptions about Australian aborigines !!

WHY WON'T IT GATHER MUCH PUBLICITY?
We do not like talking of Aborigines as Full Blood, or Mixed Race. It is degrading!

Likewise with titles such as:
English-as-a-second-language-remote-area-aboriginal, or Traditional Aborigine if they are seen to imply that some are more and some less Aboriginal.

But no one doubts that education is more difficult in remote areas, where people speak ancient language, live the ceremony cycle, are still to a degree Hunter Gatherers; Who cannot understand what non-aboriginal people speaking, Who think they all White Australian's look the same, Smell different, and fail to focus on matters of importance!

Selina Puruntatameri comes from Milikapiti at the top of Melville Island, a population of three hundred and 90 minutes by car from Nguiu which only has 1500 people. It is as remote as you can get from the major Australian Capital cities.

Selina's Mum and Aunty were just faces in the crowd when 160 kids graduated from Downlands College yesterday - and immensely proud to be just ordinary taken for granted parents, no different from the others, all of them witness their cherished graduate with a pass in Year 12.

SELINA'S MUM DOES NOT WANT ANY PUBLICITY
she does not want extra pressure ON Selina as she commences Law at Charles Darwin University in 2012.

The wonderful thing about this Graduation Ceremony was that all the Parents present felt proud, that Australia had achieved an important milestone.

Selina's mother believes Selina's success belongs to everyone:
* For a hundred years missionaries have worked so aboriginal could claim their place as equals in the Australian Community.
* Downlands bent over backwards to make this program work.
* The Toowoomba svdp man in the photo has been taking the kids to hospital appointments for seven years and making sure each kid has warm clothes, and feel as Nike as any other kid.
* StVdeP have spent $100k over the years, money donated by ordinary australians who wanted aboriginal parents to be part of a graduation crowd.
* This is an achievement of many and everyone, and Australia should be glowing with pride. It is a milestone for our nation.

Many remember that Saturday afternoon in 1986, when the Pope picked up a Baby from Wadeye,
and then led the nation in a prayer written for the occasion by Alice Spring Arrernte People.

It was called the
Prayer of the Aboriginal People.

Some heard that Prayer and thought:
Let's have a crack at it, for the
best kind of publicity is to make prayer happen

Selina's Mum was one of them!

Prayer of the Aboriginal People

Father you gave us the Dreaming,you have spoken to us through our beliefs,then you made your love clear to us in Jesus.We thank you for your care,You own us, You are our hope.Make us strong as we face the problem of change.We ask you to help the people of Australiato listen to us and respect our culture.Make the knowledge of you grow strong in all peopleSo that you can be at home in usand we can make a home for everyone in our land.

Rosabelle Wonnaemeri, with her sister Patsy Tipungwuti, Selina and Gillian -
the Downlands studies deputy who made it work.
Rosabelle's step son Austin played AFL with Melbourne

One Tiwi Aboriginal kid in Year 12 and two going into Year 11 next year.

StVdeP provides a laptop when a kid reaches Year 11 .

You gotta walk the Super Highway to live in the modern world!

Caitlyn is doing Work Experience as a Librarian next month, and Lucy as a primary teacher. Selina will get her Year 12 and commence at Charles Darwin University in 2012.

Captain Cook and every Captain since would have said it was impossible. A Bush Aborigine at University within 100 years of settlement - Impossible!

The EKKA is so loud and brazen, but young kids, including my Ellie like it!

Perhaps Australia's greatest Jurist was Owen Dixon.

From 1942 to 1944 he took leave from his judicial duties to serves as Australia's Ambassador to the United States. There he made a famous speech in Memphis referring to Australian Aborigines:

• "The analogy in this country is the Red Indian but the Aust Aboriginal is of amuch lower state of development. He belongs to the Stone Age and no success has attended efforts to incorporate him in civilized society" P 200 Paul Kelly 'March of the Patriots

If Owen was alive today he would delight in what these girls are achieving in Downlands. He would love to be proved so very very wrong.

Of course he was chanting the common view of his day, Charles Darwin stuff: some civilizations are at a lower level.... (of course us mob are better!!)

Of course Philosopher Max Charlesworth had it around the other way:

Aborigines are the most civilized people on earth, they cared so little for possessions - because their ceremony life was so rich... The only people on earth who did not enslave others, who did not take over another's territory...

All that aside, we have an aboriginal kid getting into the University 100 years after colonization. It is a Black Swan event - you know, the dictionaries said all swans are white until Europeans got to Perth. Then they had to change the definitions.

All aborigines are Stone Aged People, can't be incorporated into civilization.... Meadow Mayonnaise !!!! (you know, you put your foot in it when you stroll through the Bulls' paddock)

50 years for GBJT, 99 Years for Tiwi

Greater Brisbane Junior Tennis has been helping the Tiwi Education Project for the past five years - providing clothing, support and welcoming the kids at Saturday fixtures.

2010 is 50 Years since GBJT commenced and it is 99 Years since a Swiss Missionary, Bishop Gsell set foot on the Tiwi Islands.

John the Baptist Tipiloura recalls how someone turned to his GGG Grandfather and asked: "Will we kill him?"

'No, lets hear what he has to say first!".

The Bishop is buried on the Tiwi Island, he impacted on the culture, but he helped Tiwi to adapt a Meaning System to a modern world crashing in.

For aborigines, Life's Meaning depended on Place, for European the Meaning System depends on Time, of an event that happened 2010 years ago - or thereabouts.

It has been a difficult change for Tiwi. The Brit Guardian Newspaper called the Tiwi Island the Suicide Capital of the World. But now things are happening. Selina is a chance for UQ law in 2012 - the First Time an 'english as a second language' Bush Aborigine has made it through School to Year 12 - that is her with her brother who plays for Melbourne.

GBJT is wanting to celebrate it's 50 years to help finance this Tiwi Education Project - if one community can make it through to University after only 100 years - others can do likewise.

We need 100 people who will give us $100 so we can survive to 2011 - StVdeP, so fully Tax Deductible. Can You Help ??

Do you have ideas to offer companies that would help, ideas for generating the $10,000 we need each year. contact me phillipwh@gmail.com

Buttons: *BP Gsell *Origin of this Program *Education *Health

Battling the Lions

Selina has a real chance of passing her Year 12 in 2011 and of commencing UQ Law in 2012. She plays for Queensland AFL and the photo has her on the boundary line at the Gabba with her brother Austin Wonnameri and other aborigines who play for Melbourne.

Mid Winter is the worst time for Tiwi in Toowoomba, waking to a temp of zero each morning - very tough for someone born in a sauna.

The Melbourne Indigenous players were delighted to club with Selina, Ella and Caitlyn. It is great that traditional guys are breaking into the highest football in the land, but peace at home will come when the young ones are also claiming their spots in Australia's Universities.

It is just on one hundred years since Bishop Gsell first went to the Tiwi Islands. There is a good chance that Selina will celebrate the occasion by commencing at at University of Queensland.

It took more than one hundred years for the descendants of the Irish 1847 an Gorta Mór famine, to battle their way through to gain entry to Australia's universities.

These Tiwi kids are heroes, battling the cold to give their community hope and opportunity. If you can help, go to the St Vincent de Paul Society's appeal page and make sure you pull down the Tiwi Education Project appeal from the menu. http://vinnies.org.au/tiwi-islands-education-project-qld

Mother and Father visit Downlands

Rosabelle and Matthew met today with Fr John Rector of Downlands and Gillian Smith the Studies Deputy. They want this program to work, and it cost $30.000 to come down for the visit -but as any parent would say: a child's happiness is priceless.

Selina is going so well, it becomes important for parents and home to work closely together, because since Captain Cook arrived, no 'traditional aboriginal' kid has ever made it through school to university - and Captain Cook and every captain that came after him thought such was impossible.

Ellenora and Caitlyn left home yesterday at 4.30pm, arrived in Darwin at 5.30pm, waited in airport lounge for the 1.10am flight, arrived in Brisbane at 5.30am, for the the 2.5 hour drive to Toowoomba.

It is more difficult for an Tiwi kid to get to school, and then to face Toowoomba cold and a very different culture.

Rosabelle is the one who keeps the program going and every time the kids travel she flies over to Darwin because she does not want young girls to be alone waiting in the lounge at Darwin Airport - it all costs her $400.

Rosabelle and Matthew look after their own daughter and they look after the other kids too - this is normal in an aboriginal community, for the strong look after their own and many others too.

One of the kids told me that she did not want to go home for term holidays, because it was too hard leaving home after the holidays.

Homesickness is a dreadful ache.

Downlands is doing a great job, a true Sacred Heart school! It is in the persisting and enduring accompaniment, continuing despite disappointment, that has made this program work - and is'nt this the definition of Love!

We have our problems. Two kids missed the flight today. When we enquired, we found that they did not want to come down without money.

The parents and the relatives are talking with them. We can't waste $600 in fares like that. But neither can we push 'tough love', because StVdeP tradition does not judge, StVdeP is a shut up and serve organization. It is difficult to be wise!

We are leaving it to Rosabelle and Matthew to sort out what should be done here! They went home tonight and will chat with others in the community.

When we commenced this program, we decided to target one tribal group, the Tiwi people and to persist despite whatever for ten years. Wasted fares is a despite whatever! It drives us mad to waste good fares!!!

But when we commenced this, we figured that if we could get a 'Bush Aborigines' through school to Higher Education, they would breaking the Glass Ceiling, and then point the way so other tribal groups can follow.

It is the conclusion of every Missionary, that the native aborigines possess above-average skills in just about everything. But being Nomads, they are just so different. When European met Aborigines, it was like a Elephant screeching and a Whale squirting - expression was powerful, but there was no communication!

I sometimes think we are locked into the Marxist scenario: Aborigines are in trouble because we have done them wrong. So it a question of Justice, that we redress past wrongs!

I don't think this scenario is right. For years people have failed trying to help Aborigines. Often, you hear They are Hopeless, when a particular strategy fails. More than likely a flawed strategy.

StVdeP Society founder had the focus on Love. Justice does not fix problems. Love fixes problems.

And what is love, well St Paul (Corinthians) said Love is: patient, kind. it rejoices in goodness, it bears, it believes, it hopes, it endures, and when all else fails, it continues

So we are going to press on, but we are failing less, and we are making progress! We don't expect First Round Knock Outs. We are going to persist.

We are going to need $30,000 this year to keep this program going. Since the 'Great Recession', St Vincent de Paul back-up resources are eroded. We are going to ask people to help! If you can help, go to the Vinnies appeal page and pull down the Tiwi Education Project menu. http://vinnies.org.a/appeals-processor-national

Duchesne, UQ Law

Matthew and Rosabelle met the Principal of Duchesne, saw how the girls lived and knew it was the ideal place for Selina beyond her time at Downlands.

The next stop was to meet Dr Billings of UQ Law. Dr Peter showed Selina around and explained how Law as taught and outlined the assistance Selina would be given as she gained stride at UQ. Peter concentrates on Immigration Law and explained the importance of Aboriginal Land Rights and the need for expert involvement when negotiating mining leases.

Throughout the day Matthew and Rosabelle was guided by David Manning who had taught the first Tiwi kids who came south to Monivae in 1970 and who has be an important energiser and fund raiser for this program since it's inception.

Our purposes have been achieved:

1. For Selina's Parents to appreciate the possibilities being offered to Selina.

2. For the Various places to meet Mum and Dad and appreciate their support as Selina attempts this enormous step forward for her people.

If you Can you help fund the project: https://vinnies.org.au/appeals-processor-national