End of Term 2, 2007

Tiwi kids have been at Downlands now for twelve months. They are to be congratulated because it is a massive act of faith to exchange a tropical island for a bleak Toowoomba Winter. There are still five, the photo of the girls is with Lynette who runs the boarding house.

Other kids go to school so they can have a future as visioned by their parent's lives. Aboriginal kids hope for a future for which their parent's lives offer no pointers. Yet these Aussie Rules kids pack down in a Rugby Scrum and so much of their life at Downlands cannot be shared with those at home - how could they possibly understand.

The Tiwi kids live with others who smell different, for each race emits from their distinct bowel fauna. You don't smell yourself - you only smell the kid who is different. So inevitably you live with a kind of prejudice, which comes from 'not knowing' rather than from malevolence: "Gee they smell bad in the toilet!"

It is frustrating trying to help aborigine kids across this massive cultural divide. You often think: "What the hell and I doing this for!!" My plans fall apart because they do not cooperate.

But then, Frustration is the Currency because it is liaison between a plan imposed rather than a plan negotiated, and you only discover the need for negotiation when there is failure.

I am heartened by a statement of St Vincent de Paul: "It is only because of your love that the poor will forgive you your bread!" Of its nature, altruism is patronizing and you need the humiliation of defeat for it to be cleaned.

If you are free to help, go to https://www.vinnies.org.au/show_appeal.cfm?table=appeals&parentid=0&id=43

Surviving Winter 2007

The dread of winter is descending in Toowoomba and no where worse than the top oval at Downlands where the under 14 B rugby team with two Tiwi kids played on Saturday afternoon.

Tiwi have been at Downlands now for over twelve months. The kids are smart but their intelligence is not reflected as teachers see it, in a 'Reading Age'. But they understand complex issues and are smart aboriginal way. They can find their way through the mangroves and know how to hunt and live in the bush!

After the Rugby, they came back to Brisbane and joined the Kenmore parish and St V de P at mass. On Sunday we took a trip to see the High Rise at the Gold Coast, but on Sunday night, watching TV before a log fire, it was clear they they did not want to go back to Downlands!

There is nothing wrong with Downlands, everyone there is terrific, but they were saying: what is the use of us freezing up there, we won't be lawyers, doctors and accountants like many of the other kids at Downlands! Why strain, they just wanted to go home !!!

We talked about it, about the many who had died unnecessarily on the Tiwi Islands, from a kidney disease which could have been avoided with the right help in the right way at the right time, and from depression: just not wanting to live any more.

We reflected how their grandfather Noel Puantulura had sent them down to get hope and to bring hope back! They accepted that they had a John the Baptist role, to keep 'the way open', so others could come later and bring back more hope.

And they decided to put the head down and continue to try. A visit to MacDonald's helped too!

If you are free to help us, go to https://www.vinnies.org.au/show_appeal.cfm?table=appeals&parentid=0&id=43