DDONEONE & & DUSTEDDUSTED Stories and snapshots from 2007 APY Land Tour

We’re ba-a-a-ck Jonathan Moore

They may have been tired and in need of a warm bath but this year’s mob of intrepid travellers arrived home safe and sound around 12noon Friday, August 3rd.

Simmo pushed all of us the night before by being obstinate and refusing to stop before reaching Port Augusta. On Friday, though, with only four hours to go from Port Augusta to Ade-laide, we were thankful for his astounding arro-gance.

It was yet another great APY Land experi-ence that was far deeper and broader than can possibly be captured on paper. But a few high-lights and photos may

give you the reader a feel for what the experience meant to us.

Over twelve action-packed days we visited Yami Lester and his Ngin-taka dreaming site, Fre-gon, Walalkara and it’s surrounding landscape, Shirley’s Well, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Juta (Olgas).

We distributed 2nd hand clothes, played soc-cer in the sand, sang songs in the desert,

learned about health care in such a remote place, looked up at the night sky and grappled with life in a part of God’s creation that is full of both deep pain and great beauty.

The process of re-entry back into ‘normal’ life- whatever that is— now begins.

This really was a great trip and a wonderful ex-perience for all con-cerned.

Read on for ...

• Yami Lester

• Fregon accommoda-

tion heartache

• Francine—A flower

blooms in the desert.

• Desert inma

• Giving out 2nd hand

• Jonathan and “those”

questions

• David Peacock: agent

provocateur or just a

pain the neck?

• Kaltjiti Arts—Colour

Therapy

Judy Lawrence

A sheila who is one of the boys. Also does a great toffee English accent. Inter-esting combination. Too much excitement is never enough but hampered by debilitating condition: “Tourist Tourettes.” (Why is she lying on the road taking this photo of herself?)

David Powell

David “I’d hate to see it go to waste” Powell is a contribu-tor and bundle of energy whose primary concern is Christian discipleship. Climbed the rock on his own in record time and still had time to stop with God on top. Phew! This photo suggests latent guru qualities.

Hayley Willis

A quiet contributor in charge of photos and phone alarm tunes. Coped well with camp-ing! None of us will forget Hayley nursing Jasmine to sleep during desert inma.

Simon Uppill

(‘Simmo’, ‘Syme’, ‘Rob’, ‘Bob’, ‘Bobby’, ‘Jim’, ‘James’. ‘Jammo’) A thoughtful soul who thrives on “fresh questions.” Who can forget his jump out of bed for the Curtin Springs pack-up? Likes to drive long and hard

Kaltjiti Art Centre—Colour Therapy Hayley Lewis

Walking into the Kaltjiti

Art Centre is like finding an oasis in the desert. Open the doors to this shed and suddenly colours and crea-tivity overwhelm your senses.

The art centre proudly displays much of the work that is created by local art-ists from canvas dot paint-ings to Aboriginal designs woven into wall hangings by Indian artists. Beads, wood carvings, little boxes … you will definitely find something you love.

My favourite experience at Kaltjiti Art Centre was meeting a local artist (usually sitting outside drawing designs into the

red earth) and having them proudly telling you the story of their artwork. I also loved seeing Kaltjiti Art in Yulara and Adelaide and knowing that you've shared a spe-cial moment with the artist in a little com-munity called Fregon.

Fregon Accommodation Heartache. Judy Lawrence

We were warned about the state of the Aged Care Centre. This

is where we have stayed in the past. I knew it would need a little TLC before we made ourselves at home but I wasn’t prepared for the destruction that we were faced with. No running water, holes punched through doors and walls, evidence of donkeys in the rooms, piles of rubble blocked the entrance to the showers and toilets that were little more than just holes and pipes in the ground. It’s now unliveable. With no idea where we were going to stay we turned to the school. A vacant school house became our home for the next two nights, fully furnished, secure and with a shower!

Fregon is a very unpredictable place! No wonder Michael Leunig’s “Here’s The Plan” cartoon became our motto for the rest of the trip!

Clothes Distribution David Powell

Seventy-odd boxes of carefully and lovingly prepared clothes which we carried 3 days drive to Fregon on a car trailer. Apart from our sign it was word of mouth – and the occasional holler – that spread the word: “seconhan”.

Just 22 minutes passed between sale start and end, fully stocked and none – with eager voices and hands calling out orders and exchanging cartons and small change – just 4 bucks a box!

Urgent Pitjanjatjara, English, broken English or body language alone, were the means of communication. “You got tjitji (children’s) clothes?” “Sorry, not many…” “What about that bed?”

Handing out good quality second hand clothes is just one reason we make this trip and a chance to share our wealth and help meet some of the more obvious needs.

The only disappoint-ment? Not being able to offer more clothes three days later when we were still fielding re-quests for ‘seconhan’.

Desert Inma David Powell

Sitting near the essential and now-familiar campfire with a gentle breeze, before a low stage (ute tray on old tyres) with pre-loved carpet spread before it as a dance floor, under God’s stars which we have the opportunity to look up at, but rarely do… Kungka (ladies) and tjitji (children) were our hosts and tutors as we joined in wor-ship on the homelands and sipped a billy-boiled cuppa afterward.

In a discordant mix of generator, floodlit musical technol-ogy, cross-cultural aboriginal Christian experience and nothing we’d done before, we sat, shared and had our souls enriched as Pitjantjatjara singing (inma) with rhythmic keyboard and CD mu-sic, prayer (and an Aussie worship item or two) brought us to-gether.

The uninitiated would’ve labelled it ‘open-air church’ at Walalkara, but it was so much more!

I was once told ‘music can touch the soul where words can’t.’ This was an earthy way of sharing it.

David Peacock: agent provocateur or just a ‘pain in the neck’? Hayley Willis

"You are now walking on Holy Water!" Hehe. Another joke from Dave Peacock to either laugh at or roll your eyes at. He’d been showing us the Israeli made desalination plant.

Listening to Dave talk, you can't help but be impressed at his generosity for spending over twenty years in Fregon with his wife Beverly. A man with many jobs, Dave looks after the water desalination and, until recently, the town’s power supply and airstrip. In spare time he also helps Beverly run Kaltjiti Arts.

Dave has a lot to say (both positive and negative) about Christianity and other beliefs, but after living in such a remote and socially challenged place for twenty years he has seen a lot of people come into the community and try to help in un-helpful ways.

When this mischievous provocateur walks up to you squint-ing and smiling (keeping the flies away by waving a bunch of leaves in front of his face) you know you are either in for a 'Dave' joke or a guided tour of part of Fregon that you would have never seen without him.

Yami Lester Simon Upill

For me, the highlight of the time away was meeting Yami

Lester. It was such a privilege to stay with him, to relax around

the campfire with him and to hear his stories. The most impres-

sive of all of Yami’s stories was the Ngintaka Dreaming story.

Yami took us out to the site of the story and shared it with us in

great detail. When as part of the story, Yami sang the Ngintaka’s

song I was absolutely blown away. What a privilege it was to be

alongside this great man and to have him share with us in such a

unique and special way.

Yami has had an amazing life – after growing up in the

Yankanyjatjara lands and being taught the ‘old way’, he learnt

the ‘ways’ of a stockman in his early teens, before the fall-out

from the Maralinga atomic tests caused his blindness in his mid-

teens. After many years living in Colebrook Home, Blackwood,

and working at the Blind Institute in North Adelaide, Yami re-

turned home to play an influential role in the lives of many Abo-

riginal people – through interpreting and welfare work, running

an Aboriginal owned cattle station, and most significantly in realizing many successful Land Rights claims.

Francine- A flower blooms in the desert. Judy Lawrence

The kids of Walakara are just like the kids in the movie ‘The Little Ras-cals’: Brendan, Anthony, Silas, and the ever-hilarious lovable Jamaica.

The rose in amongst all the thorns how-ever is Francine. 10-year-old Francine, the token girl in a group of all boys, and dubbed Miss South Australia by our group. This girl has it all! She loves to play soccer and cricket with the boys and has great

lung capacity when it comes to telling them what to do. Francine loves to sing as we found out at the church inma, and

what a singer! She would win ‘Outback Idol’ for sure! She loves painting her face (and mine) for special occasions, is very photogenic, loves to be behind and in front of the camera, likes to play with hair, loves cud-dles, and comes with the very fashionable small dog called Barbie Girl. She is bub-bly and loveable, with a very infectious personality. A beautiful flower in the outback. Francine is the Jennifer Haw-kins of the desert.

The Discipleship Journey

Simon Uppill

The trip to Fregon was not simply about a journey to a physical location. The key feature of the trip was for it to

be a journey of discipleship. And if discipleship is about being compelled to step boldly out of our comfort zones, to

risk journeying to foreign places, to meet with people different to us – people suffering from marginalization and dis-

crimination, to grow and learn through reflection and questioning, and to seek to follow Jesus more actively and pas-

sionately – then the physical journey to Fregon was certainly also a journey of discipleship.

Reflections and questioning was encouraged within the group daily – assisted by intentional conversations based

on subjects such as God’s plan for our lives, having ‘faith in Christ’ vs ‘the faith of Christ’, and the dangers of per-

sonal projection. These times of openness, sharing, listening

and questioning encouraged great growth and learning in

each of our discipleship journeys.

June Will Carolyn & Don Hemer Lorraine Lewis Don & Aileen Harvey Graham Thomas Val Megson

David Whyatt Andrew Knight Greg Ratcliff Peter Lawrence Denise Knight Tricia Moore

Edda Thomas Helen Jones Jennifer Ford Charlie Shears Mark Riessen Joyce Eagle

Blackwood Hire Centre ... and everyone who spared a thought for us or prayed a prayer. It did not go un-noticed.

T h a n k s t o a l l o u r m a j o r s u p p o r t e r s & s p o n s o r s . . .

Fregon

Walalkara

Home of Tjilpi Robin and his family who ex-tend gracious hospitality by sharing sacred stories and sites with us as well as singing to us under a desert sky. 45 km SW Fregon

Population fluctuates be-tween 50 and 150 depending on football games, motorbike races and seasons of mourn-ing. 230 km off Stuart Highway down ‘Dry Track Only.’ Blackwood Church of Christ has been sending up second hand clothes to Fregon for 17 years.

Wallatina

Homeland of Yami Lester, one of the country’s most significant indigenous leaders and subject of Paul Kelly’s song: “Maralinga.” The British Atomic Test at Emu Field, October 15, 1953, blew radioactivity all over Yami’s family making them all sick and which ultimately led to his blindness.

Journey to the APY Lands 2008Journey to the APY Lands 2008Journey to the APY Lands 2008Journey to the APY Lands 2008Journey to the APY Lands 2008Journey to the APY Lands 2008Journey to the APY Lands 2008Journey to the APY Lands 2008 Yep, it’s on again. Interested?

Are you looking for an intense spiritual and cross-cultural

adventure? Do you enjoy campfire chats on big issues?

Can you be available for two weeks during July-August

2008?

It’s not for everyone but this Christian discipleship venture

into our own backyard may be just what you need.

Contact Jonathan Moore

0418830552 or 82788666

jtm@netspace.net.au