Hughes Kimberley Calling

As you can see it, has been simply ages since I blogged. We have been so busy, tired and each of us has been sick at some stage.

August began with another set of demoralizing and inappropriate state wide tests- the WAMSE. This was four exams, 2 in Science and 2 in Society and Environment for all students in years 5,7 and 9.  I was so embarrassed that the students would do so poorly on the Science exam considering that is my subject. Unfortunately for them, whereas the rest of the state was having 3-4 Science lessons per week, I had managed 2 in 8 weeks with the high school students. With the literacy and numeracy demands so high, there is just so little time left to fit in anything else.

 Professor Fiona Stanley, who was awarded Australian of the Year a few years ago for her discovery of the link between spina bifida and folic acid in the mother’s diet visited the school this week. I had begun communicating with her last year when I first got the position here, knowing that she devotes much time to Aboriginal health issues. From the first email, this woman was wonderfully warm and held the Warmun community very dear to her heart. She named a number of the Elders who she considers personal friends and is the patron the of Gidja Total Health Foundation. She had said that she was looking forward to meeting me when she had a scheduled visit to Warmun this year. I was brazen enough to ask if she would consider being my scientist for the day. She replied that it would be her pleasure.

 From the moment I met her I knew I was in the presence of a truly amazing person. She would take each of our kids by their hand, introduce herself as Fiona and made each of those kids feel like the centre of her universe while she was talking with them. She walked into the high school classroom and immediately picked up a school shirt and asked if she could put it on. Mike was so embarrassed as the shirt was not clean, and his boys have very few showers during the Dry season. She was not phased in the least.

Professor Fiona Stanley with my class.

 I asked her to describe the scientific method using the example of the research that led to the swimming pool being built in Warmun. She discussed how they compared and gathered research from an Aboriginal community with a pool and one without a pool. They measured many health indicators in their research but focused particularly on skin diseases, lung and ear infections, school attendance and mental health. In all aspects, a pool resulted in massive improvements in child health. She is now fighting to have the pool solar heated so that it can be used year round, as the health of the kids deteriorates during the months it is closed. It is hard to believe that the pool needs solar heating when the winter temperatures are still often in the 30’s. These kids have a very limited ability to tolerate the cold.

 Fiona then discussed other programmes she is working on. As she is an Epidemiologist, the crisis in Aboriginal health is of great importance to her. She talked about one research experiment where they took a group of Aboriginal men out into the bush for 6 weeks. These guys all had diabetes, heart disease and  numerous other ailments as a result of living on “white mans tucker”. After 6 weeks living exclusively on bush tucker all their pre-existing ailments disappeared.

 We then all went to the library for a liturgy to celebrate 100 years since the death of Mary MacKillop. Fiona and her travelling party joined us for this as did a number of the community Elders. It was a beautiful and uplifting celebration as we talked about how the work of this woman who lived in another part of Australia so long ago is alive and at work in this community. We all joined together for a wonderful morning tea afterwards.

 Fiona camped out in the bush for the night with some of the older women from the community who are her friends. They were teaching her some of the bush medicines they used for treating a variety of ailments. She was very excited at the prospect of finding new and effective medicines that could be marketed that were based on Aboriginal bush medicine.

 She called in on our school briefly next morning and was on such a high. She apologized for her lack of showering for a few days, but was so elated by the work we were doing for our kids she had been over to the community CEO to sing our praises. She had been out to visit a wildlife park along the Gibb River Road that is one of the only places in Australia where the mammal numbers are increasing. She wanted to see if she could organize for some of these scientists to take our students out on field work.

 Fiona and her companions left a number of books and games behind for our students and was keen for them to email and let her know what she particularly thought of one book for which she had written the foreword. She took the time to respond to each of the girls’ emails.I was so impressed with Fiona and I can see why she is so successful at networking lots of people researching a variety of health issues together. A more charismatic woman I have never met.

Looking from Telegraph Hill down over the billabong

 For a weekend away Mike, Juliette and I met up with our friends from Kununura Belinda, Manny, Molly and Jacob. Parry’s Creek Farm. Our accommodation was in cabins joined by a raised walkway that stood about 3 metres above a small lagoon. The owners did tell us that one day their dog disappeared down the jaws of a crocodile while standing next to the bank below. The waterlillies were out in bloom and as I watched the dawn awake it was a magic sight. This place attracts bird watchers from all over the world as the variety of birds here is amazing. These lagoons remain wet throughout the Dry season and so are a magnet for birds from as far away as Siberia. We spent a peaceful hour watching the setting sun and the beautiful birds. I had never been more enchanted than by a flock of about 10 pelicans. In a group this size all their movements are synchronized. They open their wings, duck for fish and raise their heads all in unison. They looked like they were taking part in a graceful ballet.

The waterlillies were just beautiful

One bird that was not so charming was the resident brolga. This had been rescued by a nurse in our community and as it grew too large for them to keep in their yard they thought this would be a good home for it. I remember watching Beth and her husband running it up and down the school playground trying to teach it to fly. This bird was turning into a nightmare for the owners here. Parents had chased it with tyre levers as it attacked their children and it had pecked holes in much of the shadecloth. It approached us and I quickly stood up and held my chair up to it trying to scare it away. The kids were terrified of it so we had no worries about them wandering off near the lagoon, they stayed safely on the walkway or very close to us.

This entry was posted on September 9, 2009 at 8:56 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.