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September 2010 – Twelve Halls Creek girls visit Melbourne for the first time

Twelve students from Halls Creek District High School travelled to Melbourne in the first week of September as an extension of the Girls from Oz activities taking place in Halls Creek throughout 2010.

The girls, ranging in age from 12 to 15, flew into Melbourne on Monday August 30 for an exciting week of activities including visits to the Melbourne Zoo, Scienceworks and the National Sports Museum at the MCG; a highlight of the week was shopping at the Melbourne Markets and along Bridge Road!

Halls Creek is a remote community in the East Kimberley and most of the girls had previously travelled no further than Darwin or Perth. The number of people and amount of traffic on Melbourne’s streets, as well as Melbourne’s famous trams were a sight to behold for the girls at the beginning of the week, but in only a short time they became seasoned travelers.

The girls were hosted by Australian Girls Choir families, many of whom know exactly what it’s like to be on the other side of the country or globe from their travelling daughters. While many identified differences in lifestyle, between the remote East Kimberley community and the suburbs of Melbourne, it was also clear that connections were formed easily and many common interests shared. Girls from Oz and Halls Creek District High School are very grateful to the families who opened their homes to the girls for the week.

As well as playing tourist, the girls from Halls Creek participated in a rehearsal with members of the Australian Girls Choir, attended the choir’s Gala Spring Concert and even did some performing of their own. The Governor General – who visited the girls in Halls Creek in May – was thrilled to be able to invite the girls to a morning tea held to celebrate the work of Yooralla in Melbourne’s CBD. The girls could hardly believe their luck at being able to meet with Her Excellency Ms Bryce for the second time in just 3 short months and performed three songs from their growing repertoire for her and her guests.

Now the girls eagerly await the return of Girls from Oz to Halls Creek in the first week of November and will work hard towards their goal of being one of the small group chosen to travel to Sydney for activities towards the end of the school year.

The Girls from Oz program in Halls Creek continues to go from strength to strength after our fourth visit to the East Kimberley town in just 12 months. Returning team members Vicki King, Kylie Lee-Archer, Dale Pope and Siobhan Poynton were joined by Melbourne based dancer Jess Daniel for workshops at Halls Creek District High School, Warlawurru Catholic Primary School and the Shire of Halls Creek’s Rec Centre.

Each time Girls from Oz visits Halls Creek the children, teenagers and community welcome us back and embrace the aims of the project with increasing enthusiasm. The team was thrilled on Monday August 23 when the girls at Halls Creek District High School engaged unreservedly with activities that they had been shy about in the past; it’s clear that trust is building and long term connections are being formed.

The Girls from Oz project in Halls Creek began when Sciona Browne from the Halls Creek Better Life Project introduced Girls from Oz to the community and Sciona’s support continues to astound the team each time we visit. As well as administrative and logistical assistance, Sciona once again welcomed our five-strong team into her home; Girls from Oz are grateful for her enthusiasm and help!

Our visit this August coincided with the inaugural Halls Creek Music Festival and Girls from Oz and the girls from Halls Creek District High School put on a performance to be remembered. While many of the girls still shy away from public demonstrations, with the support of a group of peers and the g-oz team, most enjoyed singing and dancing before the gathered audience on the Halls Creek footy oval. It was also exciting to see 35 young children participate in the newly formed Take Pride Choir, and the children from Warlawurru Catholic Primary School also perform a number of items.

Local woman Jaydene Long spent the week with Girls from Oz again and is now undertaking a traineeship that will see her provide after school sessions for girls in the community. The Shire of Halls Creek will work with Jaydene and Girls from Oz to encourage young girls to engage with these worthwhile activities after school each week; their first project idea is to stage a Fashion Parade in October and we are confident that it will be a big success.

After three week long visits to Halls Creek this year the momentum is building for an exciting last four months of 2010. A group of girls travel to Melbourne in September, a return trip by the g-oz team to Halls Creek in November and another group of girls to visit Sydney towards the end of the school year; there are a lot of opportunities for Halls Creek girls and the Girls from Oz team alike!

May 2010 saw Girls from Oz return to Halls Creek to work with the girls at Halls Creek District High School and lots of other children from the community too! Kylie Lee-Archer, Nicole Muir and Siobhan Poynton enjoyed returning to this beautiful part of the East Kimberley after successful visits in August 2009 and March 2010 while Vicki King, Candice Bawden and Sophie Brown were stunned, for the first time, by the beauty of the landscape and friendliness of the welcomes.

Once again Sciona Browne from the Halls Creek Better Life Project hosted the g-oz team, making us welcome in her home and office, and connecting us up with agencies and members of the Halls Creek, and the wider East Kimberley, community. Melissa Walker, Associate Principal at Halls Creek District High School, was encouraged to see the girlsÕ response to the return of Girls from Oz and g-oz were thrilled to have the girls welcome us back into their classrooms and town.

The g-oz timetable was once again jam packed with work in the Early Childhood Centre and with the year 5 Ð 12 girls at the High School, sessions at Warlawurru (Red Hill) Catholic School, afternoons with the girls at the Rec Centre and a visit to the childrenÕs hostel.

The focus of our visit in March was to foster relationships, build trust and make connections, and in May it was wonderful to have a pre-existing foundation to grow from. Each session that we shared with the girls combined life skills with the performing arts; the most important message from the week being that ÒthereÕs no shame in tryingÓ!

As if working together with the girls in Halls Creek wasnÕt exciting enough, we enjoyed visits from like-minded special guests. The first, by Andrew and Nicola Forrest, was a lovely coincidence that resulted in the girls from Halls Creek District High School singing the Generation One song, ÒHands Across AustraliaÓ for the founder of the campaign. Recorded by many Australian artists (including the Australian Girls Choir) keen to lend support to the campaign to end indigenous disadvantage in Australia, the song was embraced by the Halls Creek girls who enjoyed singing it Ð for themselves and the Forrests.

The visit by our second exciting visitor was a bit longer in the planning. The Governor-General, Her Excellency, Quentin Bryce spent a few hours of her visit to the East Kimberley with the girls from Halls Creek District High School. It was marvellous to participate in Ôgirl timeÕ with Ms Bryce and the girls and to see the enjoyment that our planned performance gave to Their Excellencies Ms Bryce and Mr Bryce as well as to the girls, the staff and the entire Halls Creek community. WeÕre convinced that the girls of Halls Creek and the Girls from Oz will not forget that day in a hurry!

After the excitement of May our attention now turns to our next visit to Halls Creek in August when Girls from Oz will again work with the girls in the community, participate in Halls CreekÕs inaugural Music Festival and, most exciting of all, travel home with 15 select Halls Creek students as they embark on their first school trip to Melbourne!

In March 2010, five members of the Girls from Oz team spent a week in the Western Australian town of Halls Creek. Kylie Lee-Archer, Dale Pope, Siobhan Poynton, Sonia Dunn and Laura Knowling travelled from their homes in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide to Halls Creek via Darwin and Kununurra; on the way they learnt a little bit more about the isolated town they were visiting.

Halls Creek lies 362km south of Kununurra, 1288km south-west of Darwin and 2873km north east of Perth; it’s the fourth fastest growing shire in Western Australia. Halls Creek is a busy service town for surrounding pastoralists, Aboriginal communities and travellers exploring the beautiful Kimberley region. The population of the Shire of Halls Creek has an average age of 24 (compared to the national average of 35 years) and 50% of the population is under 25. 84% of residents identify themselves as Indigenous.

Met in Kununurra by Halls Creek District High School Principal, Gavin Stevens, the Girls from Oz team enjoyed the scenic drive to Halls Creek marvelling at the beautiful colours so foreign to Australia’s east coasters. The team was hosted during the week by Sciona Browne from the Halls Creek Better Life Project and made welcome by all they met at the High School, Warlawurra (Red Hill) Catholic School, Youth Services, the children’s hostel and other town agencies.

Each morning the Girls from Oz team began their day with the Halls Creek District High School’s youngest students – songs and dances about kangaroos, elephants, trains and bouncing balls were a hit. Most popular of all was a dance about ‘Tarzan and Jane’ created by Dale Pope; all of the children, aged 3 – 6, asked for it again and again!

Spending time with the girls in grades 7 – 12 was the highest priority at the High School but the team did also enjoy one session with the girls in years 5 and 6 who danced the Can Can, learnt clapping patterns from Samoa and sang about a crazy old car! Just like the little kids, the girls in grades 5 and 6 participated with energy and enthusiasm and the g-oz team looks forward to spending more time with them on their return in May.

Building relationships with the girls in years 7 – 12 was a really important part of this trip, the first of four by g-oz to Halls Creek in 2010. Together the group explored questions like ‘what’s cool about being a girl’, what great things g-oz could tell their east coast friends about Halls Creek and what the girls already knew about the Arts. Encouraging interaction, the voicing of opinions and sharing of ideas was challenging at first but as g-oz got to know the girls and the girls got to know g-oz everyone felt the shift. On the Performing Arts front, Laura ran a number of wonderful sessions with the girls on “Sing Sing!” about using your voice and not being ashamed; the girls giggled as Laura introduced them to their diaphragm and encouraged them to sing out strongly. Dale’s dance to “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas got (almost) everyone up and moving. Watching the girls jump up and down in unison and seeing the smiles on their faces as they danced to this popular, uplifting anthem was really inspiring to the g-oz team and HCDHS teachers alike. Siobhan sang her own music for the girls who even managed to sit quietly and respectfully almost the whole way through. As a singer songwriter herself, Siobhan offered the girls a glimpse of what it’s like to be really brave and share a part of yourself with an audience.

As if the team’s time at the High School wasn’t enough each day, Dale and Laura visited Red Hill Primary School twice, the team visited the children’s hostel once and spent 2 ½ hours with the kids at Youth Services each afternoon after school. Kids from 3½ to 14 years old spent time with the g-oz team singing, dancing and playing games and instruments; attendance at these optional afternoon sessions grew from 13 to 41 over the course of the week and we look forward to even bigger numbers in May!

After an exhausting introductory week in Halls Creek each of the g-oz team look forward to returning in May and beyond, and to developing relationships and skills with the girls and young women of Halls Creek. See you in May girls!

Girls from Oz were thrilled to received word in mid March that Rio Tinto had agreed to support our program in Halls Creek through their Aboriginal Fund. With the pilot underway – funded by Royalties for Regions and with in kind and cash support from the Better Life Project Office in Halls Creek and the Australian School of Performing Arts in Melbourne – funding continues to be sourced for the 2010-2011 year which will see an additional four visits by g-oz to Halls Creek and two visits by Halls Creek to Australia’s Eastern states.

g-oz members Sonia Dunn, Laura Knowling, Kylie Lee-Archer, Dale Pope and Siobhan Poynton will be in Halls Creek this March as girls from oz, Halls Creek District High School and the Halls Creek Better Life Project Office launch the first of 6 visits by g-oz to Halls Creek and, what we hope will be, 3 visits by Halls Creek youth to Australia’s eastern states.

The partnership between g-oz and Halls Creek District High School is the brainchild of Sciona Browne at the Halls Creek Better Life Project Office and Nicole Muir g-oz Chair. Over the past months Nicole and Sciona have collaborated with g-oz members and Halls Creek community leaders to develop a program that will initially connect with teenage indigenous girls who are disengaged from their schools and lack opportunities to explore life outside of Halls Creek.

According to BankWest’s inaugural Quality of Life Index 2008, Halls Creek has the lowest quality of life ranking in Australia (ranking of 590). The Halls Creek Community Strategy 2008-2018 seeks to provide the township and its residents with a set of priority strategies and actions to enable a positive response to challenging social and economic circumstances, by building upon the town’s unique assets and resources. Community leaders are determined to improve housing, employment opportunities, education and participation, public safety and, in turn, public perception.

In August 2009, Nicole Muir - g-oz Chair and Kylie Lee-Archer - Vice Chair travelled to Halls Creek WA to meet with community leaders about g-oz plans to lead Performing Arts sessions for young people in 2010. Over three days Sciona introduced Nicole and Kylie to staff from Halls Creek District High School, Red Hill Primary School, the Shire, Health Services and many individual locals who shared their ideas about what young people, and particularly girls and young women, need at this time.

A number of common themes ran through all of our meetings –
First, it’s clear that boys and young men in the community are well resourced through council programs, crime prevention initiatives and notably the Clontarf Football Academy based at the High School. While boys and men need continued support and innovative programs, the leaders we spoke with expressed concern about the lack of opportunity, comparatively, for girls. Halls Creek stakeholders were also adamant that their youth have enough ‘travelling circus’ visitors and that sustainability of the program is critical. Visiting more than once, at regular intervals, and maintaining contact and momentum in between is crucial to our success.

This month the journey proper begins! We have a dream that we can make a positive difference to the lives of many young people but in this instance we are aiming for a concentrated program that will see us work specifically with young women who currently live in a community that is burdened by multi generational welfare dependence, alcohol and drug abuse, and violence. The elder women of the area are concerned about their girls; they have an aim to “grow ’em up strong”. We plan to help them.

Sonia, Laura, Kylie, Dale and Siobhan will be blogging their experience – log in to follow the successes and challenges that the program brings.