CELEBRATING FIRST NATIONS CULTURE
News from Bryan Carswell
Indigenous Liaison Officer
St Augustine's College Cairns
Students Cook a Favourite Food as a MAPS Fundraiser
Our scholarship students from the IYLP and AIEF foundations and other First Nations students prepared a favourite meal last term to raise funds for the College’s annual MAPS Appeal.
The long-time cultural delicacy wasn’t turtle, crayfish, dugon or fish. It was better than that. It was the regionally famous and much-loved dish widely known as Bullie Beef and Rice. It is also a national favourite of our international neighbours in Papua New Guinea.
It was the first time that our Indigenous students had, as a group, done such a thing. Huge congratulations to them for this initiative.
Their efforts were well rewarded as they raised over $150 for a Marist school in the Solomon Islands. We are confident the students at that school would be pleased to know that we cooked this dish as it would be a favourite of theirs as well.
Our recipe, after consulting a few students was, (as there are many slight variations to this dish): six cans of tin beef, (Hamper preferred), long grain white rice, (SunRice preferred, but any will do), eight tomatoes and onions, (diced) and a heap of curry powder (add amount to your liking).
Sincere thanks are due to several people: Mr McKenzie of Tolle's for generously supplying the ingredients, food containers and environmentally friendly wooden spoons; Mrs McKenzie from Food Tech for the huge rice cooker, the electric frypan and cooking utensils; and College Principal Mr Seivers who upgraded our First Nations Gathering Place, which now has a kitchenette where the food was cooked.
Our scholarship students were cooking, packing the meal into small plastic containers while others were selling and serving. It was advertised well with other students putting up ads around the College. We had a great time selling and sharing this favourite food.
Everyone enjoyed the delicacy and we sold out. We are thinking of making this an annual fund raiser for MAPS and may cook it a few times during the appeal.
Helping Out On Country Compass Day
Two men of Saints recently assisted St Therese’s School, Bentley Park with their On Country Compass Day. They were invited by one of their teachers, Ms Barbara Dewis, who previously worked at St Augustine’s.
Jack Tapim played the warup and Zeljko Strok-Warrior played the didgeridoo while a representative of the traditional custodians, Uncle Neville Ray, spoke about the country where his family and community have lived for generations.
Our students enjoyed the experience with the staff, parents and the students, and were grateful to be able to share their talent on these instruments.
Jack enjoyed Uncle Neville Ray's speech and history lesson about the different local countries and what places were special for him, his family and community.
It was also great to see Mr Di Lucchio, now at St Therese’s (he knew Zeljko from Saints in Year 7), and to meet Mrs Martin, a teacher, who is married to a Saints old boy, Mr Warren Martin, a classmate of Mr Carswell's at St Augustine's.
Following the speeches and formalities we were treated to a fantastic morning tea which included homemade damper, jam and cream and pastries.
The boys have also been invited to dance and perform for St Therese's NAIDOC Day, providing of course the stars align. They are looking forward to this opportunity should it eventuate.
A big thank you to Ms Dewis for this wonderful opportunity to share our students' talents with your students.
University of Queensland Visit
This week we were visited by our friends from UQ who dropped in for a talk to our Indigenous students. The two representatives from Brisbane were on a whistlestop tour of Cairns’ many high schools to inspire students to contemplate tertiary education.
Ms Jakiah Boyle and Ms Robyn Donnelly spoke to the 14 students from Years 10 to 12 about the support that is available within the University of Queensland for Indigenous students wishing to study at one of its four campuses.
Saints First Nations Old Boys are presently studying there. Kibbim Titasey and Tristan Gebbes were mentioned; Kibbim is doing second-year medicine. T’Kido, his eldest brother, studied medicine a few years after doing nursing and is now a GP.
The representatives also spoke about the InspireU Camps. Applications are open, and some are closing soon. If you are interested follow the links: