The Migrant Women’s Lobby Group of SA Inc.

'Culture learning, Sharing and Health & Well-being Women's Camp Coorong' Report

Held at Camp Coorong, 22-24 November 2002

 

Acknowledgments

The Migrant Women’s Lobby Group of SA Inc. (MWLG) would like sincerely to thank Community Benefit SA for the funding provided to make this camp possible.

We would like to pay respect and give our deep gratitude to the Aunties from the Indigenous Community who were part of the planning committee:

Veronica Brodie
Cherie Watson
Christine Wilson

We would also like to give thanks for the great collaboration and commitment by the following workers, services and volunteers from the community:

Catherine Carroll, Dale Street Women’s Health Centre
Dung Nguyen, Northern Women’s Community Health Centre
Kate Agius, NMCHS- Aboriginal Health Team
Adelaide Central Community Health Centre
NMCHS - Northern Women’s Community Health Centre
NMCHS- Shop Front
NMCHS- Aboriginal Health Team
Eliana Espinosa for taking and editing the video.
Cathy Brown for being part of the planing committee.
Cherie Watson for driving the big bus.
Anna Balassone for helping out at the camp.

Thanks to Monica Chiappe and Angela Nesci for planning, coordinating and organising the camp, and writing up the report.

We express our sincere thanks to all the women who attended the camp and those who dedicated their time and enthusiasm to being in the kitchen and cooking delicious meals from their own culture.

 

Introduction

The following is a detailed report about how it came to be that such a camp was organised for Indigenous and non-English speaking background women.

The idea for this camp come from one of the many Migrant Women’s Lobby Group priorities in relation to running a series of ‘Coming Together’ sessions for migrant and indigenous women.

The Migrant Women's Lobby Group of SA Inc (MWLG) is a peak women's group in South Australia (SA) and since 1984 has canvassed the interests, issues, needs and concerns of migrant women in SA.

The women involved with the MWLG come from all walks of life and are committed to the participation of migrant women and particularly women from non-English speaking backgrounds in the social, cultural, economic, and civic life of South Australia. The Migrant Women’s Lobby Group believes that women's issues and priorities are shared bonds, which unite women with diverse life and cultural experiences.

The Lobby Group has been active in raising, discussing and addressing issues which have included how to access services and agencies, women in the workforce, unemployment, health, education, domestic violence and childcare. The Lobby Group has provided a voice for women from various backgrounds in SA and over the years has worked collaboratively with a number of women's groups and other organisations.

The following is our account of how the camp developed and evolved. We have also included comments from evaluation sessions held at the end of the final day of the camp in a formal and informal way, by members of the MWLG involved. Some feedback took place on the trip back to Adelaide. In the bus women talked to each other about their experiences during the two day camp. There was also a follow up gathering and conversations with some of the Nunga elders after the camp.

The primary aim of the camp, was to provide an opportunity for the Indigenous and non-Indigenous migrant women to come together, share their stories, learn about each others’ lives and to promote their health and wellbeing.

The Target Groups

The target groups for the camp were Indigenous and non-Indigenous women from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, i.e. Kuarna, Narandijeri, Vietnamese, Korea, Italy, Guatemala, El Salvador and Chile. 42 women attended. The camp was held over two days from Friday the 22nd November to Sunday the 24th November at Camp Coorong just outside of Meningie, South Australia.

 

The development stage

The MWLG applied for a grant from Community Benefit SA.

Two members of the MWLG, started having conversations with some elders from the Indigenous Community about the idea of a camp. A working group which included three Nunga Elders, one of whom is a worker from the Northern Metro Community Health — Aboriginal Health Team, a worker from ACCHS-Dale Street Women’s Health Centre, and a volunteer who was part of the Dale Street Family Food and Culture Project came together to start planning the camp. Our first task was to look for a suitable venue.

At the second meeting, we decided that we would need to check the availability of suitable campsites for indigenous women. We decided that, ideally, the camp would need to be connected with the history of the Indigenous women and a place where non-Indigenous women could learn and explore their feelings in a nurturing and safe environment. We also hoped that the setting would provide opportunities for women to connect with the land and enjoy parts of Indigenous women’s history.

At subsequent meetings we had to decide whether the camp would be self catered or whether we would have someone cater it. This would be dependent on cost and also on women’s diets. Following consultation with women wanting to attend the camp, it was decided that they would cook and share typical food from their own cultural backgrounds and a roster was drawn up for cooking during the camp.

A number of services and organisation were provided with the opportunity to invite women to the camp. Invitations and registration forms were sent out to Tauondi Aboriginal College, the Aboriginal health worker from the Northern Metro Community Health Service, the Spanish-speaking worker from ACCHS-Dale Street Women’s Health Centre and Northern Women’s Community Health Centre, the Vietnamese community health worker from Northern Women’s Health Centre and to others involved with the organising committee.

The workers from two Women’s Health Centres and the worker from the Northern metro Community Health Service- Aboriginal Health Team got a very good response from Service managers to support and assist with the running of the camp by providing some transport and other small donations.

The objectives of the Camp

 

At the Camp site

Women were given opportunities to engage in various activities during the camp. Activities were set up in a way that helped women feel free to move and choose what they wanted to do. There was a lot of round circle time for women to start getting to know each other, share stories and have conversations about culture, family, health and furthermore to have fun and relax.

During the Camp, a health worker was available for women to ask questions or get some health information. A table was set up with health information and information on services available for women.

Other activities set up were: -

On the first night of the camp we introduced ourselves; we had some discussion about the program for the next two days. The next day we spent most of the day travelling around the land of Coorong. Indigenous women shared stories and memories as we travelled over bumpy roads towards Raukkan, which for some women attending the camp, was their birthplace and also the place which they left.

We stopped at one part of the Lake Alexandria, at Raukkan, where some children were having a swim in the lake. Some of them knew Aunty Christine Wilson and they soon started to have conversations with us. Aunty Chris shared with the group other memories and stories about the land, family life and childhood pastimes.

The women also had the opportunity to visit the Camp Coorong Museum. One of the uncles, who takes care of the camp, conducted a tour for the women. He gave an oral history of everything in the museum. The women from non-English speaking backgrounds were fascinated with the amount of history that is in that museum.

Saturday night was a special night, women planned to have a cultural exchange with story telling, music and dancing, after a hearty multicultural dinner. The women started to get ready for the cultural night. They were very creative in the way they prepared to present something from their culture. After the meal the women set up chairs in a circle, ready for the cultural exchange night.

 

The sharing of the cultural exchange

Aunty Veronica Brodie, one of the Nunga elders, welcomed us to their land and paid respect to the elders. She thanked the MWLG for organising and making possible the gathering together of the women.

Aunty Veronica’s quotation was ‘this is the first time in Adelaide, that Indigenous and non- Indigenous women from non-English speaking backgrounds come together, to share and learn from each other in a place that has a lot of meaning for us’ This is a real learning process and shows that we can be together in a respectful way. This gathering is a good example for reconciliation with non-Indigenous people.

That night we shared stories, dancing, music and story telling about where non-Indigenous women from non-English speaking background come from. They shared their experiences in leaving their own countries of origin, some of the traditional beliefs and some of the traumatic experiences in living in a different country with different traditions and language and some of the barriers that women confronted in this new country. The stories were told between some traditional dancing and singing. We also heard the Indigenous experiences of the stolen generation, removal from traditional lands and of racism that is still being experienced. After some sad moments, tears and emotions the Latin American women invited the women to start dancing the Salsa to some Latin music. It was a great way to end to the cultural night!

The next day, after the breakfast, the women finished the banner as part of the evaluation of the two day camp. The women did not want to come back to Adelaide and reluctantly, before lunch they packed the buses, ready to return home.

 

Evaluation Feedback from the women who attended the camp

‘It was a wonderful way to learn from non-Indigenous women, about their culture and life’

‘My experience at camp Coorong will be like a garden from which I draw many good memories with the aunties and other women’ ‘For me was the first time that I have the privilege to be in a camp with Indigenous women and other women, the personal impact of the gathering at Coorong is overwhelmingly positive, with, respect and appreciation of the Aboriginal land and what that means for them’ ‘The positiveness and benefits of a camp Coorong experience, should be taken by services as a role model to offer to other people to deal with reconciliation and as a learning process about Indigenous history’ The camp was very well organised. The food was very well organised and fantastic.

‘Well done for the MWLG, it was an excellent idea to put up this camp’

‘We need more time together, two days wasn’t enough. By the time we started to form relationships and to know each other, was time to come back’ ‘At Coorong, we talk, laughed and cried together, we learned from our Indigenous sisters that we can be together, we can be open to our feelings, we can be accepting each other and most important — be ourselves’ ‘I was a teacher in my country and part of my education was learning the history of other countries. I have never heard about the Australian Aboriginal People, today bieng here at Coorong is a privilege, I will keep this camp forever in my heart and spirit. Thank you to the MWLG for giving me the opportunity to be part of the camp’ ‘As a Nunga woman, I have never had the opportunity to be with women from non-English speaking background, even though some women didn’t speak enough English to communicate with each other, the smiling faces, body, language, generosity and respect from the women, touched my heart. It would be good to have more gathering like this one’ ‘I learn at camp Coorong, that women, no matter where they come from, how they look and what the colour of their skin we can share and unite to learn from each other’s suffering and pain through the history of oppression. Well done to the organising committee of this camp’  

Evaluation Feedback from the women who attended the camp (con’t)

‘At camp Coorong I learned that as women from non-English speaking backgrounds and Indigenous women, we all share many of the fears, regrets, sadness, happiness and hopes. I would like to see one day the recognition of the owners of this land and the freedom for the Aboriginal people for their own self determination’

‘The opportunity to interact with women from non-English speaking background and listening their stories and concerns, allowed me to understand their life in this new environment, which is not their roots and can be very patronising by the Anglo Australian’ ‘I would like to see before I die, that our Nunga women and Aboriginal people of Australia, will recuperate what has been taken from them, "the land "and the end of injustice to the owners of this land’. ‘The Nunga women, throught one of the elders, want to thank everybody who contributed to the success of this gathering together, and we look forward to working with the MWLG in the near future, for another camp’. ‘The energy, solidarity, music, dance and women’s spirit, will be forever at Camp Coorong’ ( from Uncle Neville, camp Coorong care-taker)  

 

 

Conclusion

The Camp demonstrated the strong demand amongst women for more choices about taking care of their health and well-being in a natural and safe environment: away from home, being with other women, learning from each other, learning new skills, improving communication and most importantly, the most important, being able to learn the real history of Indigenous women.

This camp indicated that women coming together in a relaxed and safe environment is a powerful and positive way of taking steps towards real Reconciliation.

The Migrant Women's Lobby Group believes that the 'Culture learning, Sharing and Health & Well-being Women's Camp Coorong' was a great success. The women enjoyed themselves, they made friends and learnt from each others' culture.

As a result, some of the Nunga Elders have continued to keep in touch with members of the MWLG and have developed strong friendships. They have been meeting and having round table dinner conversations and continuing to talk and share experiences and discussing the possibilities of meeting in an informal way with the Migrants Women.

The Nunga women from Taoundi Aboriginal College want to set up a day for migrant women to visit the college and exchange more experiences from Camp Coorong and continue a strong link. We believe that these outcomes as well as the continued feedback indicate how successful the camp was.

Verbal feedback from the women since the camp has indicated that they would like to attend more camps as they felt it provided them with an opportunity to meet and share their experiences and lessen the cultural and social gap between themselves and other women who otherwise share so much.

We would like to thank everybody who contributed to the success of the camp.

 

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Last Modified: 19/10/2003  

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