Day 24: Monday 16 April (actually, 7am on the 17th, Ayr)
Every day brings new learning’s and they come in some odd ways – this morning’s was precious and it reiterates this peaceful, regional lifestyle, where people have time in the morning to run out for a spot of fishing at 6am to catch dinner, before heading off to work for the day.
Anyway, I was out on our morning walk with Lynette and her two eldest boys; John (11) and KJ (4). We followed a path through Plantation Park, alongside a river that the kids swim and jump around in during the hottest summer months. A couple of days earlier we had heard a splash and seen a fish tail and it was a good size and silver so we’ve determined it’s a barramundi. Every morning John looks for it as we walk but we haven’t spotted it again.
I don’t know whether John had told KJ about the fish, but as we crossed a bridge over the river this morning, KJ without prompting and with complete enthusiasm jumps to the side of the bridge, looks over and calls out “John, look for some food!” I looked back at him and realised the difference between what he had just said and how the kids I know might have said it, and I’m sure they wouldn’t have called it ‘food’.
One program whose name keeps popping up while I am here is Red Dust and on Friday, I met one of the co-founders, Randall Ross. It was purely a chance meeting, as he had been out front with one of the local, well known artists, Aicey Zaro, whose gallery we have been trying to see since we arrived. The two of them had stopped for lunch in the park with a bunch of kids and they wandered in to Gudjuda to say hello to Lynette. After chatting to Aicey about his art, I turned to Randall to ask him what he did. I was thrilled to hear he was co-founder of Red Dust, which the Aunties had mentioned and Bim had told me a little more about, so I just had a feeling I should be looking into this some more. (if you read my post titled Men's Business from Day 8, you'll understand why this is such an important tool!)
The philosophy of Red Dust is that if we don’t know who we are and where we come from, then how can we know where we are going? The aim of the workshop is for participants to firstly identify their own issues and heal by dealing with them. Then they come back for a second workshop to help them learn skills to pass on the info and tools to their family and community.
Randall told me that the program is being used extensively around Australia and with different groups of people. It’s got a really beautiful Aboriginal flavour to the program as there are lots of tree analogies to help people understand the ‘ripple effect’ of remaining in a negative place. Randall and his colleague, Tom, are using their own experiences to help other men become the men they need to be, for themselves, their family and the community. They are teaching them how to unlock the pain and hurt to deal with it and then to fix their relationships, but from within first.
And so I’ve got two links for you today – the first is to a 25 minute video for the ABC program Message Stick, which tells you so much more about the program as you get to watch a group of men progressing through it. Be warned that you may shed a tear yourself as you watch them commence in a state of aloof awareness and then see them open up in pure honest moments and come to their own realisation as the program unfolds. The honesty of the men is riveting and the lessons they learn are joyful as they realise they can take control and step up to take back their place as role models for their family and community.
The second link is to Randall and Tom’s website which is more for me to refer back to when I get back home, but you might as well have it too!
Back to my RAP for now!
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