My Rural Story

need to do, when they’re going to need a break, what can they do to maintain their sanity in a remote area. There are a lot of pluses, but it’s a hard job, so they really need to do that self-care. Also, know when they’ve had enough. Either when they need a break or they need to leave. I think that’s really important. What has been one of your best experiences working in these remote communities? When I was working on York Island, in the Torres Strait, where the Youth Orchestra came up, and it was a special program with the Government. They flew in on one of those army planes where they can land on short strips. They had a feast for the kids with turtle and some of the kids weren’t really too excited about it and the chairman kept coming up saying ‘go and tell them what it is’. Then they set up the orchestra on the

basketball courts on the sand and they played. The whole community came out and sat round on the sand to listen to the kids. They enjoyed it so much and they made them play La Bamba about four timeswhichthekids thoughtwashilarious. Then the teacher was saying ‘we’ve got to get the kids to bed, they’ve got to get up early in the morning’. And, the community wasn’t having any of that. They got the kids up and they decided they should teach them some of their culture, some of their songs and dances. So, they got all the kids sitting in a big circle with the Islander kids in between them and they taught them how to do a sit down dance which I still can do a little bit of. And, the kids, both sides, enjoyed it so much and it just broke down all the barriers. I remember when I was in Cairns, I listened to the radio and it was the woman who ran the Youth Orchestra and she was talking about the trip they did and she

@ElsevierAUS