From Wadeye To Rome, With Eyes Wide Open

The Age

Thursday October 9, 2008

Lindsay Murdoch, Wadeye

HELEN Wundjar went to Darwin once. "It was a long time ago but I remember, it's a big place," said the 14-year-old from Wadeye.

Now Helen and 15 other students from Wadeye, a remote indigenous community 450 kilometres south-west of Darwin, are preparing to fly to Rome, via Singapore and London, after winning an international award for their dance performances.

The dance, which re-enacts a story about the rainbow serpent and their clans' ancestral spirits, was made into a film.

It won the students, from Our Lady of Sacred Heart Thamarrurr Catholic School, the $120,000 award - sponsored by multinational mining company Eni.

"This will be an eye-opener for the kids, believe me," teacher Cam Begg said. He will travel with the 14 girls and two boys from the community, which has no road access during five months of the Top End's wet season.

"They will be right out of their comfort zone."

English is the students' second language. Aged 13 and 14, they have never travelled beyond Darwin, let alone sat on a plane that will take 30 hours to fly them to a country where white people speak a language they will not understand.

The school's co-principal, Ann Rebgetz, said it would be an amazing experience for the students, who have never even had to cross a busy street.

"Just little things will be new to them, like price tags on goods in shops," she said.

"Our store here doesn't have price tags."

Tara Narjic, 14, says she knows little about Italy, where she and the others will spend most of their 11 days away.

"Pizza ... spaghetti ... Gladiator," she said. "I don't know what else."

Entries in the competition came from Italy, Norway, Alaska and even public schools in Darwin. Winning was a triumph for Wadeye, a long-troubled community of 2500, which, before last year's federal intervention in the Northern Territory's indigenous communities, looked like a Third World refugee camp. An average of 20 people were living in each sweltering, graffiti-covered house.

Elders say the intervention, which has delivered funding for education, health and other services, has brought hope to the community, where before there was despair.

Jenny Macklin, visiting Wadeye yesterday for the first time as federal Indigenous Affairs Minister, announced funding for a gymnasium and ablutions block at the community's main oval. Up to 1500 people gather there on weekends to see football matches.

Ms Macklin also announced $500,000 in federal funds for the local Thamarrurr Development Corporation to develop private enterprise projects in Wadeye, including a mechanical workshop.

Award sponsor Eni is developing a pipeline to Darwin from a gas field in the sea off Wadeye. Ms Rebgetz said that was a coincidence.

"We are very proud of our school, which has faced many disadvantages, being able to produce such a high-quality piece of work with their students," she said.

© 2008 The Age

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