|
Cairns Mulgrave Rotary Club
Boxed Gift Pens
Available Now
$15.00 each.
Please see Secretary Mike if you would like one
PRESIDENTS
MESSAGE
No message this
week.
CHANGEOVER 2003
$65 per person Saturday July 5th
6.30
Champagne and nibbles on the platform at Cairns Central Station
6.45 Board the train for the Freshwater Connection with the Barrier
Reef Jazz Band
7.00 Arrive Freshwater Connection. Enjoy a beautiful 3-course dinner,
dancing and formalities
10.30 Board the train for Cairns Central Station Dance to the Barrier
Reef Jazz Band back to your car It's elegant, fun and different
Theme for the evening
CHICAGO
Please add you name and number of people who will be attending to
the next page
Please note all money has to be paid by Friday 27th June - as it
will be too difficult to collect the money on the platform of the
train!!
Community spirit, mateship weigh
in for mental health awareness.
Magnificent community sprit and respect for a deceased
mate opened the way for the Rotary Club of Warialda, N.S.W., to
raise more than $A17, 000 to support the Australian Rotary Health
Research Fund's mental illness awareness program.
These funds will be added to $7,000 already raised
through a network of people associated with the stud Merino industry.
A strong desire by Past President Peter Lloyd, of the Rotary Club
of Inverell, N.S.W., to preserve the memory of a life long friend,
Hugh Lydiard, was the driving force behind the success.
This came by way of a wonderful garden lunch on
Doongara, the property of Bill and Judy Mayne at Warialda. Judy
Mayne was Hugh Lydiard's sister. Judy and close friend Judy Smith
organised the garden lunch. Hugh Lydiard was one of the most successful
and acknowledged personalities within Australia's Merino sheep/wool
industry.
He managed some of Australia's top Merino studs,
including Uardry, Coonong and Egelabra. He was a life governor of
the N.S.W. Sheepbreaders Association, one of the principal organisers
of the Sydney Sheep Show, and judged at every major show in Australia.
A happily married man, Hugh suffered depression for the last six
years of his life, dying in June, 2001.
Peter Lloyd was delighted when the ARHRF agreed
to establish a Lydiard Foundation, within the Health Fund, to preserve
Hugh's memory. Funds raised will directly support research into
depression and mental health in rural Australia. Taking prevailing
drought conditions into account, the garden lunch function was an
outstanding success.
It also provided a wonderful tonic through fellowship.
Guest speaker was Past President Noel Trevaskis of the Rotary Club
of Goulburn Argyle, N.S.W. A man with a life long involvement in
agricultural related industries, PP Noel had mental illness when
34. He told his dramatic story of the impact on his life and his
family. PP Noel's selfless effort in driving from Goulburn to Warialda
for the day was a bonus as the function served to remove many misunderstandings
about mental illness and depression, especially among men.
He said he gained great satisfaction form telling
his story, and thereby helping to overcome the stigma attached to
mental illness. He has addressed conferences and forums throughout
Australia, getting his message to more than 10, 000 people in the
past four years.
The Rotary Club
of Warrnambool Daybreak Strengthens Its Links With The Yolgnu People
by Agnes Gajewska
Seven eager, helpful and excited Rotarians from
the Rotary Club of Warrnambool Daybreak, Vic., have been on a mission
of cultural enlightenment and community service at remote Galiwinku.
On Elcho Island off the coast or Arnhem Land, Galiwinku
has a population of 1500 Aborigines (the Yolgnu people) who abide
by distinct and unique traditions with little western influence.
The project was taken up through a helpful contact in Cherryl Wirtanen,
a health care worker there.
The Rotary Club of Warrnambool Daybreak previously
had helped a health care worker in Galiwinku who was constrained
by his manual wheelchair. Warrnambool Daybreak, with Northern Territory
clubs, funded the purchase of a four wheel drive motorized wheelchair
over eight months. The added mobility provided by this enabled John
Patrick to make house calls to those who needed him.
The aim of this project was to help the community,
as well as to learn and live within a new and fascinating environment
and further the association and friendship with Galiwinku. On arrival
the Rotarians were able to make observations about the way of life
in Galiwinku.
Their conclusions were that it was ruled by traditions
and values. The focal factor of society was not time and documentation
as it seems to be in urbanized environments, but rather family ties,
which took precedence over everything including work. Traditions
were strongly adhered to and respected.
During a graduation ceremony Rotarians attended,
the leader who was presenting the certificates, could only award
certain students and not others, due to the tribes to which they
belonged. This selective segregation was evident not only on ceremonious
occasions but within the whole community.
In their interaction with the local school the
Rotarians noted a clash between strong cultural traditions and modern
western ideology. In the traditional indigenous environment if it
is not required for children to attend school, as it is seen as
unnecessary with most people spending their entire lives on the
island, and only occasionally traveling to the Gove Peninsula or
Darwin to seek medical help. The level of attendance is low as a
result, creating a generation exclusively bound to their community.
Rotarians also had the privilege of attending the
funeral of a young woman and witnessed a procession of singing,
dancing, weeping and wailing. In a society where women take the
role of the gatherers, Rotarians had the food fortune to be taken
on a bush trip, a four wheel drive ride 10 to 15 kms from the town,
they swam in rivers and ate freshly cooked mud crabs, mangrove worms,
goanna, fish and damper. The two brave souls who tried the mangrove
worms reported the taste as resembling that of oysters.
The club members functioned within the community,
spreading goodwill and help. Di Byron and Cheryl Bellman organised
more than 9,000 records into numerical order and Carolyn Monaghan
cleaned out the pharmacy. Chris Beks sorted out computer problems,
Andrew Suggett worked in improving the garden and with help cleaned
three Health Centre houses, Michael Skepper made contact with the
school Chris Preston made windows for a mature age woman who was
in a wheelchair following a stroke and needed better access to her
family.
A donation of $A1, 000 was also made by the Rotarians
to a fund assisting Lisa, a three year old with spina bifida. The
fund will allow her to afford mobility aids. The experience gained
from the combination from the combination of work and participation
in community activities provided a chance to live and understand
an intricate culture and left all of the participants graceful for
the opportunity.
After six full days, seven culturally enlightened
adventurers fare welled the Galiwinku community, heading to Gove
in East Arnhem Land and the mining town of Nhulunbuy. The interaction
between the two localities leaves only optimistic outlooks for the
future.
(Author of the article, Agnes Gajewska, is undertaking
media and cultural studies at the Macquarie University, Sydney,
N.S.W.)
|
Home
Page