Anne
Bolin, Ph.D.
Dept. of Sociology and
Anthropology
Kathy
Lyday-Lee,
Dept. of English
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Gnangara Aboriginal
Peoples' Community Perth, Australia
Pericles funds were used for the development of a
playground at Gnangara.
In our winterterm 2003 Soc. 253 IS course Aboriginal
Australia, the class participated in a service learning
project with Gnangara Community, a Nyoongah Aboriginal
Community in the suburbs of Perth, Australia. Our goals
were to raise the level of civic engagement and social
responsibility of the students as well as to provide
students an opportunity to meet and work with aboriginal
people in a community setting over a full two day period
(January 8 and 9, 2003).
Background of Gnangara Community:
Gnangara Community is a Nyoongah aboriginal people's
community in Perth, Western Australia. This community is
one that Curtin University, our host institution for our
aboriginal studies course Soc. 253 Aboriginal Australia,
has established a volunteer relationship. Our service
learning project was to contribute to the development of
a playground on the grounds of the community. Gnangara is
a community with a vision to preserve cultural traditions
yet provide community members with skills and education
necessary to survive in a society very different from
traditional aboriginal culture. It is both the goal of
Gnangara and Curtin Volunteers that Gnangara will become
of model of "best practice" for an aboriginal
community. There is much work to be done to improve the
living conditions at the Gnangara. The community consists
of approximately one hundred Nyoongah aboriginal peoples
with about half the population consisting of children.
There are programs already in place in the community,
including a school, various adult training programs along
with some government housing. Currently there is no
playground for the children, although some used climbing
apparatus are available for refurbishing. This
playground, once built will be maintained by the
community.
Project Description:
The following playground projects were initiated and or
completed January 8th and 9th, 2003: A sandpit for
children under three was completed using materials
purchased with Project Pericles funds including logs,
plastic sheeting, bolts, and sand. Materials for an
overhead Pergola to cover the sandpit and protect the
children from sunburn were purchased using the Pericles
funds, but this part of the project (building the
pergola) will be completed at a later date by the
Gnangara community members. Elon students and faculty
successfully refurbished existing playground equipment
including sanding down and repainting a green slide and
several climbing apparatus. Materials for refurbishing
included paintbrushes, paint, sandpaper and paint remover
purchased with Pericles funds.
The students' two-day experience included an
educational session with Warren Davis, Gnangara Director
of Development and Trade Skills regarding the history of
the community, an explanation of the issues the community
faces and the projects the community is currently engaged
in. Aboriginal dancers and a didgeridoo player
entertained Elon during lunch January 8, 2003.
Cost/Budget:
The approximate cost of the materials needed was $2000
including wood, paint, shade cloth, concrete, sand,
bolts, etc mentioned above.
Assessment:
Several methods were used to assess the project.
Two committees of Project Pericles students were
selected. These included the Project Pericles
Interviewing Committee (three students) and the Focus
Group and Reporting Committee (two students). The
Interviewing Committee task was to interview leaders and
elders as well as to observe unobtrusive measures of
success, e.g. aboriginal children indicating interest in
the equipment. The Focus Group and Reporting Committee
led a focus group discussion of the experience with our
students while we were at Nannup Valley. The Focus Group
and Reporters reported on their own observations and led
fellow students in a discussion. Students were asked to
reflect on their experiences in field journals and make
observation of the Gnanagara community and assess the
success of our project.
Overall the project was a success in that the sandpit
was built and the playground equipment was refurbished.
However, our ideal was that our students to work
side-side with the aboriginal community on these
projects. We had hoped to challenge service learning
models based on the "hand out" or the "we
do something for you" model and move into a more
collaborative model-a "sweat equity model."
This clearly didn't happen. On the first day, only
the sandpit crew worked with four aboriginal youths and a
leader Warren Davis. While the other students broke into
three groups working on sanding down the apparatus. On
the second day, Elon was left to their own devices with
no participation from the community, including the leader
Warren Davis or Brendon. Brendon was not available for
interviewing and Warren had left town. Without any
community members present, our students couldn't
interview elders to ascertain their response to our
project. The only indicators of community support and
interest in our playground project, were several children
who came over to one of the apparatus groups and sanded
and painted with the Elon students. Two came on the first
day and then a total of five the second day indicating
the children's interest in our project.
Some of the drawbacks to the project were the materials.
There were not enough paintbrushes to go around so that
on the second day there were a number of students without
anything to really do. The two days could easily have
been rolled into a one full day for our service project
instead to two short days. Our focus group discussion
pointed out that perhaps a bigger project is needed, such
as cleaning up the grounds. We also felt the nature of
Gnangara makes it difficult to connect with the
aboriginal peoples. Given the atrocities suffered at the
hands of the colonists and the white Australians, there
is a great deal of mistrust by aboriginal peoples of
whites generally. Secondly Gnangara is a temporary
community. It is one in which individuals stay a short
period of time and then move into permanent housing
outside the community. On the positive side, we completed
the project, learned about the community and saw some
excellent aboriginal dancing and didgeridoo playing. Next
year we have in mind a different service learning project
that will take place later in the coursed after the
students know more about the issues and one in which the
community is a more permanent one.
However success of this project cannot be established in
the short time. Realistically, success of the project
must be undertaken over the long term. Success of the
playground project measure in terms of children's use
and community members' response will necessarily be
monitored by Gnangara community and Curtin Volunteers.
Assessment must ultimately be measured in whether or not
children use the playground. Since we will not be there
to observe children's use of the playground, we ask
that Curtin Volunteers take responsibility for this and
report to the faculty of the Soc. 253 Aboriginal
Australia course/ and or the Project Pericles committee
at a later date.
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