Baptist Care SA News

Providing a safe place to stay for Aboriginal women and children from the APY Lands.

Providing a safe place to stay for Aboriginal women and children from the APY Lands.

 

Baptist Care SA’s Mylor Adventure Camp has becomea place of refuge, culture and community to 50-60 Anangu women and children who were stranded in Adelaide due to biosecurity restrictions when coronavirus hit.

 

Although a different landscape to their home lands, the peace and tranquility of the Adelaide Hills based campsite has provided an ideal setting to come together and enjoy cultural activities including traditional dance (inma), cooking damper and roo tails on the open fire and lessons in their first language.

 

The effort is all thanks to a collaboration between a number of organisations, including SA Housing Authority, UniSA and Iwiri Group – an Adelaide-based collective of traditional owners working to keep culture alive.

 

“It’s been great to get together and stay here because we’re all family, and it’s a great place to wait and be safe before we go back to our lands,” said Tjulyata Tjilya, Anangu Educator from Iwiri group.[1]

 

A number of Mylor Adventure Camp’s amenities, including the chapel, have been used to set up schooling where Anangu Education Workers have developed a recreation and cultural support project for students.

 

A young Anangu community member with her artwork.

 

“It’s important to maintain culture… so they can learn and maintain and continue the old stories and songlines,” added Tjulyata Tjilya.[1]

 

A huge thank you to our team at Mylor Adventure Camp who have done an amazing job re-focusing their efforts to ensure that this vulnerable group is kept safe. Thank you also to SAHA and our other partners for this wonderful opportunity. We are proud to be able to support the Anangu community in this time of need.

 

[1] Source: ABC news article, click here

Baptist Care SA, lives, works and walks on Kaurna, Peramangk and Boandik lands. We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the state’s first peoples, recognise their traditional ownership, and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs, deep connection and continued guardianship of land and waters. We value the contributions of Elders past and present, and are committed to learning from those emerging.