I have just returned from a week in Mowanjum as part of the Boab Network. This is a brief blog about my experience. It is not a complete diary of events.Over the past two years two of my Thursday drawing group have been talking about spending time with an Aboriginal community up North somewhere. Lee-Anne always came back to new terms full of stories and photos with Marie excitedly backing her up. After many casual conversations I became more interested in finding out what this was all about and asked if I could be of any help with some art programs. The answer was a resounding yes.

The Mowanjum community is situated about 12 kms out of the town of Derby which is about 200 Kms East of Broome. Marie and Lee-Anne are members of the Floreat Uniting Church and along with another member, Ross, had heard about the terrible suicide rate of young Aboriginals in regional Western Australia. They wanted to see if there was anything they could do to help improve the situation. Ross visited the Mowanjum Community for the first time in 2007 and went up a few times that year. Now the larger group is called The Boab Network. People from various communities have come together. Currently they have a three year grant from the government to provide holiday programs for the children from Mowanjum. Ross is the most generous, laid back, caring, and patient person I’ve met. His vision was simply to visit and share and offer what he could. He has slowly built this wonderful trustful relationship that now allows the Boab Network, even new-comers like myself, to enter the community with the ground work already being laid. The aim is to build relationships.

Finally I had an opportunity to join the Boab Network and go up to Derby. Ross organised shipment of supplies to go up which included paint, glue, calico and clay along with donated bikes,clothes and assorted useful items. I arranged to go up for one week from 9th to 16th of January and was part of a group of 11 people. Ross, Lee-Anne, Jaime, Sophie, Geof, John, Keith, Richard, Katherine and Ruth. Most have stayed on for a bit longer. We were joined at the house by Ben and two young Aboriginal boys whom he had brought from Broome. They are part of a new program to keep children out of the prison system and offer them some guidance and sense of community. Their mother had come to Derby as well so that she could participate with her children. That made 14 people in the house for meals. 11 of us slept on mattresses and beds everywhere in the house and three stayed in other houses vacant for the January holidays. The main house is owned by The Uniting Church.

I had been warned about the heat and the wet – and it was, indeed, both hot and wet. We arrived, settled and then drove out to Mowanjum in a bus hired for the time we were up there. First stop was the Resource Centre. This small, well air-conditioned building houses a network of computers connected to the internet. Various people were writing emails and watching video clips. After reunions and hellos we collected the kids by driving around and piling them in and drove back to Derby with music blaring out of the speakers provided by one of the girl’s ipods. Few people bothered to bring bathers and we all went in, in what we were wearing – shorts and t-shirts. One little girl climbed onto the bus in a little denim skirt. It didn’t stop her swimming. Bliss! We had a cool blue shade cloth over the whole pool so that in combination with sun block every day, I managed to not get burned.

We had planned the first art activity for Tuesday morning. On Monday night I gave the group a run-down of what I was planning as everyone was going to be involved. We rolled out metres of calico across a long row of stage risers (low trestles) and brought out pencils and then paint. We were painting an enormous banner that would have some work from all the children. It ended up being about 15 metres long. At one point there were more than 70 kids around the banner. After about half an hour the kids’ attention waned and they began painting themselves. The Aboriginal flag is high on their list of icons and so it appeared frequently on the banner and on hands and faces. We declared the morning a success! The kids were told that they wouldn’t be able to get on the bus to go swimming with paint all over them and so that made cleaning up a whole lot easier.

The second art activity was planned for Wed morning. After the massive response on the previous day I knew that we wouldn’t be able to cater for so many kids when working with the clay. So we planned to have some sporty games along with bike riding for the majority and offer the clay and digital photography to the kids who were particularly interested. Katherine was mainly in charge of three cameras that had been bought especially for this activity. The kids took turns to take pictures around Mowanjum. We prepared the clay activity at the church – a little office space with an open floor and roof assembly area where services are held. We had had a hefty amount of rain over night and in the morning and there were large puddles of red mud all around. The cloud cover provided for a slightly cooler day although extremely humid. Under the shelter of the Church roof there was a pleasant breeze.

Kids of various ages joined in. The older ones learned different techniques and made more complicated pieces while the younger kids played and made various smaller things. On Thursday we decided to have less chaotic bike and game activities with the littlies allowed to have their own turn at riding. Katherine and Sophie moved forward with the photo project and the previous days pictures were loaded onto a computer. The photographers then wrote about a chosen picture. We also continued with the clay as some boys had wanted to join in the previous day but didn’t feel like joining the girls. A few of the boys did come over to work with the clay and even when some girls came to join us they didn’t disappear. Of course, the pool was on the agenda every day in the afternoon.

On arrival in Derby we had been informed that there was going to be an important funeral on the Friday so we knew that activities may not be appropriate.  However, we were still allowed to take the kids swimming in the afternoon although that was down sized to two thirds of the usual mob.  Katherine and I did not attend the funeral.  Lee-Anne had asked about the appropriateness of people from the Boab Network attending and she was told that they would be welcome especially if they knew the elder who had died.  For those that attended it was an honour.  They shared playing instruments to accompany the hymns and formed an impromtu choir.


Although activities are not usually planned for the weekend we felt that we wanted to offer something for the children to do.  I decided to drive one of the vehicles into Mowanjum.  This is known as the Troopie – short for Troop carrier because it has room for 6 or more people if the correct seats are installed.  Woohoo – what fun to drive it.  I was a real country girl.  Katherine, Sophie and I drove to Mowanjum.  We took paper with us so that any kids who wanted to could join us to paint pictures or paint their clay if it was dry enough.  It was a good afternoon and although it also ended up with body painting, all who participated enjoyed it.  We were surprised to find that we had been there for close to three hours when we had finished packing and cleaning up.  Most activities, with the exception of the swimming, usually didn’t last more than 45 mins.

The Community is well known for its Mowanjum Art centre but unfortunately it was closed for the wet season.  I was disappointed not to be able to see it.  However, I had been given the heads-up that one of the Network friends in Derby had keys to the centre.  He kindly arranged to open it for a few of us who would miss out as it was due to re-open on the Monday we left.  It is a purpose built gallery and centre to promote the art of the Mowanjum community and when viewed from the air depicts the Wandjina.  Wandjina is the spirit that guides the Aboriginal people in the area.  It was wonderful to view the work.  There was a small section of small canvases that had been painted by children during an art camp facilitated by the Boab Network in 2011.  I spotted one by Shania – signed Nia.  She was one of the girls that I had worked with on the clay. (see photo above)  I had noticed how talented she was.  I was pleased to be able to buy her painting.  60% of the sale goes directly to the artist and the rest goes towards the upkeep of the centre.

Sunday was my last day there and it was decided that some of us would go out to May River.  This is a section of one of the many rivers that flow down to Derby.  A big sign told us to NOT swim in the river because of crocs.  Apparently the salt water crocs think nothing of swimming 20 Ks upstream.  We picked up some teen aged girls from Mowanjum along with two older women and off we went with the previous night’s BBQ’d meat and salad for a picnic.  With the assurances of the girls and seeing many others in the water we waded in.  Across the water on the far bank there were ochre rocks to be found.  We swam across the fairly strong current and broke off bits of the submerged rock to find the soft coloured clay – white, yellow and purple.  What fun it was painting each other’s faces for a natural mud pack face mask. 

What a magical day to end the trip.

There is so much more to tell. I have glossed over and missed out mentioning many events, important people and happenings. I’m sure that I will have various conversations with family, friends, students, colleagues and anyone that cares to hear.  If you would like to know more about any aspect then you will probably find many of the answers by simply googling.  I have also purchased a book on the history of the Mowanjum people with which the Boab Network were involved.  I am happy for this to be referenced at my studio. 

A few more random statistics and thoughts:
•    Shopping for 14 entailed a drive to the local Woolies to stock up and decide what was for dinner based on what was available or who had decided to cook that night.  Lots of milk, muesli, fruit and bread were always on the list.
•    Greenish bananas took only half a day to ripen.
•    Derby is situated on a pointy peninsular surrounded by mudflats.•    The sunsets were extraordinary.
•    The view of the land on the flight home inspired me to sketch and paint as we flew. (see above) My camera was useless in capturing the landscape.
•    Many evenings were spent in various levels of conversation.  At the beginning of the week these were discussions on how the day went and how we felt.  These lead to late philosophical and serious nights.
•    As the week progressed the serious conversations became shorter as the need to ‘chill’ both literally and figuratively took priority.
•    A memorable Saturday, post dinner conversation left us in hysterical stiches as it descended into toilet humour beginning with comments regarding the reformation movement and including comments such as the ‘inspirational constipation’ of Captain Cooke.
•    I have ‘done’ the Gibb River Road!  Well, I have at least done the first 40 Ks of it :-)
•    Keith and John’s task was to restore a derelict building to be used by pregnant teenagers and young mothers to continue their school education.  It was discovered that the school owned this building and all credit goes to them for the incredible job they did in the unconditioned heat of the building.  It will be ready for the start of the first term this year.
•    Four of us drove out to greet the incoming Perth plane and board it for the return trip.  10 people disembarked to drive the Troopie and Ute back to the house to join the remaining Network people and re-negotiate who was sleeping where.... was their room air-conditioned, what was tomorrow’s activity etc.