In opening,
Jane acknowledged the Jarowair and Giabal people who are recognised as the two
main Aboriginal groups of the Toowoomba area. She showed “Horton’s map of
Indigenous Australians” which represents all of the locations of the language
groups or tribal groups, that are as diverse in culture as to be recognised as
separate “countries”, as Jane described.
Jane is an
educator at Amaroo Environmental Education Centre at Kleinton. Amaroo was
established in 1977 as a state funded environment centre. There are currently
two full-time staff and two part-time, as well as other contributors such as
The Bunya Mountains Murri Rangers. The Centre provides environmental education
pro-grams for young people, and last year hosted 8000 students in various
programs.
Indigenous
education is a large part of Jane’s role in helping youth connect with the
environment. She teaches aboriginal culture such as the Jarowair language and
the Bunya festival and ceremonies, showing the important relationship the
people have with the land. A significant area is the Gummingurru site of stone
arrangements which is now known to be a celestial map. Ben Gilbert arranged for
the site to be protected and it has since been handed back to the Gummingurru
people.
Jane
explained that there are immense, research-proven benefits for children
spending time outdoors. Quoting Richard Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods”,
children are spending up to half their waking lives in front of a screen. This
says a lot about the lack of connection the modern generation have with the
outdoors. A signifi-cant paper she cited was Townsend, M. and Weerasuriya, R.
(2010). Beyond Blue to Green: The
benefits of contact with nature for mental health and well-being. Beyond
Blue Limited: Melbourne, Australia.
As a complement to the hard
data, Jane said she follows “data that glows”, sharing some of the significant
changes she observed first hand with some troubled teenage students. Further
reading:
Children and Nature:
https://www.nscf.org.au/home/learn/youth-education/
Northey Street City Farm
https://aabat.org.au
Australian Association for Bush Adventure Therapy Inc.
Aboriginal Culture:
Dr Kelly, L (2016). The
Memory Code, Allen & Unwin.
Gammage, B (2012).
The Biggest Estate on Earth, Allen
& Unwin.
Pascoe, B (2014).
Dark Emu, Magabala Books
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