Leaving

I feel a deep sadness as I prepare to leave each community after our time there. Over the two days of our "workshop" - more like multiple personal journeys really - we have come to know the stories, families and circumstances of so many beautiful people. Those who come to learn with us want to learn, want to explore this new way of seeing the world. They bring to it their knowledge, wisdom talent and understanding of the world that is so different to mine.

On our little laptops, they share themselves in many ways. D built a movie of her family to take home to play on her DVD player. She took the camera for a few hours capturing images of her world as she found it on that day. Through her photos, we met all of her family and their stories began to emerge as D titled her photos and added comments and music.

J had never used a computer before. several times on the first morning I found myself turning the mouse around in his hand so the pointer would move in the same direction as his hand. By the end of the second day, he has access to his internet banking, sent several emails including a photo attachment and had his own iGoogle web page. Front and centre of the web page is the Joke of the Day with the time to the right and the weather on the left. My favourite moment was when J verbally translated the joke of the day about a blonde air hostess into the local language and the room erupted into laughter. Not much chance of taking offense at blonde jokes here!

J spent the afternoon exploring the internet on his own turning up all sorts of interesting information. It would be a mistake to think people living in remote areas are only interested in their own back yard. R was interested in the cyclone information available at:

www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/cyclones.cgi

R looked at several cyclones including Monica, category 5, who passed north of her then damaged Maningrida quite severely. Then he searched for Hurricane Katrina to learn about it's damage to New Orleans.

The internet is a wonderful tool allowing otherwise isolated people to explore the world. Unfortunately, through decades of neglect of our social responsibility, we have left our remote areas least able to enjoy this facility. It is true that people choose to live here. It is their traditional home and they have maintained culture and language in this place. They are entitled to enjoy their heritage and this beautiful place. They are also entitled to be part of mainstream Australia. For a country that boasted multi billion dollar surpluses for many years, we did little to service our social responsibilities when there was money to do so.

Hopefully young Devon with the magnificent smile, will grow up strong both in his culture and that of the rest of the world he can explore through technology as well s physically.