When club member Barry White brought along his brother Neville to a Rotary Melbourne meeting in 2003, who knew what would inspire a multi-year, multi-million dollar commitment to build a community centre and school, train teachers, and give support to the remote indigenous homeland community of Donydji in North East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.
Our Club's Welfare of the Young Committee led by John Mitchell embraced the needs identified by Dr Neville White.
Dr White’s story begins in the early 1970s when he travelled to the remote Arnhem Land homeland community of Donydji to undertake research for his PhD. Through his study he became convinced that traditional indigenous communities were not being given the opportunities for a future in the Australia of this century while retaining their traditional ties to the land, language and culture.
Over the next four decades Dr White returned each year to the Donydji Community. He learnt their language and developed a profound and detailed understanding of the people, their culture, their history and all the many problems they faced. He has become their much loved and trusted friend.
Dr White has used his Vocational skills to assist the Donydji people in understanding health and hygiene and in the organisation of a school program. Also he worked to convince governments, both the Federal and Northern Territory, to recognize the significant role that people living in remote communities can have in the future of this country.
He demonstrated, through his research, that aboriginal people living in homeland communities under the protection of their kin are generally healthier and more receptive to learning than those who are forced to live away from their traditional homelands in the often dysfunctional camps that exist on the outskirts of larger communities.
His objective has been to develop a model of self sustainability, not only for the Donydji community, but for the remote homelands of all the Yolngu people of North East Arnhem Land. He was awarded the Rotary Melbourne Vocational Service Award in 2009.
In 2003, Rotary Melbourne agreed to assist Dr White with the building of a Community Centre that was to become the first School building for the extremely remote Indigenous Homeland of Donydji in North East Arnhem Land. With the generosity of the Potter Foundation we were able to make a $20,000 donation to enable the building to be constructed and for the Community to have its first School Building.
Later that year, Rotary Melbourne committed to a partnership with Latrobe University, a group of Vietnam Veterans Volunteers, and the people of Donydji to undertake an applied research study to prove the hypothesis that it was possible for Indigenous people to remain within their kinship Communities on their own country.
In 2002 the only school facility was a galvanised Iron and Bark lean-to construction where the children sat on an old carpet laid on the ground. There were no other facilities and no qualified teacher. Despite these appalling conditions children still attended showing an enthusiasm to learn.
The Original School
The New School
Following the completion of the school building in 2003, there was a record enrolment of children. With a young teacher appointed from Shepherdson College attendances were outstanding and the children’s education prospered.
For a long time the Northern Territory Government did nothing about providing a School Building for the children of Donydji However in 2005, faced with the reality of the school now operating successfully in the Community Centre, the Northern Territory Education Department finally began the building of a purpose built new school building with teacher’s accommodation attached. This was a major achievement as it signalled that at last, after decades of campaigning, there was recognition of the fact that in the Donydji Homeland there were children of school age deserving of an education.
Class in progress in New School.
Inside the Community Centre School Classroom
The next facility on the wish list of the people was a Workshop to become a centre for Practical Trade Skills Training for the youth of the community. The building would be assembled by the young men of the community under the supervision/tutelage of the volunteer tradesmen. The beginning of the building brought great excitement to the people as they saw it as yet another positive steps in their search for independence.
The workshop was built at a cost of $246,030.00 with tools and equipment donated valued at in excess of $50,000.00. Not one cent of government money was made available for this facility dedicated to the training of young people.
Consultation with the community led to the development of housing. It was quickly established that there was a need for family houses and accommodation for single young men who by custom were required to leave their family home to live separately. The consultations led to a house design consisting of two inside rooms with a wide verandah surrounding the entire building. The people explained the reasons for this design were that the inside rooms were for sleeping and security while the open verandah was where they lived day to day. Committee member and honorary architect David Prest drew up plans for the buildings which were designed to meet the NT regulations relating to cyclone proofing and provision was made for insulation against the heat.
At the same time negotiations began to raise the finance for the Solar Heating through a Rotary International Foundation Grant. This required the securing of an International Rotary Club as a partner and the support of a Rotary Club in the Rotary District in which the community is located as well as the support of the Rotary Club of Melbourne as the Club applying for the grant. We were greatly encouraged by the ready support we received from the Rotary Club of Osaka in Japan and the Rotary Club of Nhulunbuy in the NT. The result was a grant of $50,000.00 from the RI Foundation to add to the $50,000.00 contributed by the Rotary Clubs of Melbourne and Osaka this enabled us to guarantee the provision of Solar Power to all the buildings.
The housing was completed in 2008 when we proved the capacity of the young men living in their homelands to be capable of undertaking significant building and maintenance work with minimum supervision thus creating a work force far less costly than the imported labour used by contractors.
Our club members were actively involved in all aspects of the project, using their unique and vocational skills to full effect. John Mitchell was a driving leader with Rob McGuirk and his passion and effort cannot be understated.
A unique aspect of the project has been the involvement of a group of men, all colleagues of Neville White when they were in Vietnam together. Now retired these veterans have joined Neville White each year on the Annual Field Trip to work with the local people and to pass on skills to the young men as they have built the infrastructure together. They have become trusted friends of the local people and their contribution has been very significant.
Over the years there have been a number of other volunteers with specific skills including motor vehicle maintenance skills as well as volunteers from Latrobe University who have worked on programs in the school. Our thanks go out to them all for their wonderful contribution to the project.
Thank you to Rotarians including Gerrry Johnston, Phil Endersbee, Rob Nethercote and Quin Scalzo for the impact you made to the people od Donydji.
Rotary Volunteer Rob McGuirk with Dr Neville White on a field trip in Donydji.
Nothing would have been achieved without the generous support of a number of donors. We would like to acknowledge:
It is also important to acknowledge the many donations in kind given by a wide range of people and companies. Their generous support is acknowledged with gratitude.
The documentary film Homeland Story was completed in 2016. It is the story of cross-cultural cooperation in the development of Donydji, an Indigenous Homeland in Arnhem Land. The Rotary Club of Melbourne feature in the film along with the Vietnam Vets who worked with the young men of Donydji.
The film charts the Donydji community's transition from nomadic life to the digital age, from the 1960s to the present day and the work of genetic anthropologist and Vietnam Veteran, Dr Neville White. One family is featured, across three generations, from the traditional Elder, Dhulutarama, who still knew how to make stone tools, to his grand-daughter, Joanne Yindiri Guyula, who teaches at the Donydji school. It is a moving portrait of the family's struggle to preserve their culture and remain on their Homeland despite the severe obstacles they face: sub-standard education, deplorable service delivery, lack of job opportunities for the youth, inadequate government policy, bureaucratic mismanagement and pressure from mining interests.
It was funded by the Baker Foundation with support from members of Rotary Melbourne.
Watch the trailer below:
