OTK ran a successful Tarzali leadership camp this year for the 11th year in a row. As always we have to be responsive to community needs and situations and this year not many grade 6 kids were available for camp for a range of reasons. The few that were were girls so we took the chance to run a girls leadership camp and invited back some of the older girls including some previous and new junior leaders.
Leaders were flown down with the generous support of Hinterland Aviation who have been very supportive over 2017. The theme was STANDING STRONG and being 'a leader'. The new junior leaders did a great job and some of the younger girls expressed interest in undergoing future leadership training. It was so wonderful to see young Kowanyama people being role models, sharing their experiences and being someone the younger ones could look up to. Most exciting was seeing Shekia Raymond 'receive her stripes' and be recognised as a fully fledged leader after several years progressing as a trainee and junior leader.
It was a great chance for the girls to get together in a safe supportive environment and we are hoping to repeat this in future.
Please consider donating to support future camps like this that are 100% volunteer and donation run.
Kowanyama holiday program
September 2018 was a little different for us with it being the first year in 12 years we weren’t running a leadership camp. Mainly this was because most of our regular leaders were unavailable for a range of reasons including family illness and having babies! So, a few of us decided to head to Kowanyama instead and run some activities up there. In the spirit of our Year 6 boarding transition and leadership camps though we did try to connect with as many of the grade 6 kids who were going to be heading out to boarding school as possible.
We took part in community and church activities; Mel and Tahlia ran a daily girl’s craft and activities program and Ron and Lara ran a project at the community garden. We also held some small group activities in the evenings at the church and out bush.
Please consider donating to support future trips like this that are 100% volunteer and donation run.
OTK ran a successful Tarzali leadership camp this year for the 13th year in a row.
We had some of our regular OTK members as leaders as well as young Kowanyama leaders who have grown up through our programs and some wonderful visitors from Victoria who also helped out and even a cameo appearance from one of our old favourite Kowanyama teachers who enthralled the kids with tales of her time in Kow. The theme was STANDING STRONG and being 'a leader'. It was so wonderful to see again young Kowanyama people being role models, sharing their experiences and being someone the younger ones could look up to. It was wonderful to have Shekia Raymond lead again having only received 'her stripes' in 2017 when she was recognised as a fully fledged leader after several years progressing as a trainee and junior leader. We also had some special treats for the kids with the use of a boat for pulling them behind that has been donated and also Dr John Jacobs took the kids out on a real sailing boat for their first time!
Please consider donating to support future camps like this that are 100% volunteer and donation run. DONATE
We continued throughout 2019 to provide support to Kowanyama kids who are out at boarding school.
Sticking it out at boarding school can be really tough for these remote kids and having a ‘family-like’ environment where they know people who know them and where they come from - to go to on weekends – can make a real difference.
We aim to provide as much mentoring support as possible, often working closely wth boarding schools. this can include career guidance, help with schoolwork, someone to talk to, and leadership development. so often we find that if it wasnt for that caring support many more of these kids would 'fall through the gaps'.
It was exciting to have another graduation of one of the students we’ve been closely involved with over the years. Our hope is that we will see a larger proportion finish successfully like this in future. All of our previous COLBI recipients are currently working or in training.
Like so many others, our organisation was affected by the global COVID pandemic. However as always we were able to be fairly flexible and adaptable - one of the benefits of being a small volunteer run organisation. So 2020 instead of a large group leadership camp bringing kids out to the camp - a couple of our volunteers headed to Kowanyama and set up camp out bush and ferried small groups of kids back and forth spending time with them out bush. They were encouraged to enjoy the beauty of their home, reconnect with traditional bushcrafts, learn how to drive a boat and other great activities. Many a campfire chat was had about peer pressure, resilience, how to make the choices that make it possible to buy a boat to fish with, techology use, sticking it out at boarding school etc.
