Life Promotions Program

Tennant Creek activities

Barkly Women’s Day

Held twice a year in May and October, the Barkly Women’s Day was a great opportunity to meet some of the women from the Barkly pastoral community and beyond. Held at the Barkly Homestead it offers women the chance to get together to share information, dress up and take a break from the boys and bulldust! Women travel from as far as Cape York for a special luncheon, listen to guest speaker’s talk about issues relevant to women and generally enjoy themselves. With approximately 150 women attending each time it offered a great opportunity to network and to receive useful information.

Twilight Basketball

In collaboration with other service providers, on Saturday 12 September MHACA hosted ‘Twilight Basketball’ in recognition of Child Protection Week. Supported by Neighbourhood Watch NT (of which I am a board member), the aim of this initiative was to engage local young people in a fun activity that encouraged social activity and improved mental health as there is often little for them to do on weekends. The event was a huge success with over 180 young people attending, with prizes for best and fairest awarded to boys and girls who participated. (The NT Dept of Health & Families steered the Barkly Child Protection Week Committee in Tennant Creek and received a NAPCAN award (National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect) in recognition of their contribution to the week).

On 6 November, the Dept of Education & Training organised the ‘Life’s Cool - Drug and Resilience Education’ event where I presented a session to transition to middle-school aged children on resilience and ‘things that make me happy.’ The event also had a good turnout and was a good way to raise awareness about mental health.

Wumpurarni Women’s Camp

In late June, the Piliyintinji-ki Stronger Families women held their “Wilya Wumpurarni Kirriji-Kari Ngurraji” 2009 Women’s Camp at Kunjarra (the Pebbles, 15km north of Tennant Creek), held once every two years. The Wumpurarni Women’s Camp gives women the chance to get together and discuss issues that are important to them and then feed this back to the Government. It was also a chance for a few local service providers to talk about their work and it was a privilege to attend and give a talk about MHACA and LPP. Involvement also included helping to set-up and pack-down the camp, as well as being invited to attend a surprise luncheon for the women from the Anyinginyi Board of Management to celebrate the success of this event.

Photos of event

General Networking & Promotions

Since commencing at Tennant Creek, as many events as possible have been attended to network with and support the service providers who organise the events, as well as to acknowledge the issues that are being highlighted at the occasion. Other events have included White Ribbon Day and the opening of the Women’s Shelter in Elliott (October, 2008) and the opening of the Legal Aide Commission.

Working in Tennant Creek and across the Barkly Region brings with it distinct remote-area challenges, however in the past year several good inroads have been established in raising awareness about both MHACA and mental health issues in general.