During the College's recent NAIDOC Week and Lumen Day celebrations, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and students held sausage sizzles to raise money for a Western Australia Remote Aboriginal Community School; Tjuntjuntjarra, which is located in the Great Victoria Desert.
Tjuntjuntjara is a small community located 680km North-East of Kalgoorlie near the WA/SA border, in the middle of the desert country. It is home to the Anangu or Spinifex people.
Corfield Fresh IGA in Gosnells kindly donated the sausages, bread rolls and onions for our sausage sizzle fundraisers. Because of their kind donation and the generosity of our College community, we were able to raise $1000.00 for Tjuntjuntjarra.
“There are approximately 180 people in our community and we have 29 students on our roll. These numbers fluctuate with families travelling to other communities for funerals etc. All families and children speak their language (Pitjanjatjara) fluently as their first language and begin learning English at school. English is mostly spoken only at school, clinic and store", said Tjuntjuntjarra Principal, Sheryl Hicks.
"As we are in a very remote location, families do not have access to shops such as Kmart. There is only a tiny store which is very expensive to shop at and mostly sells food items. Students are provided with breakfast and a cooked morning tea every day. We also provide necessary items such as shoes, socks, jumpers and other items as needed. Thank you for your school’s kind donation to the students of Tjuntjuntjara.”
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff will be encouraging our students to write letters to the students of Tjuntjuntjara. They are now also preparing Christmas gift donations for the students of Tjuntjuntjara, and hope to one day be able to visit the Tjuntjuntjara community.
Anyone who would like to donate to the Tjuntjuntjara community is asked to please contact the College's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff members, Amanda Winmar and Sonya Stephen.
