CALLING ALL WOMEN: COME AND JOIN THE WOMEN ELDERS IN THE DESERT
Would you be interested in coming out to Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert to join us at the Kapululangu Aboriginal Women’s Law and Culture Centre as a Volunteer to help care for the Women Elders here? The Volunteer position involves caring, cooking, cleaning, driving and some providing logistical support for culture work (eg. trips to Country) for six amazing Women Elders, and sometimes their families and community. We are looking for resourceful, self-motivated and initiative-taking women who are prepared to do what it takes to ensure that our remarkable Women Elders are properly cared for. You don't necessarily have to be skilled in any way other than in life skills. The minimum length of a Volunteer stay is 1 month - but there are options to extend for the right person. The hours are long and hard, but (based on the experience of every other volunteer) it’s fun and you’ll fall in love with the Elders and not want to ever leave them. In exchange you get to live with and learn from some of Australia's most magnificent Aboriginal Women Elders. These Elders grew up in the desert before the Kartiya (Strangers) arrived in their ancestral homelands - an event that changed their world forever – all within their lifetimes. These Nintipuka Tutju (Clever Women Teachers) and Tjarrtjurra (Women Healers) are Custodians of the Old Ways (Kururralkatjanu). That makes them very special people and simply being with them is an opportunity of a lifetime. If you are the right person we'll get you a permit to join us in this remotest of Australian Aboriginal communities where you will spend top quality time with our Elders. We at Kapululangu are looking for some wonderful women who feel inspired to contribute in one or more of the following possibilities... 1. Right now we need one or two women who are able to arrive here in the next week. If you are a daring woman who is prepared to jump at this golden opportunity and get on the next plane to Balgo from Broome next Friday please email us immediately. We promise you that you won’t regret your bold decision. We ask you stay with us for seven weeks (October 25 to December 13) – or a month. We’re flexible and happy to consider any and all offers. 2. Or come and spend the Christmas-New Year period with us. We're looking for four (4) courageously committed women who would like to Volunteer with us over the Holiday period (13 December to 10 January). The highlight of this time is that you get to have Christmas with the Elders and our community’s kids. You’ll get to give something of yourself to the women and children who will really appreciate you at a time when most of the Kartiya (Whitefellas) have left our community. AND as Christmas is the height of the communal Law Time period for our community and region, you will also have an opportunity to participate in and provide logistical support to both our women and our men during some of our most important cultural ceremonies. 3. Please don’t despair if you can’t move that fast. We’re now starting to fill up our volunteer calendar for the full 12 month period of 2014. So pick a month, any month, when you’d like to join us here and then write to us and tell us the dates when you’d like to spend with us as a Volunteer. We’re always open for the right woman who can make a difference to the lives of our Elders and our kids. And you’ll get to make life-time friends with the other volunteers too. We hope to hear from all of the many women who have said over the past year that they’d like to visit the Elders in 2014. You will need to cover your own expenses to get here (that’s the cost of flying from wherever you are to Broome, and then $350 on the Friday plane to Balgo). Plus you will need to contribute $100 a week for food and accommodation (as we all do). We know that that sounds like a lot especially if you haven’t got access to ready cash, but think of all the workshops you’d have to do to learn what you’re going to learn here with our Elders would rate in the tens-of-thousands of dollars. With Kapululangu you get to all the teaching and guidance at no charge at all. You get it for free! If any of these positions sound right for you, or if you are at all interested, then please write to us at kapululangu.women.centre@gmail.com Please tell us the dates you’d like to come and how long you’d like to stay. Tell us something about yourself. Are you Aboriginal, or Indigenous? Have you lived in a remote Aboriginal community before, or are you simply keen to learn more about how to make a difference? What special skills do you bring with you – and we all are special in some way? And please don’t hold back on asking any questions. You might like to take a look at our website at KAPULULANGU WOMEN'S LAW AND CULTURE CENTRE - Home It will give you a glimpse of the kind of work that we have done, and still do – albeit to a lesser degree at the moment. It will show you how and why the Women Elders created Kapululangu as their local Indigenous response to their issues and concerns in their community. The Kapululangu Women Elders are waiting to welcome the right women into their lives. So if you think this describes you and if you are up for a wonderful experience then please contact us at kapululangu.women.centre@gmail.com NOW. If you find yourself hesitating, or wondering whether you are the right person for the job, then why not send us an email anyway and ask us whether we think you should come? We know this position isn’t suited to everyone, and we are very careful about who we invite to join us. But think about it…. Kapululangu is Australia’s only Aboriginal Women’s Law and Culture Centre, one of Australia’s most remote Women’s Centre (and Aboriginal too boot), and a core provider of Women’s Law (ceremonial) and Culture (custom) activities and events for both Indigenous and Non-Indigenous women from across the Kimberley, throughout Australia, and around the world. So this really is a rare and unique opportunity. How often have you been asked in your lifetime whether you’d like to live with and give service to a group of Aboriginal Women Elders who grew up in the bush and were trained in the Old Ways long before White society impacted their social systems and lifeworlds? How often have you been invited to learn how to be the best Kartiya (Stranger/Whitefella) that you can be while being assisted and mentored by someone who has already lived with these same Women Elders and their families and community for 14 years; a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee who has already made all the mistakes so that you don’t have to? Is this really an opportunity you want step over? Email your interest to kapululangu.women.centre@gmail.com :)