Remakery Project - Indigenous Community
Donation protected
A 12 month Remakery Project started in April 2024... with Indigenous people who are ready to have different to yesterday.
In 2020, I Founded and Facilitated an organisation working with youth and their families in South Gippsland, Victoria. After 3 years of operating, the feedback received from parents and teens, concreted that this Program brings connection ... through how we Speak and Listen ... where it was, at times, lost.
This Work is successful.
This Work is about REMAKING self.
Unpacking how each of us RELATE ... to ourselves, others, our culture, and the Land that supports us in all the ways it does.
From this, the ripple effect is opening up to FEELING...
YES, behaviour changes.
The phases of this Remakery Project:
Stage 1 (3months): listening and feeling (peeling back the layers that block us from this), speaking our truth (our authentic Yes/No), tapping into our creative selves, play in nature, what serves us and what are we ready to let go of?, healthy release tools, what does a safe space to come together look & feel like?, collaboration with Agreements, building a sense of worthiness through contributing, "doing" where others witness (eg painting, bush medicine making, weaving, etc), prepare Food Forest including looking at healthy water, camp outs, building a hub where people come together, ....
Stage 2 (3 months): Self-sufficiency builds, Leadership, Skill building, Skill sharing, longer camp outs
Stage 3 (3 months): Pulling all the learnings and growth together, what are the challenges so far and how have we stood in them?, website is set up for goods and services to be shared with the world from Community, social enterprise is flowing with understandings on saving and spending, young Leaders for Toumo and Vic trips are initiating the requirements for these trips, ...
Stage 4 (3months): Community has a go at continuing to thrive now they have a solid foundation, a dual exchange with BACKinTRACKtion in Victoria for 2 young people, a self-funded trip to Italy for Yoga Toumo for 2 young people who step up as Leaders
In Funding this over the next 12 months, you will see how this is the catalyst for a shift in this Community and how youth become the teachers to facilitate this Remakery Project in the next willing Community.
Further details.....
? Have you ever experienced feelings of lost and isolation in your family or community?
My Answer: Growing up in my family, I did .... then hiding behind sport in High School - lots of loneliness and confusion
? Have you ever really believed in something and it didn’t work out like you thought it would?
My Answer: Yes - my concept of family - which ended up with me in a divorce.
? Do you deeply “know and feel” your culture, your totem, and the land you stand on, live on, eat from? How do you acknowledge these?
My Answer: Totem, what’s that?!
Background details.....
My 6 months, as a teacher, in a remote Indigenous Community last year in the Kimberleys, WA … opened up answers to these questions for me… as more answers continue to come in! … HEHE … and more questions!!!
It also opened up a new family.
A family whose struggles with kids, teens, forgiveness, understanding purpose, finding reconnection to the roots of culture, listening, relationships, separated families, communication, and the list goes on!
It’s the same list EVERYWHERE.
There is one SIGNIFICANT element that sets this community apart though.
They are ready for “DIFFERENT TO YESTERDAY”.
The Elders ASKED for help.
So, the Remakery Project was birthed from a trust we had built … that I did not realise the depth of.
We never know the connection we are building with others, simply by showing up and being seen… sometimes without even any words!
The hard of my experience in that Community’s school took me to every afternoon grabbing my tennis ball and walking around Community. Simple gestures of “Hello”, playing ball with the kids, and stopping to yarn when the opening was there. I wanted to understand through LISTENING and PLAY, the community I was in. “This understanding may help me connect with a different experience at school,” I thought.
AND again ….
“Sometimes we have no idea of the impact we have on another. For the good ... or bad!”
Then one night came.
It was the catalyst for the activation of this Project.
And it was stirred through a young boy tinkering on the edge of life and death from sniffing petrol and running. Members of Community included me in this significant event.
At one point, I recall a fleeting thought: “If he dies, will I be blamed”.
Something bigger than me, fell upon me that night.
A leadership … one that came from trust and devotion.
A devotion to myself first – to simply show up and trust being seen. This moment in time was happening for a reason.
A devotion to this Indigenous Community who had become a “family” for me – trusting the outcome, whichever way it went!
In the wee hours, after this young boy was taken away in ambulance, an Elder and I yarned. An opening of the concern for her Community.
Finally, I understood why I was guided here by that Yr 6 girl back in Victoria, by the spirit Elders who came to me, by the Community back home who were steering me to this Mob!
The Remakery Project mission is connecting people back to:
• Themselves
• Community
• their culture that is rich in its roots
• the land
Remake SELF, Family, Community, and the Earth through LISTENING and FEELING.
Allowing numbing strategies to fall away - replaced with a safety to FEEL.
A shift in one community, is a shift for all.
And shift will only happen when we are open and willing to embrace change. This Community is!
Afterall, change takes courage and most importantly, TRUST.
May you find some part of yourself that can feel into the importance of this Project and it’s impact on you, your family, your community, and the energy of this Earth.
A travel blog has bubbled up as being a way of expressing gratitude and having you part of this journey.
Through the mediums below, you will see where the funding goes and the difference it is making. It also invites you to come on this journey every day before even arriving in The Kimberleys!
Love to receive your interest in this FIRST Project, which is the catalyst for many more to come.
Facebook:
Instagram:
(this is not kept up to date due to issues accessing account)
Some theories incorporated in this Project:
Your support would also be valued in sharing the QR code below with as many cafes, shops, libraries, wherever ... to help spread this opportunity for others to be part of.
Much love,
Margie,
Helen & Edna (2 Elders)
Organizer
Margie Matheson
Organizer
Mount Hardman, WA