Tjutjinpiri Community Garden

"We are making a garden for the vegetables."
"All the kids are playing and having fun."
"We have lunch and a cup of tea."

Craig Goodwin
Pinganti James

"We are putting in a garden for the community to grow vegetables. We will teach the people how to make stews, how to cook vegetables so that the diet will improve and the people will feel better and be healthier. The children have been really involved by helping with the planting. The children have been fantastic, making sure that the plants are covered up from the frost. Another project is that we are buildiing a fire pit to cook our stews. The school kids also came out and dug a hole for the bath.

When our veges grow, we are going to go out and get our kuka so that we have very healthy food. We go out hunting at night with the children in order to capture the meat for the stews. The children spot a rabbit with a spotlight. The children then circle the rabbit and bang him on the head with a stick or throw stones to kill it.

For all of the hard work, the children's pay is that they get icy poles and ice cream (in addition to healthy food for lunch). Sometimes we cook cakes, but that's after the children work hard. They have to work hard first. We have been teaching the children how to make compost and telling them that it is good for the soil, that making good soil is good for growing vegetables. The rules that we have is that the children work hard, then they have icy poles and kuka, and then they have to clean up. "

Jenny (and James) Edwards