Canteen Creek Communiqué

After almost a full day of travel, mainly on dirt roads, we reached Canteen Creek - a small Aboriginal community outside of Tennant Creek.  We stayed at the mission house located just outside of town and then walked wherever we needed to go.

How do I paint this scene? The houses are well constructed, or were originally, often from rudimentary materials, but now are in a run down condition.  Old, neglected cars litter the streets and dogs just roam the neighbourhood and some can be “cheeky”. This is a local description for a dangerous dog. The red dirt is everywhere and at this time of year, it is whipped up into dust as the wind relentlessly rushes through. Some locals are just hanging about outside their houses or in small groups and the children run around freely, barefooted.

Most of this was not a shock to us - partly because we had seen similar scenes of indigenous communities from Andrew’s parents’ time in Uganda and yet, it takes on another dimension when it is a personal experience.

On Tuesday, we went down to the church compound in the morning to play games with the kids and just to let them know we would be around for a day or two. The joy on the faces of those children will stay with me. Kicking a ball around, skipping rope, singing some songs and talking with the children - such natural things to share in together and yet, something they don’t always experience. We came back after lunch and spent another session with them.  This time, the kids from our group presented a bible story and later in the afternoon, some of the indigenous ladies came for a Bible Study.

Wednesday saw more children come, even though we were told more would be away at the show in Alice Springs.  Word spreads and some children invited others to come.  We had some older kids on the second day and the boys loved going back to their dirt AFL ground to kick the footy around with the burgeoning numbers. Some of the ladies went down to the Arts Centre where we looked at many of the paintings that had been completed on canvas. The variety and skill of these ladies was impressive - I wished I had a bigger budget and could buy more.  It was so uplifting to see that some of the women meet together and use their talents in this way.  Wednesday night was also mid week church night.  We started after 5, had extended singing and then one of the guys got up to give a short message just as two couples arrived to join us, so we had another lot of singing afterwards as well.

The church there did go through a revival last year but more recently, the many of the people have gone back to Tennant Creek which holds the attractions of football, gambling and being able to drink. Though this is discouraging and disheartening for the community, it won’t be until the month long school holidays end and more families return that they will have a true picture of where people now stand. Mission work here has its joys but it seems to be all consuming and relentless. I admire the passion and dedication of those who are working alongside the indigenous communities full time. It is easy for us, “popping in and out”, whereas they deal with the daily struggles of partnering with the people.

When we left before dawn on Thursday, I was sad to go. I really wanted to spend longer there. I'll write about the rest of the week soon.  We are in Borroloola for a few days now.