A weekend at Cherbourg with QUT Big Lift
When I first joined QUT, we had an orientation week and I saw the banners for QUT Big Lift. Being new and all, I took the literal meaning to the club’s name and walked away from that place, assuming it meant some weight lifting sports club. It did not click to me that it is actually the kind of club I would have fun with, until I spoke to Michael during Global Café event. It appears that QUT Big Lift is a non-profit organization that develops relationship with the Indigenous community through various volunteering and service learning activities.
Prior to any association with the club, I joined the Harmony Day events and knew about the history of Australia and the significance of Harmony Day. I still might not have gotten all my facts right, mind you, history has never been my favourite subject. However, I was interested to know more about the Indigenous community. Through the Harmony Day forum, I found out a lot of facts and books to read about the history of the Indigenous community. I kept the list of books for semester holiday reading and I am still reading it.
I found out about an event through East West Facebook page and applied for it because it definitely sounded like my kinda thing. Fast forward to 20th May, I joined the QUT Big Lift team to volunteer for Fun Run at Cherbourg. The event was in conjunction with Reconciliation Week. For those who do not know, this is to my understanding of what Reconciliation Week is. There are two milestones that are being remembered here, one is the referendum to recognize Indigenous community as part of Australia and another one is law that recognizes the connection between Indigenous community and the land even before Australians were here. It is celebrated to build a better relationship between Indigenous people and other Australians.
To be honest, I was feeling nervous about meeting a new group of people and I did not know much of what was going on before the trip. I remembered I was bothering the event organizer, Sarah, by asking about camping mat and sleeping bag because I do not have any experience buying any of those. Thank God, I managed to find everything I need in Kmart and arrived to the meeting point on Saturday morning.
There were 14 of us from different backgrounds, heading to Cherbourg for a single reason. We left Brisbane at 9am and managed to reach Murgon at about 2pm, after a short stop at Kilcoy. As we discussed more on the road, I found out more information about Indigenous people and how they were treated back then. We had a short ice breaking activity when we stopped at Kilcoy. We became friends from then on and that meant a lot to me as I have been struggling to make new friends in Australia. Apparently, some of them love singing and managed to entertain us throughout the trip.
When we reached Murgon, we unloaded our bags at the South Burnett PCYC, where we put up for the night. Then we travelled about 10-15 minutes to the Ration Shed Museum at Cherbourg. We had briefing for volunteers for the Fun Run that was happening on Sunday. Fun Run is an annual event of 7km run or walk from Murgon to the Ration Shed Museum at Cherbourg. The Ration Shed Museum had an extensive timeline that documents the settlements of the Aboriginal people at Cherbourg since the early 1900s.
Following the briefing, we had a tour of the museum by an Elder, Uncle Eric. The Elder here refers to someone who has served as a leader to the tribe. All the artefacts were fascinating and Uncle Eric shared many personal stories with us, which made me understand history of the settlements better than any storybook could have depicted.
When we came back to PCYC for the evening, we cooked our meals and had our dinner together. It turned out that we weren’t the only one staying at PCYC for the day. We had another group of kids with some Elders from Hervey Bay. The Elder shared more stories with us and generously invited us over after dinner to be introduced to some Indigenous songs and welcoming words in the native language. We, then, took a short walk with them. The kids were cute and the Elders shared a lot of their stories from home. When we went back to our place, we discussed some key learning points of the day.
The next day, we got up early to prepare for the Fun Run. Some of our volunteers wanted to participate in the run; hence, we split into two teams. One at the starting line, helping with the registration and the other at the finishing line, helping with some booths. Eve and I were helping out Tracy at the Bush Critters booth with arts and crafts for little kids. She had prepared clay so the kids can make their own spider and turtle, using the different shaped pods. It was so cool because some kids unleashed their creativity by making a lot of other animals using clay and pods. Apart from that, Tracy had also prepared paints to colour the pods for the younger kids.
Another station she had was to make their own dream catcher. Tracy was also selling crafts such as hand woven baskets and dream catchers of various sizes. I even managed to get one for myself since she used all natural things to make. I had fun helping out Tracy at the Bush Critters booth. It brought me back to my Art and Craft teacher phase from first years of teaching. I also took some time off to go ahead and watch the tribal dance in between. When the event finished, we helped them wrap up and headed to PCYC for our journey back home.
As I mentioned earlier, this was my first trip to anywhere since I came to Australia, but it has opened up my mind to many great things. I learnt a lot of life lessons, not just about the Indigenous community but very menial lessons like sleeping on a sleeping bag, or the term ‘glamping’. I am glad I made some really good friends on that trip and I can’t emphasise enough on how much that means to me. I can’t wait to learn and experience more during my Mid-Year Trip with Big Lift. I remember saying I am looking forward to a beautiful journey with amazing people. Right now, it feels like I have embarked on that journey. Thanks to some really kind souls who explained things to me patiently, you know who you are :)
Prior to any association with the club, I joined the Harmony Day events and knew about the history of Australia and the significance of Harmony Day. I still might not have gotten all my facts right, mind you, history has never been my favourite subject. However, I was interested to know more about the Indigenous community. Through the Harmony Day forum, I found out a lot of facts and books to read about the history of the Indigenous community. I kept the list of books for semester holiday reading and I am still reading it.
I found out about an event through East West Facebook page and applied for it because it definitely sounded like my kinda thing. Fast forward to 20th May, I joined the QUT Big Lift team to volunteer for Fun Run at Cherbourg. The event was in conjunction with Reconciliation Week. For those who do not know, this is to my understanding of what Reconciliation Week is. There are two milestones that are being remembered here, one is the referendum to recognize Indigenous community as part of Australia and another one is law that recognizes the connection between Indigenous community and the land even before Australians were here. It is celebrated to build a better relationship between Indigenous people and other Australians.
To be honest, I was feeling nervous about meeting a new group of people and I did not know much of what was going on before the trip. I remembered I was bothering the event organizer, Sarah, by asking about camping mat and sleeping bag because I do not have any experience buying any of those. Thank God, I managed to find everything I need in Kmart and arrived to the meeting point on Saturday morning.
There were 14 of us from different backgrounds, heading to Cherbourg for a single reason. We left Brisbane at 9am and managed to reach Murgon at about 2pm, after a short stop at Kilcoy. As we discussed more on the road, I found out more information about Indigenous people and how they were treated back then. We had a short ice breaking activity when we stopped at Kilcoy. We became friends from then on and that meant a lot to me as I have been struggling to make new friends in Australia. Apparently, some of them love singing and managed to entertain us throughout the trip.
When we reached Murgon, we unloaded our bags at the South Burnett PCYC, where we put up for the night. Then we travelled about 10-15 minutes to the Ration Shed Museum at Cherbourg. We had briefing for volunteers for the Fun Run that was happening on Sunday. Fun Run is an annual event of 7km run or walk from Murgon to the Ration Shed Museum at Cherbourg. The Ration Shed Museum had an extensive timeline that documents the settlements of the Aboriginal people at Cherbourg since the early 1900s.
Following the briefing, we had a tour of the museum by an Elder, Uncle Eric. The Elder here refers to someone who has served as a leader to the tribe. All the artefacts were fascinating and Uncle Eric shared many personal stories with us, which made me understand history of the settlements better than any storybook could have depicted.
When we came back to PCYC for the evening, we cooked our meals and had our dinner together. It turned out that we weren’t the only one staying at PCYC for the day. We had another group of kids with some Elders from Hervey Bay. The Elder shared more stories with us and generously invited us over after dinner to be introduced to some Indigenous songs and welcoming words in the native language. We, then, took a short walk with them. The kids were cute and the Elders shared a lot of their stories from home. When we went back to our place, we discussed some key learning points of the day.
The next day, we got up early to prepare for the Fun Run. Some of our volunteers wanted to participate in the run; hence, we split into two teams. One at the starting line, helping with the registration and the other at the finishing line, helping with some booths. Eve and I were helping out Tracy at the Bush Critters booth with arts and crafts for little kids. She had prepared clay so the kids can make their own spider and turtle, using the different shaped pods. It was so cool because some kids unleashed their creativity by making a lot of other animals using clay and pods. Apart from that, Tracy had also prepared paints to colour the pods for the younger kids.
Another station she had was to make their own dream catcher. Tracy was also selling crafts such as hand woven baskets and dream catchers of various sizes. I even managed to get one for myself since she used all natural things to make. I had fun helping out Tracy at the Bush Critters booth. It brought me back to my Art and Craft teacher phase from first years of teaching. I also took some time off to go ahead and watch the tribal dance in between. When the event finished, we helped them wrap up and headed to PCYC for our journey back home.
As I mentioned earlier, this was my first trip to anywhere since I came to Australia, but it has opened up my mind to many great things. I learnt a lot of life lessons, not just about the Indigenous community but very menial lessons like sleeping on a sleeping bag, or the term ‘glamping’. I am glad I made some really good friends on that trip and I can’t emphasise enough on how much that means to me. I can’t wait to learn and experience more during my Mid-Year Trip with Big Lift. I remember saying I am looking forward to a beautiful journey with amazing people. Right now, it feels like I have embarked on that journey. Thanks to some really kind souls who explained things to me patiently, you know who you are :)
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