In 2011 Youth & Family Education Resources’ ‘Core of Life’ program was initiated in the Torres Strait. The national Indigenous program which was founded by Tracy Smith and Deb Pattrick, was widely accepted by multidisciplinary health staff, teachers, parents, carers and youth.

Compared with Non-Indigenous women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait maternal mortality is 5 times higher; perinatal mortality is 1.5 times higher; and premature delivery and low birth rate are doubles. Well known issues that contribute to poorer outcomes in pregnancy and child birth include increased smoking, alcohol and drug use. Although information regarding these issues is readily available, youth seem desensitized to these messages as reflected in these alarming statistics.

The other major statistic within the Torres Strait communities is that of chronic disease. The role chronic disease plays in these communities is constant and currently rising, Improving maternal care and outcomes in Indigenous women has important flow on effects, as a poorer start to life can increase the risk of adult chronic disease.

The educational program offers a fresh unique approach to youth where factual information is learnt ‘hands on’ using interactive role plays, slide shows and group discussions regarding issues such as pregnancy, giving birth and caring for a new born. The program shows two separate life paths where youth are able to participate, differentiate and obtain an understanding of how drugs, alcohol and unhealthy life can impact on a young family.
The Core of Life program was delivered at the Cannon Boggo School Hostel on Thursday Island. This hostel is home to approximately twenty outer island youth who live at Cannon Boggo to attend the only high school in the Torres Strait located on Thursday Island. These youth age from thirteen to seventeen and rely solely on their house parents and careers at the hostel for guidance.

Initially the program was to be aimed at the later age groups 16 and older. Although after the first discussion with the Senior Manager of the hostel Mrs Lency Pedro who changed this to include everyone boarding at the hostel. Mrs Pedro expressed that in her opinion the content was important for all high school aged children and further asked if the program would be also presented at the high school. It was also decided it would be more culturally appropriate to have two separate sessions one with the hostels young females and the other with the young males.

The first session was with the young men of the hostel. From the moment Deb Pattrick and Tracy Smith began to engage with the youth it was obvious they had the spotlight. The boys shared information they knew and some they weren’t too sure of, and the real deal was presented to them and any uncertainties cleared up. The group seemed to have a level of confidence as the session progressed and they participated in all role plays and skits. “This was a good program for us, and I sabe (know) now what it takes to raise a healthy family and tell my Aunties and sisters what to Kai Kai (eat) when they pamalie (pregnant) – John Pearson (15) (Yam Is).

Surprisingly the boys keep their new found information to themselves as the young girls were interested and asking what it was all about. The following evening the girls came along to the same session. A lively group, full of answers and their own questions. As the program progressed along a majority of the discussion was based around a healthy pregnancy and birth. Markoo Billy (17) who took part said “when I choose to have a baby I sabe (know) how for make sure em healthy now. I look other girls drink and smoke and it’s not good”.
The greatest feedback was from Aiaga Whap who is a house parent as Cannon Boggo Hostel. Aiaga said “We have been trying to get the kids to respect their personal space, not touch and cuddle each other all the time, because some of them have girlfriends or boyfriends. This has done it! I don’t know what you did but they are finally getting it”. Aiaga laughed and said “we have only been trying to do this all year”.

This program was a huge success and the youth were encouraged to share this information they had learnt to peers and friends. Furthermore Mrs Lency Pedro invited the program back to the school hostel and said “this should be done every year”. It is obvious to all who participated that day that the youth left empowered and armed with knowledge to make responsible decisions whether it be in the present or in the future. This program has a domino effect as it doesn’t just affect pregnant women and babies but the individuals health throughout the lifespan. I personally hope this program will continue this positive effect in the Torres Strait in the future.

17th Biennial National Conference for Midwives 18th-21st October 2011

When we discovered that the main theme for this conference was “A Midwifery Odyssey” we felt inspired and thought it was perfect to present for YFER on Core Of Life. The conference was a great mixture of sharing our Midwifery knowledge and creative talents with each other.

The daily themes were:

Taking hold of the future, Excitement and Adventure & Innovation

We know that COL is an ODYSSEY that captures young people’s attention and inspires them to think about future life decisions they may face. This is demonstrated by storytelling, role-play, audio and visual images which imparts positive and powerful learning styles unique to this innovative, exciting and adventurous program!!

Core Of Life is not in many schools on the Central Coast, however we have almost double the state average of teenage birth rates.
Our vision is to continue to introduce this innovative program as an adventure for many midwives to follow, using their existing knowledge and skills that can uniquely benefit the youth of the future. This can be achieved by implementing COL into as many schools and community settings as possible.

At the conference there was good attendance both nationally and internationally. Our concurrent session was full to standing room only. It was attended by a mix of those who knew of and had an interest in COL and those that were to be inspired for the first time. We showed a brief Video of the COL experience so far and shared our training and facilitator experiences. We then went on to explain the objectives of COL, the training involved (with use of props) and implementation.
COL had a stall where attendees could then express their interest further providing an opportunity to network and collaborate. This gave them enough knowledge to discuss COL further in their own work areas.

We both shared our views on how passionate we are about COL and how we have not come across a program before in our 15+ years of Midwifery experience that has so many objectives that are met so quickly and easily in such a fun and dynamic way. It is a natural progression to have this program incorporated into all learning areas and I know the Central Coast itself would benefit greatly.

This was the first time that Mel and I had presented at a National conference and it was a great experience. We thank the YFER team for all of their support!

Until our next adventure!!

In March Deb Pattrick and I facilitated a two day Core of Life Training session in the town of Wilcannia. Wilcannia is a small rural town in NSW 200 kilometres east from Broken Hill. When visiting Broken Hill in September I was able to return to Wilcannia and act as a mentor for some Core of Life sessions at Wilcannia Central School. The first session was facilitated by myself and Julianne (Teacher). There were 15 students from Year 9 & 10 male & female, three Aboriginal education officers, three youth workers from the Wings Drop in Centre who had previously completed the Core of Life Facilitators training & one teacher.

The students participated in the session though a little shy at times. One of the Aboriginal education workers reiterated information all the way through and he related a lot of information to situations that had occurred in the community, including the need for healthy diet and not to drink, take drugs or smoke during pregnancy. This was very powerful as he was a respected member of the community; he shared stories through out the session. He also assisted in the role plays (he engaged the group well when he volunteered to be the mother of Jess who was having a baby). The three youth workers also participated in this session assisting with role plays and information sharing.

Participants in the second session included nine male and female students in Years 7 & 8, one teacher and a different Aboriginal education officer. This session was facilitated by Juliane (teacher) and Candela, Natika and Tony (youth workers).

The students participated in the session but remained shy. The Aboriginal education worker participated throughout the session which once again gave credence to the program while reiterating information. The session went very well and it was encouraging to see the program facilitated by 4 young people and that one of the facilitators was a male. The students related very well and if any questions were asked that required to be answered by a midwife, I was there to answer those questions.

How wonderful to be trainer and then to mentor the facilitators as they run the Core of Life sessions in the school. I look forward hearing other facilitator’s stories.

I attended and co presented with Peter Gazey at this 2 day forum.

Our presentation was delivered with Peter giving the COL overview, myself giving the Wilcannia Community relationship with COL and the Darwin Men’s Forum information and the future plans pending successful funding to deliver education programs, then Sally Hutchinson joining us to do 2 role plays to show how COL gets the message to community participants.

Through attending the 2 days a lot of information was shared by similar stakeholders in sexual health education to youth, families and communities
in regional, remote and urban locations in WA.

It was useful to have this cross fertilisation of ideas and service delivery with many challenges mostly the lack of resources and funding. I believe that COL presented as an agency that can be supportive of existing programs and through the training of local people, leave sustainable resources in communities that are owned by those communities. Peter highlighted the refresher courses that can be done with trainers and midwives along with local people to deliver at appropriate times.

COL was well received and will have a lot of work to do in WA due to the networks and relationships that are being developed with the stakeholders with the aim of improving low birth weights and reducing high rates of teenage pregnancies through delivering informative and preventative education to the youth and families.

People at the forum signed up for the 2 day workshop that Deb and Sally are presenting and I believe this will be the start of these relationships being strengthened.

As always thank you for the opportunity to be involved in this stage of COL and I know that our vision of empowering youth and families is working with COL being involved in the process as relevant education providers.

For the last leg of our two year shoot on the Documentary The Face Of Birth, we wanted to film stories of Aboriginal women about the importance of choice in place of birth and birthing on country, to complete our look at women who home birth around the world.

With the help and brilliant organizational skills of the Core Of Life team, we were given the unique opportunity of visiting Yirrakala in Far East Arnhem land.

Both my co director Gavin Banks and myself had never been on country before, we were excited but didn’t know exactly what we were going to get in terms of content. Deb had told us to just go with the flow and see what the women had for us.

It’s always a little awkward traveling with cameras lights microphones, even harder on small light aircraft, and when we landed somehow all this ‘stuff’ seemed even sillier than usual in this beautiful, yet completely unfamiliar environment, in the heat by the sea. Everyone else managed to get by with out so much as a handbag, I was beginning to think it would have been much more sensible to just bring a bottle of water, a hat (yes I forgot mine …. Thanks Tracy for the lend …) and film everything on my mobile phone. I couldn’t exactly see all this equipment making people feel comfortable.

But then we met Djapirri, straight away I knew she would have powerful lessons to teach me, there was something about the wisdom in her eyes and the cheekiness of her smile that hinted at the magic of great stories to come. ‘Quick we have to get those lights up and turn the camera on now Gavin!!’

The women elders of Yirrakala opened up and shared their ceremonies and culture around birth and raising children. We interviewed some strong women from the community saw them share knowledge with local teenage girls, and even filmed a baby smoking ceremony. It was both beautiful and educational.

It was wonderful to see the warm strong and trusting relationship that the women had with Deb and Tracy, and to here Djapirri say that ‘between them now was a bond that will never be broken, white woman and black together.’

It’s important for all pregnant women to been informed and supported and have good maternal care available to them, we have heard this message from people in the UK the US, New Zealand and all over Australia, and this was also true for the women of Yirrakala. But more that this what we learned is that it is so important to be able to choose place of birth for the families of Yirrakala because of the special connection to the land that this community (and many others in Australia) have.

The day ended with a wonderful dinner at which Djapirri’s young nephew gave me an aboriginal name, Ganynu it means star. …
It was over all two quickly, we had to be back in Darwin to film Core Of life holding a cross-cultural workshop (wonderful and hilarious) and to interview Deb and Tracy about the important work that they do. I believe that we can change the culture and climate of maternity in Australia to have less fear and better outcomes by empowering young women and families with information and support through programs like this, I was glad that we could capture some of these elements in the film.

Deb said to me that once you have visited East Arnhem Land, it gets into you blood and you have to come back. She was right, I hope to return to Yirrakala one day, and hear more wonderful stories.

However it did leave behind some lucky YFER team members whom YFER would like to congratulate as winners in our Inaugual YFER Melbourne Cup Sweep.

1^st Place – Rosemary Bunge, Barooga Vic wins a double movie pass and a bottle of champagne

2^nd Place – Karen Rauert, Parkes NSW (soon to be Broken Hill), won a beautiful bottle of Mornington Peninsula wine

3^rd Place – Leanne James, Kyabram Vic & Last Place, but in this case certainly not least, is Julia Hugo Knox Victoria both to receive some delicious farmers market home produce.

WE hope everyone, even those outside Victoria enjoyed the cup. We would like to encourage everyone to stay tuned to the website in the coming months as YFER begins a series of promotional incentives to give our new website a big Welcome.

Cheers everyone

They spent 8 days visiting Serengetti national park, & Ngorogoro crater. The highlights were, as you can imagine plentiful, but to narrow it to a few; – the outing to a local village Ngresi in Arusha and visiting the local school with 1000 students all with huge smiles singing to us and chasing us down the path, of course the beautiful sunsets and close private encounters with intelligent, nurturing incredible wild animals and in particular for the three of us, our spontaneous meet, greet and sharing experience with a group women in a remote traditional Massai village.
Hmm yes Tracy was clothed in the traditional Massai outfit whilst Deb and Annette chatted fervently with the ladies in between laughing at Tracy. We were lucky enough to have a couple of traditional midwives in the group who allowed a rare insight for us into stories of birth and parenting in their village. The finale being a sharing of lullabies, first the beautiful Massai voices singing their traditional baby song then Tracy, Deb and Annette with a very poor rendition of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” complete with hand actions. What a sight it must have been but a moment we’ll treasure.

For those who have not been there before, we found the best way to describe this gorgeous region is that this part of the South African landscape seems to have smaller pieces of Australia all joined together!!?? Yes may sound weird but at times it looks just like rural NSW, then the west coast of Tasmania then we have southern ocean beaches. Stunning drive on perfect roads. Storms River mouth was rugged, stormy and energizing with its rainforest by the wild ocean and absolutely freezing. The phenomenal real estate and views at Plettenberg Bay were a direct contrast to many of the shanty towns that house huge numbers of population in appalling conditions along this route. Stories of fires burning through hundreds of shacks, no electricity, minimal water and poor health are unfortunately commonplace in this region too.

For anyone who knows Deb Tracy and Annette well, naturally the arrival to the stunning Capetown was via Stellenbosch a wine haven of this area. A mandatory stop at Spier winery saw Tracy (the designated driver) dragging Deb and Annette away kicking and screaming and Dot (Tracy’s mum) giggly in the back seat….Hiccup!!

Capetown’s location and surroundings are like joining the most stunning postcards together. Table mountain majestically towering on one side, the rugged Cape of Good Hope with its open raw ocean breaks, Hout bay with its cliffs / beaches and optimal whale watching and the cute cheeky penguins at Simonstown. Capetown is a must for a playful return.

From here Deb and Annette furthered their adventures in travelling to Vic Falls then home, whilst Tracy, Ruby and Dot travelled on to Namibia and Botswana for a self drive safari which would see them meet more beautiful people, have further up close animal adventures, and then sadly having to leave finishing in Vic Falls Zimbabwe.

Day 1 of the Conference Mel Hoye and Lorrie Campbell, two of our newly trained Core of Life Instructors, presented a concurrent session about Core of Life. This was an opportunity to share their inspiration and excitement regarding their journey as Midwives and encompassing Core of Life as part of the innovative work they do. This was their first opportunity to present at a National conference and they really did us proud. Their audience asked many questions afterwards, “ how to become involved” and future plans for Core of Life training workshops.

YFER also had an exhibition stand throughout the conference. This gave us an opportunity to link up with midwives that had trained as COL Facilitators over the years. We  listened and laughed with them as they told us about  their adventures so far. There was a lot of interest in YFER’s new  resources and plans for  future training workshops from people all over Australia whom we hadn’t met before..

As Midwives we were able to attend the large range presentations provided, while our admin staff Courtney and Brandie manned the stall. Some of these presentations were about activities Midwives are involved in globally and were so inspiring. It is an incredible job that some people do, in remote parts of the world with very little resources available.

Thanks!! to the ACMI for this inspiring conference.