Lucy Van Sambeek

"Awanga mamanta (Hello my friends!). After completing my last fieldwork placement and graduating in 2005, I continued on as a community development worker at Kyabra Community Association. With the support of the agency I was able to satisfy my passion for working alongside Indigenous folks in the spirit of Reconciliation. But after a while my social justice values were beckoning me back to the Northern Territory, so I uplifted my family and after a couple of months eventually found work with Centacare in Darwin. Being a school counsellor for six months, wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, so I moved over to the Remote Alcohol and Drug Program. I clearly remember alcohol and drug work was last on my list of preferences for electives at uni, now here I am doing this work (how many times have you heard that happen to people!) I am working as a counsellor, educator and community development worker in Nguiu on Bathurst Island.

Bathurst Island lies north of Darwin and is home to the Aboriginal Tiwi of Australia.

I live in Darwin and fly out to the remote Tiwi Island communities, leaving behind my husband and two children for two nights/three days a week.

I have an enormous number of challenges in my work and I am often left wondering why I stick it out. After just 14 months, I’m now one of the longest serving employees in the remote team.

Some of the hardest things have been the language barriers; packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking every week; extremely high turnover of staff in the organization (very unsettling and creates more work for everybody!); the inability to employ people to work alongside me (I’ve had to do the work of two or three people – even manage the site office and local staff); interesting work conditions (green tree frogs live in our toilet and we are still waiting for hot water!); the isolation of remote work (nobody knows who you are when you get back to Darwin); flitting between what are third world conditions in communities to the wealth of an Australian capital city (we take so much for granted!); chronic sickness and too much ‘sorry business’ which affects the health of both clients and local staff; the structural and cultural challenges which makes it hard for clients to make changes in their lives (like humbug from family or basic housing!); and the human rights violations and lack of respect and understanding shown by the federal government with its introduction and continuation of the Northern Territory Emergency Intervention.

It is hard work, physically and emotionally. But that makes the rewards so much more precious; like learning a new language, experiencing a different culture, going camping in the peaceful bush, catching barramundi on your doorstep; meeting strong community leaders; and assisting local people to make the changes they want to make, however small. So what has kept me going? I am so passionate about what I do, I can’t imagine doing anything else! The Tiwi people are a humble and proud people trying to hold onto what’s left of their beautiful culture. They have welcomed me with open arms, which I still find amazing considering the history of treatment of Indigenous people by us ‘whitefellas’. If I can reflect on just one small win every week as I am flying back to Darwin on Wednesday afternoon, then that’s enough for me to say I’ve made a difference.

Waya Juwa.”