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Tiwi Islands students take part in writing workshop for Indigenous Literacy Day

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Fast workers: Students from the Tiwi Islands put down their ideas with author and illustrator Allison Lester. Photo: Don Arnold

You can't get much farther north than the Tiwi Islands and still remain in Australia. The islands lie 80 kilometres across the Beagle Gulf from Darwin, and are home to about 3000 people.

However, today nine schoolgirls from the islands are sitting around a table in the middle of Sydney as part of a workshop overseen by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

The view of the city from the 13th floor office of Harper Collins is distractingly gorgeous, but they're hard at work sketching out illustrations and working through the text for what will shortly become a book, helped along by children's author Alison Lester and the ILS's program manager, Tina Raye.

The story didn't exist mere hours ago: the entire process from coming up with the idea through to sending the finished text and pictures off to print will take a grand total of two days.

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The story they've worked up together tells the day-to-day life of Mia, a fictional Tiwi Islands girl. She attends school, deals with the pressures of her family and community, and aspires to be a singer like her hero, Jessica Mauboy. She could be any one of the students laughing and talking around the table.

It will be the second book that has come out of the ILS's work with the Tiwi Islands. Bangs the Owl star of Bangs 2 Jurrukuk, the result of last year's workshop has pride of place in the middle of the table.

All of the girls are students at Tiwi College. They board at the school during the week which makes sense, as teacher Dianne "Tic Tac" Moore explains that the trip from the town to the school can take half a day via troop carrier during the wet season. The girls also field an Australian rules team which, as Moore proudly asserts, have never been defeated in competition.

The girls are not only using their time in Sydney to write this book: they're also presenting Bangs 2 Jurrukuk at the Opera House on Wednesday as part of the Indigenous Literacy Day celebrations.

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Tiwi Islands students take part in writing workshop for Indigenous Literacy Day

21 fascinating islands on the Thames

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Inhabitants of the island (there's around 38,000) call themselves "Swampies".

Chiswick Eyot

Recognisable to regular viewers of the Boat Race, Chiswick Eyot is accessible by foot at low tide, almost fully submerged at high tide (tree branches excepted) and like many islands in the Thames was used in the 19th century for the growing of osiers, used by basket and furniture makers. The island was in the headlines in 2010 after a pensioner claimed he had been living a Robinson Crusoe lifestyle on the island for six months, while sleeping in a net to avoid the incoming tide.

Olivers Island

Known as Strand Ayt until the English Civil War, this islands current name was inspired by the myth that Oliver Cromwell took refuge there. A secret tunnel supposedly linked the island to the Bulls Head pub in Chiswick.

A tollbooth was set up on the island in 1777, and a smithy was built there in the 1865, surviving until the 1990s. The island's only inhabitants now are birds, such as herons, Canada geese and cormorants.

The Great London Walk: Telegraph Tours

Brentford Ait

Now uninhabited, with no buildings, Brentford Ait was once home to the notorious Three Swans pub. Fred S. Thackers The Thames Highway Locks and Weirs, published in 1920, explains: In March 1811 one Robert Hunter of Kew Green described the island to the city as a great Nuisance to this parish and the Neighbourhood on both sides of the River. It contained a House of Entertainment, which has long been a Harbour for Men and women of the worst description, where riotous and indecent Scenes were often exhibited during the Summer Months on Sundays.

It is now covered with willows, planted to obscure the Brentford gasworks.

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21 fascinating islands on the Thames

Santa Barbara Island Dock Damaged

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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -

News Release from Channel Islands National Park:

Santa Barbara Island is closed to public access due to damage from the high surf associated with Hurricane Marie.

There are several pilings damaged on the landing dock, and the pier landing ladder detached and washed away. Boaters should be aware of floating debris.

The closure will be in place until the dock structure can be repaired and a new ladder fabricated and installed. The closure is expected to last over a month. This is the second closure this year on Santa Barbara Island due to storm surge.

Santa Barbara Island is the southernmost, smallest, and one of the least visited islands within Channel Islands National Park. It is located over 50 miles from Ventura and about 24 miles from neighboring Catalina Island.

There is no damage known at this time to any other landings on any of the four northern islands within Channel Islands National Park.

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Santa Barbara Island Dock Damaged

Little Bay Islands resident looks to government for answers

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Part-time residents of Little Bay Islands look to government for answers concerning resettlement

For years now, the residents of Little Bay Islands have had the issue of resettlement looming over their heads.

Its been a topic that has divided the community on more than one occasion, as advocates for the plan to resettle have made sure the issue has been brought up, and votes have been taken and failed when too many residents still opposed leaving their homes.

Norwester file photo.

Little Bay Islands has had the cloud of resettlement looming over it for a while, however a group known as Friends of Little Bay Islands is now seeking answers from government about what happens to them in the event resettlement eventually happens.

The talks werent just among those who call the community home, however. People like Christina Pelley were also raising the topic, with a hint of concern thrown in as well.

Pelley and her family are owners of a home on Little Bay Islands, however their permanent residence is actually in Springdale.

We wanted a summer home, somewhere we could go and spend time with the kids, she said. So we found a place on Little Bay Islands, and decided to buy it.

The Pelleys bought the home in 2012, and enjoyed it during the summer this year just like before.

However, Christina and her husband have been concerned of late because of the ongoing talk of resettling through the governments community relocation policy. Since the Pelleys arent permanent residents of Little Bay Islands, they dont qualify to vote on whether the community will resettle. According to her, they dont qualify for any compensation either.

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Little Bay Islands resident looks to government for answers

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Australian arrested in Sea Shepherd whale hunt protest

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Sea Shepherd activists being arrested for obstructing a whale hunt in the Faroe Islands. Photo: Sea Shepherd.

An Australian filmmaker arrested in a Faroe Islands protest has described as horrendous apilot whale hunt she was trying to prevent.

Krystal Keynes, 28, was driving a Sea Shepherd speedboat, donated to the campaign by US actor Charlie Sheen, when she was chased down by the Danish navy.

Ms Keynes, from Exmouth in Western Australia, said she was brought ashore under arrest and marched past whales killed in the local community's "grind", or whale hunt.

"We were led past a pile of dead whales, and the people who did it were walking around with their children, laughing and joking," Ms Keynes told Fairfax Media.

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"It was one of the most horrendous things I've ever seen in my whole life. It's as ifthe Faroese live in a bubble where this is all right."

The WA woman was among activists attempting to end the controversial tradition in the North Atlantic islands.

The hunt involves men in small boats herding passing pilot whales onshore at outlying islands of the Danish dependency. The whale meat is eaten.

The activists claim to have driven three pods of pilot whales away from the islands successfully until last Saturday when a large pod was surrounded.

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Australian arrested in Sea Shepherd whale hunt protest


  1. Islands