YOUNG people from Coonamble were treated to a taste of traditional Aboriginal culture with some strong messages for their future as they visited the Yalmambirra Boogijoon Doolin culture camp at Balladoran in the Gilgandra shire during the summer holidays.

Three groups of youngsters made the trip down the highway on three separate days, with Youth Case Workers Sarah Boney and Nathaniel Thurston accompanying the final group on Friday 27 January.

“We started with 20 kids wanting to go but because of sickness or being out of town we ended up with seven kids aged from 10 to 15 years,” Ms Boney said.

ABOVE: Uncle Ralph helps Kaiden Thurston master the art of fire-starting using a stick. Image supplied.

“They had to get up early as well; we started picking them up at 7am, that was the hardest thing.”

Ms Boney, who has been working with the REDI-E youth service since June 2021, said that their usual monthly programs had been disrupted as a result of the renovations currently underway at the organisation’s Railway Street youth centre.

“We do have space here at the back of our office in Castlereagh Street but without the basketball court and those other facilities there’s not that much to do,” she said.

“I thought the kids needed to have a break from town. Most of the kids really don’t know their culture, and I thought it would be good for us as workers to go and learn this as well.”

The day was packed full of activities organised by Ralph Naden and his family members on their property, which includes land purchased by the Nadens in the years since the family moved to Balladoran after the 1955 floods and a block donated by Gilgandra Shire Council in the 1990s.

At the time, Mr Naden had retired from his thirty plus years of shearing and had been working with Burnside and the Challenge Foundation in Dubbo.

“In the 90s, Gilgandra was third in the state with crime rates,” Mr Naden said. “That’s when it started, people started coming here and it never stopped rolling.”

As well as young people from around the state, the Nadens host groups of adults wanting to learn more about Indigenous culture in a bush setting.

“I’ve got forty people coming on Monday, then there’s 160 police coming out in March,” he said. “I’ve even had twenty two or three magistrates here. The Governor General planted a tree out here.”

“Before COVID we were booked out nearly every day of the week. We have a lovely big shed and you chuck your swag on the floor. This is a blackfella’s camp, not a five star motel.”

Mr Naden has received several awards and has been recognised for his work with young people.

“It’s all just through helping kids, I don’t care if they’re black, white or whatever,” he said.

“I talk about boundaries, respect and attitude with the kids.”

“When they want to rough it they camp here and I show them how you should appreciate school and the people in front of you and getting an education.”

For the Coonamble visitors, the day kicked off with storytelling, home-made fried scones, and a tour of Mr Naden’s own museum containing cultural artefacts, a re-created traditional camp and other educational displays.

ABOVE: Storytime with Uncle Ralph Naden. Image supplied.

After the young people cooked their own barbeque lunch they helped make a didjeridoo - from selecting a suitable branch right through to the decorative art - and joined in a dance workshop.

Mr Naden says the cultural walk through the bush is a real learning opportunity.

“There are a lot of sites up through there,” he said. 

“It’s about helping kids understand yoúve got to keep going forward. In your life you’ll stumble a bit but you’ve got to ask is it worthwhile keeping going or will I stop here?”

“I’ve got that in my walkway, there’s a fork on the road. We talk about not taking shortcuts. You’ve got to take the long way, the learning way, and go ahead,” Mr Naden said.

In his almost 77 years, Mr Naden has picked up a lot of traditional knowledge to share with the younger generation.

As well as teaching them the dance of his totem - the little sand goanna - he showed them how to make paint the traditional way and the meaning of body markings, making fire using just a stick and how to throw a boomerang.

“I would definitely do it again,” Ms Boney said. 

“The kids who didn’t get to go have been asking so we’ll definitely organise another trip.”