Current Projects

EON Thriving Communities

EON is currently delivering this program to eight remote communities across the west Kimberley. The program consists of:

  • EON Edible Gardens
  • EON Healthy Eating
  • EON Skills and Training
  • EON Healthy Homes

Not all communities are currently participating in all components of the program. The first step is always implementing EON Edible Gardens, which form the foundation of EON Thriving Communities.

EON only respond to invitations from communities that have seen or heard about its programs and would like to participate. EON commits substantial resources for a period of five years and must be confident of community and school buy-in before it agrees to proceed.

Currently, EON Thriving Communities is being delivered to the schools and communities at:

  • Djarindjin
  • Lombadina
  • Beagle Bay
  • One Arm Point
  • Looma
  • Noonkanbah
  • Kadjina
  • Wankatjungka
  • Ngalapita

EON hopes to expand further in 2012, subject to funding.

EON Edible Gardens

  • Djarindjin Lombadina Catholic School
  • Lombadina Community
  • Beagle Bay Sacred Heart School
  • One Arm Point School
  • Looma
  • Noonkanbah
  • Kadjina
  • Wankatjungka

EON has employed well - known horticulturist, Sabrina Hahn, to help develop edible gardens in a number of remote communities, in consultation with the community schools and leaders. The edible gardens include fruit and vegetables as well as bush tucker and medicine plants. Following the success of the first EON Edible Garden at Djarindjin Lombadina Catholic School in 2007, EON has accepted invitations from other communities and schools to deliver the project.

The project has:

  • Enabled communities to have regular access to fresh fruit and vegetables
  • Increased indigenous children’s’ awareness and understanding of the role of fruit and vegetables in a healthy diet - which links well with the UFPA’s diabetes awareness program
  • Encouraged children to reconnect with the land
  • Educated and involved the children and community members in the shared experience of growing, harvesting and preparing their home-grown food
  • Provided a fun, hands-on learning environment for lessons in maths, English, science and art.

EON Healthy Eating

Linking the growing of fruit, vegetables and bush tucker to a healthy, affordable and achievable lifestyle is the role of the EON Healthy Eating program, which is delivered to school children and adults.

The program’s objectives are:

  • To complement the growing of edible gardens
  • To teach school children lifelong cooking and nutrition skills to assist them make healthy eating choices
  • Promote strong, healthy eating messages to children
  • Increase participants’ fruit and vegetable consumption
  • Reduce rates of nutrition-linked disease, such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease

The project teaches:

  • Healthy lifestyle choices
  • Food hygiene
  • Nutrition education
  • Food preparation skills
  • How to prepare simple, nutritious and affordable meals

By working with Ernie Bridge’s UFPA diabetes prevention program, EON is able to deliver cooking classes, nutrition education and food budgeting skills to children and adults in all EON Thriving Communities.
EON Skills and Training

A further pillar of EON Thriving Communities is the formal and informal skills and training delivered by our project managers as part of their fortnightly visits to communities. In both classes for the children at school or adults in the community, EON staff build capacity and confidence towards community sustainability.

EON provides:

  • Horticultural training for schools gardeners and interested community members
  • Nutrition classes for children and adults
  • Food preparation and cooking classes for children and adults
  • Teaching materials for teachers
  • Information materials on all topics to community members
  • Comprehensive manuals for EON Edible Gardens
  • Formal Cert II Horticultural training in joint venture with Kimberley TAFE
  • Home cleaning and hygiene skills

EON believes teaching and mentoring children and adults with the skills and confidence required for a healthy lifestyle, community ownership, sustainability and life-long wellness is maximised.

EON Healthy Homes

This program links the other health and disease prevention components of EON Thriving Communities to good hygiene in the home and basic repair and maintenance skills. Lack of appropriate and quality housing is a critical inhibitor to a healthy life for indigenous people in remote communities.

The project:

  • Raises awareness and demonstrates the importance of home hygiene to health and well-being
  • Links other components of EON Thriving Communities’ health and wellness message to the home environment
  • Supports community members struggling with poor, inadequate, damaged home hardware
  • Provides cleaning resources and equipment to low income homes
  • Teaches simple, cost-effective repair, maintenance and cleaning practices to improve home health

The EON Healthy Homes project has been successfully piloted in Beagle Bay in 2011 and will be implemented over other EON Thriving Communities in 2012.

Past Projects undertaken by EON

Djarindjin/Lombadina Catholic School

The Djarindjin Lombadina Catholic School on the Dampier Peninsular, Kimberley, has about 90 Aboriginal children from Kindergarten to Year 10. Since 2005, EON has provided support to the school, including:

  • Remedial Reading Resources to improve the poor literacy rates among Aboriginal children caused by absences and other social problems
  • Provision of basketball equipment to give children the opportunity to play their favourite game and increase their exercise regime
  • Funding for breakfasts for children to ensure that they are motivated to come to school in the morning and have a nutritious breakfast that will help them concentrate and learn during the school day
  • Printing of the annual School Year Book containing photographs and contributions from each child to engender a sense of achievement and pride in their school experience
  • Organised for West Coast Eagles Star David Wirrpunda to visit the community school for a BBQ and talk on the need for a healthy lifestyle and to offer a good role model for Aboriginal children.
  • Construction of the basketball court
  • Travel for six boys and their teacher to visit Perth in 2006 to play a social game of football with a Perth-based junior team to further their horizons and mix with non-Indigenous children. In 2007, eight girls from the school visited Perth for a similar experience.
  • Provision of the Centenary Art Prize
  • Discount school uniforms

Jimmy Little Foundation

In 2010 EON partnered with Jimmy Little Foundation to bring the Thumbs Up Program to Beagle Bay, Djarindjin Lombadina and One Arm Point. Jimmy Little is an Aboriginal music legend who, following a successful kidney transplant, is keen to spread the “healthy tucker” message to indigenous Australians. The program aims to provide basic nutrition and healthy food messages in a fun way to Indigenous school children aged 5-16yrs, through the creation of collaborative song about good food and healthy lifestyle, culminating in the production of a CD and DVD. The program will help provide much needed awareness of health issues common in communities and the ways to avoid contracting such problems as kidney disease and diabetes, by choosing healthy tucker with less sugar & fat, drinking lots of water and of course exercise.

Walkabout Boys

During the 2009 Perth Premier of the Cannes Film Festival award-winning movie Samson and Delilah, EON sponsored Yiylli-based indigenous contemporary rock group The Walkabout Boys to fly from their community about 100kms west of Halls Creek to perform in Perth. The ten-member band also performed at Kimberley Indigenous Performing Arts Showcase (KIPAS), Too Solid Awards and the Indigenous Showcase held at the Charles Hotel in Perth. Bel Skinner, Music Lecturer from Kimberley TAFE, reports that the boys also played two performances in Halls Creek for their home –coming, which she says was a really positive rap for their exciting trip away. EON continue to watch their progress with great interest and are excited to see the release of their first album, “You’re the One”, in 2010. The CD captures their powerful and poignant music and lyrics and is available through Skinny Fish music. EON continues to support the band and is bringing its nine members to Perth in December 2011 to perform as part of the World Sailing Championships festival in Fremantle.

Mooditj Noongar Yorgas (Strong Noongar Girls) wearable art fashion program

Mooditj Noongar Yorgas means ‘Strong Noongar Girls.’ The group started in 2005, and was comprised of 22 young women aged 11 to 17, sharing a common goal to ‘escape the everyday,’ and set big visions for the future. Many encountered problems with health, literacy and self-esteem. They wanted to live ‘Mooditj,’ and devised ways to ‘be strong’ by caring for each other, getting educated and learning about their culture. The girls shared a common interest in fashion and beauty, and this formed the basis of the ‘Wearable Art Fashion Program.’

The project was generated by the young women, with Lynley Pickett and Jaime Phillips mentoring them, and managing the process. Uncle Angus Wallam provided cultural guidance for the project, emphasizing respect for self, community and culture. 

The girls, with the help of elders, designed garments relevant to their culture. The project culminated with a fashion show in the Katanning Town Hall where, in front of hundreds of people, the girls modeled their outfits.

An indication of the success of the program is that participants were invited to speak at Colgate University in New York in March 2007. Two of the girls also spoke at the ‘Are We There Yet?’ National Youth Affairs Conference in 2007. Funding from EON enabled the girls to attend these events.

The program resulted in increased confidence, increased awareness of culture and identity, understanding of wider audiences for Noongar art and culture, little or no involvement in risk-taking behaviour, increased school attendance, enhanced public speaking skills and increased networking and communication skills.

Travel Experience and evidence shows that travel outside remote communities is a valuable tool and provides a view of life and opportunities in a wider world. However, because of the remoteness and expense of travel to major regional centres or cities, this opportunity is rare. EON uses cash and frequent flyer to points to provide travel to Aboriginal people from remote communities for educational and cultural purposes.

To date, EON has provided travel for:

  • 10 kids to attend an indigenous tourism conference in Perth in 2006
  • Group of 8-10 year old boys from the Kimberley to travel to Perth (many for the first time) to indulge their love of Australian Rules football, play with Perth-based non-Indigenous children, visit educational and cultural ventures in Perth (including the Perth Zoo) and see how life is in a big city.
  • A group of 11-12 year old girls from the Kimberley to Perth to play basketball, investigate edible gardens in Perth schools, and visit cultural sites
  • A Perth-based teenage girl to attend a study tour of the US.
  • Travel for the members of the Kimberley’s Walkabout Boys band to perform in concerts and award nights in Perth.
  • A group of two girls and their leader to New York for cultural exchange with Colgate University A group of three girls to Melbourne to speak at an indigenous conference.

Yarri Wada Puppet Project

EON was the major sponsor of the 2007 Yarri Wada puppet project, which worked with communities along the Gibb River Road in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. At least 160 people in 3 communities were involved in building puppets and using them to tell stories of their culture and deliver health and education messages.

The project provided training workshops on puppet building and storytelling for the communities along the Gibb River Road. These included Mowanjum, Kupungarri (Mt Barnett) and Ngallagunda (Gibb River Station). This first phase centered on the creation of two giant Gwion Gwion figures - ancient ancestor figures that are central to the cultural and spiritual history of the Kimberley. Elders in each of the communities have agreed that these figures should begin the story telling process.

In April 2008 the Yarri Wada Puppet Troupe travelled to Perth to perform at the international Million Puppets Project.