Aboriginal Health Clinics

President Colin Brown welcomed guests including the speaker, Glenn Hoffmann from the Bundaberg Sunrise Club, and his wife, Carolyn. Glenn has medical experience throughout Australia and described his experiences working as a consultant with Aboriginal communities in the ’Top End’ (Northern Territory) of Australia. He worked in areas including the Tiwi, Bathurst and Melville Islands, in Gunbalanya, and in the Kakadu and Uluru National Parks. He showed images of wonderful Aboriginal art, ceremonial dancers, spectacular landscapes, and also of less salubrious wrecked cars and crocodiles. As CEO of the Mutitjulu Community Glenn described some of the projects set up: Community Arts Centres, Health Clinics, Community Stores, cafe, garage, laundry. Uluru, the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock, is one of the most important indigenous sites in Australia and has been a popular visitor destination for around one hundred years. Paying to climb the mountain created good financial income for the local community  but has now been stopped out of respect as well as for environmental reasons, so new income-generating projects have been devised -a failed attempt to carry visitors in a hot-air balloon, accommodation units downtown for tourists, the Field of Light Festival which decorates the desert at night with fifty thousand lights. This talk was well received and prompted questions from the members to which Carolyn, a nurse, replied on the subject of Bush Medicine and Bush Tucker. Eric Brown gave the vote of thanks.

As a Rotarian, he is very keen to bringing a group of Aussies to our International Rotary Golf tournament next June.