Whats in the works?

Hey hey everybody.. just lettin y'all know about some of the exciting things in the works... at the moment I'm finalising the dates for sports personalities visits... the visits will include wicked people like Beua De la Cruz, Shane Fredericksen, Adam Goodes and this Saturday we have Josh Ross comin to the Koori K session! Sooner or later we'll be having another celebrity guest... Leon Burchill from Taronga Zoo and the Botanical Gardens. The session he visits should be wicked fun as he's the bush foods expert from the gardens, and an indigenous man from north queensland, hes an awesome role model and extremely friendly and knowledgeable. We are currently working out how to integrate his usual talks and activities into one of the Saturday cooking classes. Any ideas about what people would like to hear about or check out would be greatly apprecviated, this will be an unbelievable experience for any one who attends.. I only hope I'm not in Ecuador by that time! Though that'll be fun too...

Someof the interns mentioned on Saturday mentioneda little culture shock form the experience... totally natural response! Most Australians would feel culture shock in the Koori Kitchen as in some ways the students are a little diferent to what we would have been like at the stage, though in many ways many of them are also similar... but in addition to some of the slight cultural differences, the kitchen space for many of us is a totally new ellement .... I know i feel a slight twinge of culture shock when people say strange things like "behind" everytime they walk behind you! For me this somewhat starnge and sureal aspect of the program is what makes it so fun... taes you out of study mode and into some kind of "reality" that is totally different to your own.... pretty cool if I do say so my self. I think uts also really special experiencing it with the other facilitiators, the debrief at the end of session is always really facinating... Last weeks was particularly facinating with with the interns comparing the cultural and socioeconomic issues of the local community with communities i their home countries. This feeling of an unbelievably small world was heightened when two south African dudes rocked up looking for a plate (after the session) and we started sharing the leftovers with them, and Mark started talking to them in Zulu (or something.. actually i suspect it wasnt Zulu.. but it may as well have been coz i had no idea what they were talking about). But South Africa stories are perhaps for a nother blog another time... though i'd be fscinated to hear more about Mars experiences over there.

Bacvk to the purpose of my post, so I'm also workin on getting Paul Sinclaire from the Zoo to come for a session... problem is he seems to be involved in absolutely everything, and though he really wants to be involved theres only so many hours in the day... for instance he would have liked to attend last saturday... but was dpoing an indigenous dance performance.... so fingers crossed sooner or later we'll catch him at a free moment.

Keep your eyes peeled for articles about Koori K.. as there will be some coming out in various magazines and newspapers....

Cheers guys... have fun...

Brazilian in the Koori Kitchen

Yesterday, I took part in the Koori Kitchen project. My learnings started much before getting there.

In the preparation process I learnt:
- Aboriginal communities still have a strong sense of group; so we should never highlight too much individual accomplishments;
- They are generally very quiet, and just let you interact with them once they trust you;
- They face very important social problems: poverty, drugs addiction, bad nutrition, discrimination, among others. As a result, their life expectation is significantly lower than other Australians;
- In my perception, Australians don' recognise them as legitimate Australians, seeing aboriginal communities as another minority group present in the country.

This Saturday, as part of my role, I was around while the kids were cooking, giving some instructions but mainly taking pictures. It was quite a nice experience to interact with them and realise that people are at the same time very equal and very unique. Very equal in a sense that they just need a inspiration, trust and a little bit of skills to do extraordinary things; and unique in the sense that their actions, dreams and contribution will always be different, once genetics, temperament and previous experiences shape each one of us differently.



Comparing to Brazil, the Australian aboriginal communities can be translated into:
- Our indigenous communities, also extensively disrespected by the colonisers, with less legal rights until recently and facing important social problems nowadays;
- Our poor communities, quite marginalised, with fewer opportunities and not as many role-models. The difference, in this case, is that in Brazil we cannot use an ethnicity as synonymous of poverty, even if black people are statistically poorer and face heaps more discrimination.

Thanks for the opportunity, guys! See you in another Koori Kitchen Saturday!

Gabi, Brazilian, doing an AIESEC internship in Australia.

Success!

Koori Kitchen session was awesome yesterday... for the first time since we started I felt that the possibility of the programs success really showed through. Despite the maxi taxi not turning up to pick up the supervisors and students from the school, thanx to Jem's quick thinking and decisive action, we managed to get the students to the hotel almost on time. By the time the students arrived the kitchen was set up, the chef was there, supervisors had been briefed and Joe Williams for the South Sydney Rabittohs, was ready and rearin to go. Despite his recent shoulder reconstruction Joe integrated himself into the class whole heartedly, demonstrating to the students how to prepare many of the ingredients, while the chef was in the kitchen helping out the students with the hot food prep. Students were guided in their making of pancakes with lots and lots and lots of strawberiies... all very nicely chopped ( excluding the ones which were "ugly") by the the budding chefs. Also we added ice cream, woried by the lmited quantity of ice cream, and the keeness of the students to eat lots andlots of ice cream... we sent poor Mark and Shams off to fetch some more.... all the way down at Broadway. By the time they got back, of course, the pancakes had been well and truly eaten and we were on to the next recipe. An awesomely colourful salad, with oranges, snow peas, avocado and some other apparently starnge items... surprisingly tasty though.... Only problem with making the salad was the general student belief that avocados are "chatty" and also possiby scary.... nonethe less we didmanage to cajole one student to take on the task of mastering the technique of preparing avocado! Next on the menu were baked potatoes... funnily enough cooked in the microwave (due to time constraints)... to the potatos the students added all sports of ingredients including cheese, sour cream, tomatoe, baked beans and salad.... while the health theme seemed to have gone assundry somewhat... the students were there, and they seemed to enjoy themselves very much. We got a rave review from both Fiona, the chef (who offered to fill in for any of the other chefs if they were unable to make it), and from Joe, who offered to be interviewd in one of the Koori Fm visits. All in all I was overjoyed by the partial fruiton of my dream for the project and I only hope that the students will be back next week and the week after.. to learn the skills to be able to pull off the gala dinner! All the supervisors deserve a cheer as well... you rock guys... hopefully we'll see you another time in the Koori Kitchen.

38*C Last weekend of school hols....

Thanx to all the supervisors who turned up today for the Koori Kitchen session, as I'm sure you're all aware the program is going through a few small teething problems... top of the list is of course is student attendence... So I just want to let you know how we intende to boost attendence levels, firstly I am trying to set up a celebrity appearance for next saturday, we are changing the menu to include strawberry pancakes, in addition to the asparagus dish and possibly some other interesting recipes which we are yet to decide on... I will be sending publicity info to the school and mentioning the guest appearance, the menu changes, and opening up the program to new students. Nic and I are going to try to be as flexible with the menu and applicants as possible to ensure as many students can participate as possible, we are also working on plans for the final dinner. I hope next weeks class will have good attendence, if not I will be loking at further changes and talking to a few more people aboiut how to encourage student participation. The bottom line though is that today was an incredably hot day, on the last weekend in their school holidays so don't be discouraged!!! I know that I'm not and I think you should all be extremely proud of the way you handled yourselves today... I believe that peoples true characters come to light when things don't turn out quite right... and you all shojne today... Congrats...
Tina

Name that song, win a pound...

The first session of Koori Kitchen kicked off last Saturday and despite all the planning, meetings and general busyness that has surrounded the project up until that date, things were never going to go as smoothly as we would have liked.

As it was the first weekend of holidays, and the sun was out shining, it was not a huge surprise when only three kids showed up for the first session. Not hugely put off by the fact that we outnumbered them three-to-one, we pushed on with the session. At first, I think it is safe to say, everyone was a little confused and uptight about how to react; kids and supervisors alike. John, our fabulous chef for week one and the executive chef from Trippas White, was fantastic in motivating and leading these kids and as the day progressed everyone eventually relaxed a little.

All in all, it almost seemed like the kids were having a bit of fun by the end of the day, especially after we sat down to eat.

That is all... Rock on.

Looking for Funding?

Check out the Foundation of Young Australian's my space site at

www.myspace.com/fyansw

they profile young Australians at this site and have links to all their funding opportunities. Wonderful organisation who have help the Koori Kitchen out not only with funding but also emotional support(hehe) when stress levels got a little high! They can help out the grantees with media and publicity and who knows what else... so check out their site... it'll be fun.. I promise!
Tina

First ooking Session Succesfull

As I'm sure many of you know we had ur fist koori kitchen cooking session today. I want to personally thank all the supervisors, who I know felty a little overwhelmed by the whole event. Guys you did great, it takes time and effort to build trusting relationships, but just giving the kids time to get used to you being around will do a lot of good. As you probably noticed the girls opened up and participated much more after they had settled in. So dont be put off if they are a little shy, or not comfortable participating at first, just carry on as best you can and demonstrate the great role models that you are. We took some great photo's and I hope you found it a positive experience.... don't worry it is always difficult being thrown into such a new situation but you all handled it well and just put it dowm to one of those things that improves with experience.
Cheers,
Looking forward to next session, I hope you are too.
Tina

Clued Up With Tina: koor Kitchen Director

Reachout is an awesome organisation that is aimed at suporting young people through ough times...suicide prevention is one of their top priorities. As some of you may know this is a topic close to my heart as when I was in high school I suffered from depression and had a break down in year 12. I know that I couldnt have got through it without the help of some wonderful people, I also know that at the time I was also busy helping other people in the same situation. So checkout this site it has some great stuff and resources... Below is an interview I did with my best mate Dani, who is now a ReachOut youth ambassador and some of her work is shown in the logos and posters on the wensite and at trainstations etc around the place.

Christina Dryden
image: Christina Dryden CUP article picture
Koori Kitchen founder Christina Dryden catches up with NSW Youth Ambassador Dani Stapleton.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Well, I'm 20 and I'm in my 3rd year at Sydney Uni studying arts/law- majoring in psychology and sociology. I like animals and have a rabbit called Puffy.

At the end of the year I'm going to Ecuador for two months to work in the animal rescue shelter and I'm also a mentor for the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Program at uni.
What is your project 'Koori Kitchen' about and why did you decide to do it?

The project's about giving young Indigenous kids between 14 and 18 an experience in a positive learning environment. It's based on role modelling and skill development. It's centred on nutrition and exposing the young people to different types of food and help in developing better eating habits.

It's not about the perfect diet but about increasing their range of experiences - like education and employment. It also gives them opportunities they might not have otherwise.

I've always wanted to do something in this area and I had been waiting until I finished my studies before I did anything. But I realised that it was time for me to stop waiting and that I didn't need to be fully qualified or be a mastermind to help people.
What do you think are some of the issues facing the young people you're helping?

Some of the issues that these kids face are issues about cultural identity and the social and cultural damage done by historical and continuing policies and also the unavailability of culturally appropriate services.

There are also issues of broken families, drug and alcohol abuse, unemployment - which can lead to other issues like domestic violence and sexual abuse.

This is not to say all these young people are experiencing all or any or these things, but it is quite prevalent and creates trauma for a child or young person in that environment.
Your project sounds like it gives these young people someone to lean on. Do you think it's important for young people to have that kind of support - whether that is from peers or family?

I think I've come to see the ability young people have in helping other young people. I've seen the benefits of being able to see when someone watches somebody else doing something with their lives and also to be there and sit with them to help them through tough times.

As a mentor it is really important for young people to see that there are options and to discuss this with someone and see that someone cares for them.
Is it scary or anxiety provoking trying to organise such a big project? How do you deal with that?

I ring you! *laughs* (ie - she calls Dani, the interviewer)

When you have people relying on you and knowing what you're doing it makes you realise that you truly have people you can't let down. It is scary because you understand that this is the life you want to live and you're finally doing it - it makes it more real. It's not about learning for the future - it's about now.

I deal with it by having a bit of a freak out or a cry. I get a bit fed up and stressed but when I realise and accept that I can't fix everything I try to move on. I think it's good to have a bitch about it to someone who's not involved and won't be disappointed in you if you fall apart. Bubble baths are also good!
What are some of the hurdles you face and how do you deal with them?

In year 12 I freaked out and pretty much broke down and fell apart. I was really stressed out and I had problems dealing with anxiety. I still face this every day. I just have to know when to ask for help and be aware of my own emotions.

I know sometimes I (especially Mondays!) find it really hard to get going despite how passionate I'm feeling.
Do you sometimes feel unmotivated? What or who inspires you to stay on track?

Yes, I get unmotivated! When things are really tough or have fallen apart sometimes I just want to quit because it seems too hard. What keeps me going is a vote of confidence from other people that think I can do it.

But the main thing that helps is the drive to positively impact people's lives - I've seen this happen in the mentoring program. You can really make a big different in somebody's life by giving up very little.
Do you think its hard being young and having to deal with the responsibility of such a big project?

Yeah - actually I'm not sure. I don't think it should be because there are a lot of people who want to help. Sometimes I feel the main problem I face is the huge gap between my expectations of other people and what they can actually do.

But I suppose this is never going to get any easier! I think it's a tough task - but it anyone can do it, a young person can!
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Cheers Guys
Have fun
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