By Laura Egan | CEO
2016 Yarralin Calendars from emerging enterprise Yarralin Creative have been a hit!
Everyone has been thrilled to get their hands on one of the gorgeous calendars produced by the young people of Yarralin. Retailers in Melbourne, Alice Springs, Darwin and Katherine have all come on board, and we've heard stories of people posting them off to family and friends all over the world. Sharratine, Ngarinyman Traditional Owner and community leader explains: "The calendar is called 'Walengeri Garu Walija – All the kids together'. Garu is the word for ‘kids’ in Ngarinyman and walija means together. Walengeri, that’s the other name of this place. So, Walengeri Garu Walija means ‘All the kids together’. When people see their photo, they get so happy. It will be good to have a calendar so kids can look at themselves in the future. These kids live in this community, some come from different places, but they’re all in it together. We encourage them to get along, to stop teasing, to help each other out. We want this community to be a place where kids can grow up happy and strong in who they are. We like doing things together. We worked together with the ELP mob to create this. They’ve helped us along the way. It’s good for this community to have things like this, things we can be proud of, things that remind us of who we are."
Calendars are still for sale on our online store: http://www.elp.org.au/shop
Emerging entrepreneur Margaret is named as a 2015 AMP Tomorrow Maker at a ceremony in Sydney!
Margaret is from the small community of Urapunga, 614 kilometres south-east of Darwin. She now lives in Katherine, and with the support of Enterprise Learning Projects, has launched herself into business to share her culture with the world. Her surroundings are the major inspiration for her artworks, which include painting, wooden sculpture, and weaving. "There's a lot of hills and billabongs. A lot of bush animals like the kangaroo, water birds, a lot of fish, a lot of pigs and buffalo and everything," Margaret said. "[Friends and family] they're really proud of what I'm doing, and they want to join in. Later on I might go back to the community and teach my young grandchildren and nieces and nephews."
But as much as Margaret loves tradition, she is also experimenting with new ways of using her designs, including a possible swimwear range. "We're talking about putting some of my designs, my paintings, on swimwear. So I went to Sydney and I've seen where they make these costumes for the swimwear," she said. "I was so happy when I saw it - something different that I want to do."
As we get ready to break for the holidays, we'd like to thank everyone who has supported ELP and our enterprises over the last year. We are truly priviliged to be playing a role in enabling people all over the world to connect with remote Aboriginal people and their cultures.
We look forward to sharing more stories with you in 2016,
Laura and the team at ELP
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