hope for health

These beautiful Yolgnu ladies are seeking our support. 

Nourishing traditional bush foods have been replaced with shop food - white bread, margarine, tea, sugar and soft drinks - the result in Galwinku community and many other remote communities around Australia is that 1 in 2 adults have kidney disease and 1 in 3 adults have diabetes.

An encounter with good nutrition has inspired the Yolgnu ladies to make changes. They now have a solution and they need financial and/or social media networking support to make it happen.  

The ladies dream is to travel to Living Valley Springs Health Retreat for a 10 day program so they can learn how to get their health on track by improving their diet and then they want to share that knowledge with their community. 

This initiative is brilliant. It is empowering these women to take back their health care. Community led healing is what it's all about.

Regular readers here know that earlier this year my family and I spent time in Hope Vale a remote community four hours north of Cairns. This experience opened my eyes and my heart to both the harsh realities and the tremendous strength and resilience of the Guugu Yimithir people who opened their homes to us.

The food story is the same in Hope Vale as it is in so many communities. I left there feeling at a loss for how change could even begin. We have been home two months and I think about it most days. I met women in Hope Vale who want to do something about improving the nutritional value of the food people are eating. I started thinking about ways this could happen.

And then today I read about the Yolgnu ladies initiative on Chef Pete Evans facebook page. Perhaps this could be something other communities would like to do.

The ladies have 19 days to raise their funds before their crowd-funding appeal ends. 

If you can support them in any way financially $5, $10, $15 or hundreds or thousands it all adds up.

And if you can't offer money, then please share through your networks which only takes a few clicks and is equally valuable.

You can read more about this story on nutritional health guru Nora Gedgaudas' blog.

To learn more about the campaign and to donate go here.

These are mothers and grandmothers taking action to do something positive for themselves and their community. 

Go ladies go!

stills collection: road trip

1. Driving up Elim beach at low tide to see the coloured sands

2. So many mangroves. Elim beach

3. Fisherman in the making

4. Sand dune fun

5.  River gave his AFL footy card collection to his friends in Hope Vale

6. Sunset Hope Vale

hello from the road

Regular readers here know that my family and I are on a road trip that has taken us to Far North Queensland, to Cape York where we've had some magical moments with our friends in Hope Vale.

I took this series of photos on a day when we went out mud crabbing.

The big orange crab pots you can see in the photos were tied into the mangroves with bait inside, when the tide came in so did dinner.

As you can see from the first photo, the sky is bigger out there. No houses, no skyscrapers just endless blue, and on this day bright white clouds.

We have all grown in ways that only travel can stretch you to do.

My travels began at age 19 when I put myself on a plane to Europe to go and start exploring the world.

I've traveled ever since. This journey has been special to take as a family for many reasons.

Many reasons that will filter through my posts over the coming weeks.

I've been collecting recipes as we've travelled along, I'm looking forward to sharing those with you and to catching up with what's been happening here online.

The break has been great but I've missed being here so I'll be back soon!

Thanks for your patience while I've been away. I hope you are enjoying seeing the stories from our travels. Recipes soon I promise! x

eight

River turned eight while we were in Hope Vale.

Originally we planned to be in Mareeba, until Aunty Estelle's granddaughter, Hazel, heard River's birthday was coming up and asked, "Are we having the party here?"

And so we did. It made much more sense to celebrate with River's new friends and have lots of kids around rather than spend it just the four of us in a town we didn't know.

I made pizzas and two cakes: one chocolate, one banana.

Aunty Estelle's grand daughter Fenice made a big pot of spaghetti bolognaise. Aunty Estelle set the table with bbq shapes and bowls of jaffas and later served the cake with big scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Plus lemon cordial.

Not usual birthday fare you are used to seeing here but the love behind what our hosts provided was heartfelt and outweighed worrying about any processed food overload.

The kids played in the street while the pizza and pasta were cooking. Once it was ready Aunty Estelle dished out the pasta, some kids coming back for seconds.

No one sat still for very long, quickly gobbling up their food before running back to the street to play.

As the sun went down and the sky grew dark it was time for cake, I was glad I made two so there was enough to go round.

Once the cake was eaten most kids ran out into the night making their way home. Two of Aunty's grandchildren stayed for a sleepover much to River and Sol's delight, the games and laughing continued under the light of the back porch.

So now I have an eight year old. A funny, charismatic, entertaining, fiesty, musical, creative, loving, thoughtful eight year old son who I treasure and find joy in watching him grow and in nurturing him in every sense of the word.

We are back in Hope Vale this week (with no internet access) I will post more next week.

Happy wholefood days to you all.

If you have a children's birthday coming up take a look at this post for some wholefood menu ideas and a carrot cake recipe.

The photos in this post were taken by my husband Peter McConchie.

stills collection

 

1. Being in crocodile country has taken some getting used to. It is strange being in a warm climate where there are such beautiful waterways and knowing there is no chance you can swim in them.

2. Sol having fun at sunset.

3. "Please mum can we keep him?" The pressure to get a dog is growing!

4. Home made carrot cake in Hope Vale. Anything to get everyone eating more veggies.

5. Hope Vale streetscape.

6. Aunt Estelle preparing to cook the mudcrabs at a local beach camp.

7. Hot potato, hot potato.

8. Sol and one of his new little buddies, Markeesha. She has won our hearts!