Arnhem Land to Cambodia: remote communities connect

By Clare Rawlinson and Sally Mason
26 February, 2013
ABC Radio

Far away from home, Indigenous students find a life-changing experience and a curious affinity with Cambodian monks while building houses.

This is the testimony of students from Milingimbi in Arnhem Land, who travel to Cambodia on a two week "schoolies alternative" after completing Year 12.

The trip is available for students from Milingimbi as well as Victorian Indigenous communities to spend the last weeks of the year building houses for the poor, visiting orphanages and giving out health packs to kids in rubbish dumps.

"In all, my trip to Cambodia was the most rewarding and challenging life alerting and amazing event of my life and I know it has changed my plans for my future and how I help the world," student Hannah Worle said after her trip three years ago.

"I've made lifelong friends opened up career paths, helped to change numerous lives for the better and learned so much about myself.

"Three weeks ago I would never have imaged it would only take two weeks to change my outlook on life."

Now in their sixth year, the trips are lead by the NT Open Education Centre's physical education and health teacher, David Armstrong, and are supported by Rotary Club donations.

Building Cambodian houses - or, as David puts it, "glorified cubby huts that fit a family of eight - makes for a demanding experience for the students.

But Mr Armstrong said the similarities between the Khmer and Indigenous cultures help to build connections.

"I found a lot of similarities with remote Khmer communities and remote Top End communities - storytelling, dance, music, the way communities are physically set out. They remind me a lot of what you'd see across the Top End," Mr Armstrong told Sally Mason on 105.7 Afternoons.

"Kids from Milingimbi pick up the Khmer language quite quickly - basic phrases - faster than the rest of us."

"Within two or three days they're building a house together and getting to know each other."

On the most recent trip, the students built 12 houses in partnership with a local charity just outside of Phnom Pehn, as well as a bike shed, vegetable garden and shelter.