Reflections from Utju for Mental Health Month
October is Mental Health Month, a reminder that resilience is built not only through personal strength but through the relationships, environments and communities that nurture us. At Small Change Big Change, we believe that connection to self, to others, and to culture is central to mental wellbeing. This belief is reflected in the work of our community partners, who strengthen the mental health of young Australians through creativity, belonging and purpose.
One of the most powerful expressions of that belief came to life during my recent experience volunteering with Red Dust Role Models in Utju (Areyonga), Central Australia. In August, I had the privilege of joining Red Dust’s program team on their Healthy Living Program (HLP) in Utju (Areyonga), a remote First Nations community of the Pitjanjatjara People in the Central Desert, Northern Territory, approximately 3 hours west of Alice Springs. Alongside fellow volunteer, Georgia from Small Change Big Change Partners More & Tangerine Telecom and the Red Dust HLP team, I stepped into an unforgettable week of profound learning and connection.
Volunteering on Red Dust programs are exclusive opportunities for individuals and corporate partners to excel in their commitment to reconciliation and resilience, allowing participants to directly support young Australians living in remote communities.
The Healthy Living Program in Action
Our program focused on key themes of emotional regulation and confidence-building through creativity, rhythm and movement.
- Students were guided by facilitators from Junkyard Beats (Lara and Kobe).
- Everyone joined in with Larrakia, Yolngu, and Darnley hip-hop dancer Rhys De La Cruz to learn his routine to Baker Boy’s Marryuna track.
- Louis, a psychology graduate, supported classroom learning by showing children how to adopt “colour zones” to identify emotions and support self-regulation.
Together with Red Dust team leaders Jessy and Mikaela, we formed a team of eight. We were swift to form a high performing and naturally empathetic working group. We each held a strong and unique sense of self while we aligned with stamina, compassion, intention and openness towards “surrendering to the unknown” . Every afternoon we swapped between juniors and seniors, acting as big brothers and sisters by modelling respect, cheering on participation, and helping kids channel their energy into something constructive and joyful. Every evening, we debriefed as a team, shared life stories and dreams of the future before falling swiftly asleep in our school dormitories.
The school itself, led by Principal Anton and passionate teachers, serves around 30 students, classrooms surround a central sports field, this is footy country, home of the Utju Tigers and most mornings started with a ritual play after breakfast. Every morning the school song radiates through the town, it’s an upbeat reggaelike song produced with local musicians (including the students!) about the local waterhole. It started every school day with positive vibes and is permanently etched into my mind. Classes are taught bilingually in English and Pitjantjatjara, with literacy and numeracy in the mornings and creative activities in the afternoons. School here isn’t just education, it’s a community act of care, everyone gets involved.
Learnings From Bilingual Education
One of the most powerful parts of the week was witnessing how bilingual education puts First Nations languages at the centre of learning. Local teacher assistants support the children’s Pitjantjatjara classes, ensuring that culture and identity is woven through daily.
Local elder and long-time educator Tarna Andrews embodied this philosophy. Her presence during the week was grounding and peaceful and we always made sure she joined us for lunch. She’s quite the cultural celebrity and well respected across the Northern Territory, being a strong advocate for learning and language preservation. Thanks to Rhys who taught us about ‘skin names’ and a respectful way to ask for one, Georgia and I were honoured to be welcomed by Tarna into her very own skin family, “Napangardi, ” which Tarna said ‘made us sisters’ . This obviously didn’t make me suddenly Indigenous, but it did allow the children and community to relate to me energetically by teaching me how my skin name connected to theirs as younger brother, older sister, or little mother.
In my own schooling, (hint: I’m a millennial pictured above with Georgia), First Nations history and languages were barely present. As a person of colour, first generation locally born and child of immigrant parents, I often felt disconnected from the cultural fabric of this country and wondered why many didn’t recognise themselves as visitor or guest to a very established culture as sovereignty was never ceded. I can’t help but wonder what it would be like if all Australian children grew up closer to First Nations knowledge systems, languages and stories. A deeper understanding of custodianship would directly influence our values and possibly reshape our approach to human survival including our response to our current global climate and humanitarian crises.
Even though I was in Australia to begin with, I travelled across many different traditional countries and lands within it to get to Utju. There’s something about being in the central dessert that forces a profound sense of belonging to the heart of the world, a deep yearning for a shared oneness and the foundational importance of reconciliation.
A Cultural Awakening: Experiencing Ngangkari
During lunch one day, struggling with a sore throat, I was guided by Tarna to Sandra, another elder and teacher’s assistant, who performed a ngangkari healing ritual. To my surprise, one of the students, 13-year-old Johnny, completed the ritual, drawing out my sickness with practiced, gentle gestures.
This wasn’t a performance, it was lived, generational knowledge passed on organically. The treatment felt as intuitive as cleaning a wound and applying a bandage, and I honestly did feel better afterwards.
Johnny carried himself throughout the week with quiet maturity, actively participating yet somehow “beyond” in his presence. Experiencing his role as a young healer helped me understand why: he was already embodying an ancient responsibility.
There were many points throughout the week where the students proactively took to enriching us about their culture. Young boys would teach the group about local customs of transferring their memories into ancient rocks. Young girls would teach us how to pronounce and understand local language.
Red Dust’s Legacy in Utju
Red Dust has been working alongside the Utju community for almost 30 years. Red Dust’s mission is simple, work together with communities to enrich lives, improve health and strengthen the future of First Nations youth and families. They achieve this by delivering innovative health, well-being and reconciliation programs co-designed in partnership with remote communities.
Their work isn’t about directing communities but instead listening to and providing what is asked of them. The goal isn’t to platform themselves, but to bridge accessibility to services that communities might not have access to themselves.
The relationship is the result of consistency through presence. Returning to the same communities that their legacy dates back to is proof their work remains rooted in ongoing results in their mission. This is why their work is crucial to continue its operations. Tarna, who has seen many groups come and go, told us (as some of us fell into tears) that ours was the “best group” to ever visit. She spoke to our willingness to dance, our energy, and our respect for the students and community. That acknowledgment will stay with me forever.
Reflection: What We Bring Home
The week was full of highs, lows, and “unicorn” moments (as Jessy encouraged us to share in our post dinner debrief each evening). But above all, it left me with:
- Gratitude for the children who let us into their world to express their resilience, for my fellow program team for the safety to rise/fall together, and for the community who appreciated us like family.
- Awakening to the power of bilingual education, traditional healing, collaborative remote programs and the thriving culture within remote communities.
- Responsibility to share these stories so that more Australians, individuals and corporations alike, understand why organisations like Red Dust matter.
Why This Matters
As we recognise Mental Health Month, it is worth remembering that mental wellbeing is not only something we talk about, it is something we build together both in our homes, workplaces and communities.
Volunteering in Utju wasn’t just about “helping out” or “witnessing” for a week. Being in a unified team to actively build and maintain bridges of respect, learning, and fostering resilience can ripple impact far beyond the desert. Playing a direct part in shaping resilience with young people and seeing the result of decades of collaboration looks like some of the most impressive young people I have ever met and it’s with my whole heart that I wish that I see each of them again one day. Kids, if you read this, I hope you decide to visit us in Narrm one day and similarly I hope to return to Utju too.
For companies and individuals looking to meaningfully engage with First Nations communities and youth resilience programs, Red Dust offers an opportunity to walk alongside, communities, to listen, to learn, and to give.
Through Small Change Big Change, our members and their customers contribute to long-term partnerships with organisations like Red Dust, partnerships that go beyond charity and into genuine collaboration. Supporting these programs means standing alongside communities, backing their leadership, and recognising that resilience in young Australians is built in many different contexts: from classrooms to our own workplaces.
We’ve already raised $3.5 million to date but the journey is just beginning. Help us reach even more young Australians by adding your voice, your support, and your generosity. Every $1 a month supports long-term programs that change lives. Join us in showing young people that they are not alone, and that their future matters.
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Learn more about Red Dust’s Healthy Living Programs and Reconciliation training: reddust.org.au
