The Australian Yoga Aid Challenge on Sunday 14th November has the dual focus of bringing the yoga community together and raising funds for charity.     Thousands of Yogis are expected to attend free, special two hour yoga practices across Australia to raise money for their selected charity.

Whilst attendance is free, participants fundraise for charity in the lead up to the event.  Therefore, by registering for an event in your local area, you are helping to create strong communities based on giving.  Practicing with some of the world’s most influential yogis is an added bonus!

By choosing Dot Com Mob as the selected charity, participants and Yoga Aid will help change the lives of Indigenous children living in remote communities.   The Dot Com Mob is a not-for-profit organisation working on closing the literacy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people by upgrading or establishing community-owned technology centres.    These centres can then provide online training and IT support in the most remote communities, which in turn promotes dramatic improvements in educational engagement and literacy levels.

Money raised for Dot Com Mob, through this year’s Yoga Aid event, will directly support Papunya, an Indigenous community of 300 people located in Central Australia.  

The Papunya centre currently provides local people of all ages with access to ten donated computers, a printer/scanner and a laminator.   These resources are supplemented by limited free access to the Internet.     The funds raised will pay for a dedicated on-site employee – to keep the centre open for 30hrs a week, and offers direction and assistance to those unfamiliar with IT applications and equipment.   

It is also an aim that the technology centre established within this community will provide access to virtual yoga classes for the children, thus teaching them the many benefits of yoga in promoting economic empowerment, wellness and community development.

To support Dot Com Mob through Yoga Aid, ‘challengers’ just have to register on the Yoga Aid website prior to the 14th November event here http://www.yogaaid.com/australia/registernow and then select Dot Com Mob as your preferred charity.   Or if you are unable to be a challenger  but would like to sponsor me please click on http://www.yogaaid.com/gayewhite  to visit my fundraising page and donations will be made to the Dot Com Mob.

My work with self organised learning by children shows that groups of children can learn to use computers and the Internet to answer almost any question. This happens everywhere and is independent of what language they speak, where they live and how rich or poor they are. All they need is free access and the liberty to work in unsupervised groups. The most effective group size seems to be 4-5 children.

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The Chairman of Dot Com Mob, Robert Magid, talks about how the success of the Indigenous Knlowledge and Technology Centre in Hope Vale, Cape York, Queensland.

Indigenous Newslines is a free magazine on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues which is published quarterly in hard copy and online. It provides information on Australian Government services and programs and includes inspiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories from across the nation.  

The following article covers the success of the Hope Vale indigenous Knowledge and Technology Centre.

Our own place

An Indigenous Knowledge and Technology Centre is a window to the world for the community of Hope Vale in far north Queensland.

At the Hope Vale centre locals can access library books, magazines and DVDs, and music, games and the Internet thanks to 12 computers. There is an after-high school homework club, reading programs for young children and school holiday programs. Around 50 to 60 community members visit every day and after-school activities engage about 30–50 children at a time.

What sets the centre apart from regular public libraries is the relaxed, friendly space that is ‘owned’ by the community, giving local kids the chance to learn in their own setting.

“We have information on Indigenous people, we have Aboriginal art on the walls, we’re engaging with our people to suit the needs of our people,” centre coordinator Shirley Costello says.

“At school you sit at your desk in a classroom to do your work, but here you can do the same work lying on a cushion, listening to music, and it makes all the difference. That’s what we, the Indigenous people, want.

“It’s an old saying by a lot of our elderly people that Indigenous people are fortunate because we can mix in both worlds – our culture and non-Indigenous culture.”

Kids at the centre have become experts at using the Internet, posting YouTube clips, doing karaoke and researching interests such as fishing or football. Older users meet to record their stories and autobiographies, use Google Earth to spot their place in the world, or chat with friends and family on Skype. Others are making their own digital photo albums, calendars, business cards or CVs. “Having that access is a giant leap for a remote Indigenous community,” Costello says.

“A knowledge centre and the Internet help our kids’ self esteem and our people to be more up-to-date with the wider world – you’re looking through a bigger picture.

“I say to other communities, go for it because it opens up a whole new world to your people. Our motto here is that learning never stops. It started with the message stick – we continue today with the memory stick.”

The Hope Vale centre is one of 18 knowledge centres owned, managed and staffed by local Indigenous councils.

It was established with support from the non-profit company Dot Com Mob (www.dotcommob.org), which is helping to bring the Internet to remote communities, and the State Library of Queensland www.slq.qld.gov.au/about/who/orgchart/ils/ikc

Hope Vale is a Cape York Welfare Reform community.

Visit the FaCH

Mayor Desmond Tayley and Personal Development Officer, Garry Ashworth begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting share their thoughts about the recently upgraded Indigenous Knowledge and Technology Centre at Wujal Wujal and discuss the positive benefits it has had on their community.

Watch the short interview below.

THE Hope Vale Indigenous Knowledge and Technology Centre has made a “huge impact” on the indigenous community in its first year of operation, says coordinator Shirley Costello.

By helping to “narrow the digital divide”, the centre had also boosted educational, employment and social opportunities for residents of the indigenous community, she said.

“It has made a huge impact to our community especially with the realisation that technology is the ‘now’ factor – not only globally and nationally, but now locally,” said Ms Costello.

She said the centre averaged about 50-60 people a day from a cross-section of the community, who used it not only to access to the internet and books, but also as a hub for learning, capacity building and strengthening cultural identity – from being a meeting space for elders to engaging youth who were unable to attend high school in Cooktown.