The Women's Wiki

About WATSA

WATSA’s (Women's College Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Alliance) aim is to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women at The Women’s College and The University of Sydney. A group of interested and committed Women's College students meets regularly at College to plan outreach trips and camps to promote their aims.

WATSA Outback Trip 2010

Ask anyone around these parts, you do not drive the Bree to Bourke road at night. Hurtling toward the primary blue line of the horizon, racing against the fall of dusk and the snapping out of light in the vast reaches of outback sky. The bus buzzed with the weight of expectation. Our voices rose and fell to the sounds of JASOON DERULLOO that clashed so arrogantly with the slow pace of the untarnished world outside. No one was game enough to open their windows for fear of spirits whooshing in (not the kind of whooshing Paul’s boys are used to). Along with our voices the fresh stars twinkled like deceptive minmin lights but the road ahead remained flat. Flattened by sweeping dessert winds that carried the promise of change. We were driving that infamous road and the bus quavered as Bree dissolved in the rear-vision mirror and Bourke was yet to be seen on the horizon.

This is the story of 10 white women’s girls and one wise ex-Wizzie, Kristy K, to lead the way. These girls all belong to WATSA, a group that aims to empower and educate indigenous schoolgirls on dreaming big, tertiary education and career prospects. Though it sounds similar, it was something quite different to our weekly “work life balance” and “community service” formal dinner talks. As a consequence of heading west to present these talks, we hoped to immerse ourselves in contemporary Aboriginal culture and get a true glimpse of the obstacles faced by young women in these communities. We wanted a true understanding of Australia’s rural educational and health care services and an understanding of why some girls don’t dare to dream.

At a local level, WATSA provides tutoring to indigenous school students in Sydney, runs a completely free leadership camp at The Women’s College for rural indigenous students and hosts fortnightly meetings for it’s members. At a regional and remote level, WATSA members visit indigenous communities on outreach trips and hope to set up an internship program in these communities next year. This was the 3rd of WATSA’s outreach trips, which are completely self-funded. It was the generous contributions made at a pearl party, breakfast and by donation that enabled this trip to take place.

The 12 day trip to some of the communities between Dubbo and Bourke involved running school workshops, meeting with local service providers, participating in community activities and “spinning a yarn” with the regional elders. All of this aimed to provide us with a holistic understanding of the community’s inner workings and how we could use this to offer more to its members.

The first school workshop in Narromine saw us reeling off a lot of information in a short amount of time. It soon became apparent that with more time and future visits we would be able to build a lasting relationship with the school and its staff.

After our Narromine debrief we were able to re-evaluate the elements of our presentation to have a heavier focus on scholarships and use personal stories to further engage the girls. The Dubbo Senior Campus girls were entertained by more games and more college stories with the exception of India pembrokes fridge throwing and shero’s incident with constable Mackenzie at the johnnies informal. In-turn, the girls filled us in on their own town stories, which were almost as exciting as trying to figure out who keeps having loud sex in main. Visiting Taronga Western Plains Zoo was also a highlight as we saw a baby black rhinoceros skidding in the dirt and it saw us doing much the same on our single gear hire bikes.

The next day we moved on to Walgett, a quaint town centered around the “Sporto” at which you can participate in many sports including tennis, lawn bowls, pool, cards, gambling, eating and drinking. We tried our hand at most of these activities and could almost be considered elite athletes in this town. Our trip coincided with the town’s celebration of NAIDOC week and we were able to attend the opening ceremony and touch football competition. Unfortunately, our previously mentioned athleticism was not enough to get us picked on anyone’s team, but we enjoyed the BBQ non-the-less. At Walgett Community school we talked to about 10 girls and despite the distraction of a 2year old in the class we felt our presentation went smoothly and our themes were articulated clearly.

The next day we hit up Goodooga, a town of only 250 people. Yes, that is less then our whole college! The town doesn’t even have it’s own petrol station or grocery store. Despite only having 50 kids in school from K to 12, the girls here were motivated, athletic and smart. Our presentation turned into an informal chat as the 5 girls we talked to were keen to show us their interactive whiteboards and video conference facilities as well as hear about our stories from the city. The girls were very receptive and all were keen to go to Uni, which was an awesome change to see. We also had short stops at Lightning Ridge and Brewarrina on this day but headed into Bourke at sunset, our final stop.

We were lucky to secure two sessions over two days at Bourke High School and this was shown to be very successful. The extra time allowed us to play more games and have more smaller informal group talks to really get to know each of the girls and their interests. We were able to split our talk into university on the first day and Women’s college on the second and made sure to emphasise the scholarships and alternate pathways of getting into these places. It was fair enough to say how amazing and fun university and college life is but we had to show that it is also possible to get there and be part of it without financial support form parents. On the last day we attended the school prize giving and found it hard to tear ourselves away from our new mates by the end of the day.

In Bourke, we explored the local shops, went on a paddleboat cruise down the Darling River and went fishing. It was fantastic to see birds darting over the river as the sun set through the Coolabahs trees. It was not so fantastic to see Kristy squishing a live and wriggling earthworm onto a hook, nor was the smell of dead prawns. We had made hand lines out of old waterbottles and couldn’t for the life of us get them to work well enough to catch anything except and old piece of rope (well done Maddie!). Despite our awkward and girly ways, we managed to enjoy the serenity of the afternoon and still don’t think we’ll be able to stomach June’s Curly Fish next semester.

By day nine we had discovered that this adventure was more than just a history lesson or feeling good about ourselves for doing some charitable service, but a trip of self discovery and understanding. It was a trip of finding the common threat that is woven through all our lives and the reason we feel so deeply for helping others. The Uni bubble that we were so used to living in had well and truly popped and we had learn’t more in the last week then in a whole year of an Arts Degree.

We would like to thank all the sponsors, donors and supporters of WATSA for allowing this trip to take place. We feel we were able to really engage with the girls well by visiting them in their own schools and are confident that we have planted the idea of tertiary education and dreaming big into many of their minds. We hope that we will be able to host similar trips in the future as well as a leadership camp for these girls to come to the city, provided we can secure further funding. If you want to join WATSA or just come and listen in on our discussions, ask one of us in the Dining Hall or listen to your phone messages for the next meeting.

Karen Muller