Speaker's Report: Jane Orme - Environmental Education, and the necessity of connection to place for mental health

(Report by Crystal Charles)

In opening, Jane acknowledged the Jarowair and Giabal people who are recognised as the two main Aboriginal groups of the Toowoomba area. She showed “Horton’s map of Indigenous Australians” which represents all of the locations of the language groups or tribal groups, that are as diverse in culture as to be recognised as separate “countries”, as Jane described.

Jane is an educator at Amaroo Environmental Education Centre at Kleinton. Amaroo was established in 1977 as a state funded environment centre. There are currently two full-time staff and two part-time, as well as other contributors such as The Bunya Mountains Murri Rangers. The Centre provides environmental education pro-grams for young people, and last year hosted 8000 students in various programs.

Indigenous education is a large part of Jane’s role in helping youth connect with the environment. She teaches aboriginal culture such as the Jarowair language and the Bunya festival and ceremonies, showing the important relationship the people have with the land. A significant area is the Gummingurru site of stone arrangements which is now known to be a celestial map. Ben Gilbert arranged for the site to be protected and it has since been handed back to the Gummingurru people.

Jane explained that there are immense, research-proven benefits for children spending time outdoors. Quoting Richard Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods”, children are spending up to half their waking lives in front of a screen. This says a lot about the lack of connection the modern generation have with the outdoors. A signifi-cant paper she cited was Townsend, M. and Weerasuriya, R. (2010). Beyond Blue to Green: The benefits of contact with nature for mental health and well-being. Beyond Blue Limited: Melbourne, Australia.

As a complement to the hard data, Jane said she follows “data that glows”, sharing some of the significant changes she observed first hand with some troubled teenage students. Further reading:

Children and Nature:

https://www.natureplayqld.org.au

https://amarooeec.eq.edu.au/Pages/default.aspx

https://www.nscf.org.au/home/learn/youth-education/ Northey Street City Farm

https://aabat.org.au Australian Association for Bush Adventure Therapy Inc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tow2tR_ezL8&feature=youtu.be

Aboriginal Culture:

Dr Kelly, L (2016). The Memory Code, Allen & Unwin.

Gammage, B (2012). The Biggest Estate on Earth, Allen & Unwin.

Pascoe, B (2014). Dark Emu, Magabala Books