Pipalyatjara Trip

Susan Holoubek (Social Justice Coordinator), Briony Collard (St Aloysius College teacher) and seven Year 11 and 12 students participated in the inaugural Pipalyatjara trip in 2010. Every year SAC sends a group of students and staff to Pipalyatjara for a week, where they stay at the school and work closely with the community. During the day they spend time in the classroom with the students, assisting them with their school work and also engage in many activities such as music, sport and face painting. It is also an opportunity for our staff and students to learn about life in a remote indigenous community. This includes honey collecting and hunting as well as participating in a bush picnic, where they had the opportunity to try kangaroo tail and damper cooked in coals and aquatic activities in the local pool.

Madeleine Kelly (SAC old scholar) participated in the trip when she was in Year 11 and it was this experience that inspired Madeleine to become the Social Justice Coordinator at SAC 2014 to 2017. Madeleine moved to Tanzania in 2017 where she is currently working at the school of St Jude’s in Tanzania.

(SAC 2010 school magazine p. 3-94 and p. 99)

Reflection from Madeleine Kelly

‘My journey to Pipalyatjara was an experience like no other. It is a great privilege to be so warmly accepted into such a remote part of the world, and to learn about a culture which is totally ‘alien’ compared to my own. The children we met have played an important role in shaping my character, and have cast light onto areas of my life that I now want to explore further, such as future career options and how I can make a difference in my own community and beyond.

By the end of our trip, we felt connected in some way to the land and to the people. The experience was an eye-opening one; I think it is only now that I can claim to “know Australia”. I never knew how much a person could change in just one week.’ (Madeleine Kelly, Year 11 2010, SAC school magazine 2010, p.).


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