The Elders provide order & ritual for the program: Thancoupie shares the creation stories for the land
Traditional hunting & cooking is important for all children

Traditional use of coconut leaf for Bon Fire night:
The last days catch of fish to feed the bonfire night guests. Hosting the Weipa community is always a nourishing ritual for the children
Walking across country is intragal to this program

HAC Elders always participate in story telling classes and love being on country with family eating oysters
Thanakupi has been recognised with an Australia Award for her work as an artist + her 20 years of children's holiday programs
Crabs Crabs Crabs
Fresh water enters an extensive Gulf estuary.

"Young Thanaquith men teach spearmaking; role model hunting & share cultural heritage knowledge with guest kids"
"learning life skills that give direct hunting success to these boys"

"Thanakupi's nephew Steven Hall teaching spear making and showing how to use them"
"learning how to make fish traps the traditonal way"
Stuart & the Elders design a bamboo structure for Bawtjethi Bouchat 1990

"Sunset at Bawtjethi" Mangrove Island Western Cape York

 

Workshop themes carry the program

T-shirts silkscreen

Natural fibers

Kites

Pony & chariot

Hunting & tools

Creation stories

Food / cook

Maintaince team /camp setup/wood

 

"Sunset at Bawtjethi" Mangrove Island Western Cape York
"Poles & tarps provided shelter for 15 years;Steel sheds and compost toilets provide the present infrastructure "
Thanakupi's Avenue of D.O.G.I.T. Tribes: marking and honouring the 13 tribes of the Western Cape.

These 5 totem poles will mark the place at Bawtjethi: where the old people where buried before the time of invasion"
Thanakupi's nephew Ranger Richard Barkley: painting on the designs to be carved by adults and children alike.
"Thanakupi showing children how to peel back a piece of bark that she will use for traditonal cooking Bouchat Western Cape 1996
"Thanakupi showing children how to peel back a piece of bark that she will use for traditonal cooking Bouchat Western Cape 1996
"Making grass skirts with beach hibiscus, kwanbrum or banana fibre'
"fresh water swimming hole right beside the main Bawtjethi workshop building"
"Thanakupi & NSW ceramic artist Gwangi: teach basic pottery skills to the children

"Kate teaching teenagers how to make a coconut leaf oyster/crab bag"
"learning stilt walking & circus skills with Kuranda's Blakrobats"
"enjoying contempory art skills: in silk painting'
"Urub Trust: teaching teenages how to make hats prior to going out fishing Bouchat Western Cape 1988"
"the Napramum children are brought out everyday on the bus: by the Youth Workers and the Police Aides"
"these 2 sisters from Weipa North's mining community learnt to make their own coconut leaf hat"
"these 2 sisters from Weipa North's mining community learnt to make their own coconut leaf hat"
"learning about the ancestoral creators of Bawtjethi Lands: by sculpturing them with sand & shells"
"Thelma Coconut was a Master Weaver in the grass basket and cousin sister to Thanakupi"
"Bawtjethi Western Cape 1988: making kites with Stuart"

"year after year Ina Hall & Thanakupi tell story and speak up law and culture to the Western Cape children & youth"
"Fitzroy Crossing Indigenous Artist: Tazman teaching drawing design in the silk painting workshop"
"Kuranda's Djabubay young man Leelan Snider from the Blakrobats:taking circus skill workshops"
"Thanakupi working with the children to create a performance story for her Bon Fire closing night event"
"Evelyn Roth uses her hand sewing machine to make costumes for the children based on Thanakupi's theme story for this program"
"Thanakupi has always taught traditional dance and language with the children "

"Thanakupi and aunty Ina Hall her cousin, story telling"

Base Camp Team

Tutors  3/6 artists/teachers

3 other blue card adults + first aide adult

Maintenance 1

Cook 1 + team

Vehicle 1

 

Camping for children can vary enormously in design: it can be left to the visiting children and their parent/carers to organize or it can be developed into a whole on site team camp idea

Transport / Bus is important to ferry kids to landscape

 

Fresh water /wood/tarps /one vehicle & community support let the program maintain its 20 years of independence as an artists holiday program for the children of the Western Cape