“For me, growing up on Boigu Island was like living in heaven on earth”, says indigenous evangelist, Laurel Pabai.

Located in the northernmost tip of Queensland’s Torres Strait Islands and just six kilometres from Papua New Guinea, Boigu Island is where Laurel was born and raised, among idyllic natural beauty, within the love and strength of her indigenous culture and community.

This week on our Helping Hands Easter special, we join Laurel as she returns home for the first time in 20 years.  We journey with her through emotional reunions with family, see her reconnect to indigenous tradition and culture, and see how she shares the Easter story with family and friends.

As the tiny single turboprop Cessna aircraft starts its descent towards Boigu Island’s airstrip, Laurel’s excited anticipation at being so close to home is evident in the upturned corners of her wide smile and the joy in her eyes. They reflect happy memories of home bubbling ever closer to the surface of her mind.

Once on the ground, Laurel immediately sees changes and improvements in her community. It now has many “Queenslander” style homes (raised off the ground so the flow of cool air can bring relief from the intense tropical heat), plantations of fruits and vegetables to sustain daily life, and greater employment, evidenced by buildings for a supermarket, ranger headquarters and a police station.

“The yarning circle of the First Nations Peoples of Australia is (for) storytelling and the passing of culture to the younger generations.”

“Time flies! You know, I get busy with my evangelism work. You’re not realising that there are family that are getting old because in your head you are thinking they are still young! It’s exciting. It’s a great time to come back and really get reconnected back into the culture … To us, culture is a way of life.”

While reliving childhood memories and reflecting on culture, Laurel invites us into a yarning circle.

“The yarning circle of the First Nations Peoples of Australia is (for) storytelling and the passing of culture to the younger generations,” says island elder, Uncle Fred Pabai, “making sure that our culture is alive … It’s the survival kit to the community to maintain and to be able to come together as one and unite.”

Storytelling is an importance part of all indigenous cultures across Australia, Uncle Fred says it is how indigenous people share and learn important cultural knowledge and history.

Uncle Fred acknowledges the role the Christian faith plays in the Boigu Island indigenous community, and invites Laurel to share the Easter story.

“With the Christian faith coming in, it’s good for the community,” says Laurel, referencing the Easter story as a light in the darkness that brings joy.

Laurel shares the Easter story in plain English, using an Easter story booklet produced by Bible League. The Plain English Version (PEV) of the Bible is an English translation designed for Indigenous Australian’s whose mother tongue is an Aboriginal language.

“It’s written in English,” says Laurel, “and it is easy to understand because it’s written in the English that we speak,” continues Laurel.

Laurel and Uncle Fred read the Easter story in English and talk about the Easter story in their native language.

“Because of the way it’s written, they now understand what the true meaning of Easter is.”

See the BIBLE LEAGUE – EASTER AT BOIGU ISLAND story and the full catalogue of Helping Hands documentaries at helpinghands.tv. Catch up on full episodes of Helping Hands on 9NOW.

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

Feature image: Supplied

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

“More than a handful of good friends is nearly too much because we can’t do the give and take,” says Raewyn Elsegood, a chaplain in sport and self-confessed seeker of friendships and community.

Raewyn is joined in this Helping Hands panel discussion by psychologist, Collett Smart; and teacher, Rod Braine, to discuss why friendships are so important to us.

A good friend is someone for whom you are willing to jump out of bed in the middle of the night, Raewyn illustrates. But the deep level of trust and commitment in such a friendship doesn’t happen instantly.

Raewyn’s dearest friendships have begun through the sharing of a common interest and evolved from there by simply being willing to turn up consistently.

“I look at my own husband … standing on the sideline (of a sports ground). We’ve made some of our best friends just supporting our children … Because he kept turning up, he worked out that the guy next to him had the same interest in old cars, so he gravitated to him next time.”

Proximity is one of the most significant contributors to building friendships, confirms Collett. The phenomenon is so significant, she teaches students about it in her university lectures.

However, as much as we are made for relationship, Collett adds, we shouldn’t expect to build and maintain more than one or two deep friendships if we hope to keep life and all its priorities in balance.

“It’s (only) those one or two close relationships that I can really spend some time investing in, because I also need downtime, and my family’s very precious to me … It doesn’t mean you’re not there for others, or you wouldn’t reach out to others … but it’s good for our wellbeing as a whole.”

We start practicing the art of creating deep friendships in our childhoods, says Rod. For students transitioning from primary school to high school, Rod explains, camps are run early in the year and a wide range of activities consistently offered, assisting students to find friendships during a time that can be uncertain for many.

“You arrive in Year 7 … people sort of stand around awkwardly, then they’ll gravitate towards a sporting activity, or some other type of fun activity that they’re doing at the school. You sort of ‘try on’ friendships … you see whether it works, or it doesn’t work, and that can be a difficult process.”

No matter what stage of life we find ourselves, it’s the depth of connection, concludes Collett, that makes a friendship flourish. But all deep and trust-filled friendships are also the product of time.

“Time is where you start. You can’t hope to have a good friend or a close friend in a month or two. It’s just not going to happen. You need to spend time with that person, investing in them, getting to know them, sharing things with them, challenging each other. And that takes months, sometimes years.”

See the IMPORTANCE OF FRIENDSHIPS discussion and the full catalogue of Helping Hands panels at helpinghands.tv. Catch up on full episodes of Helping Hands on 9NOW.

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

Feature image: Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

“I’ve interviewed the CEOs of Bunnings, ANZ and Microsoft … they really are humble people. And I think that humility allows other people to copy that approach, but also it’s inclusive,” explains mental health speaker and advocate, Graeme Cowan.

Graeme is speaking about his observations while speaking with high-flying CEOs for his podcast, The Caring CEO. He is joined in this Helping Hands panel discussion by psychologist, Collett Smart; and CEO of Charitabl., Mike Gore, to discuss what it looks like to respect authority figures and be respectful in a role of authority at home, in social settings and in the workplace.

What was once a role of command and control in the workplace, Graeme explains, has transformed into a responsibility to champion a culture of care and a culture of high performance. The result, says Graeme, has been a hugely positive shift for all involved.

“They’re not trying to dominate a discussion … The very very best ones (CEOs) are trying to identify the best idea in the room. And that can only come from multiple people working together, not a command and control.”

When people feel heard, Graeme adds, it fosters an environment of psychological safety. Employees are happier, and as a result, are more likely to take ownership over their responsibilities and to reflect that same behaviour towards their superiors and co-workers.

The same parameters of safety in relation to authority should also apply, says Mike, to the social situations in which we find ourselves. With vulnerability, he explains that this has sadly not always been his experience.

Adopted as a six-month old, Mike explains that he “grew up as a brown kid in a white family.” He has dealt with racial abuse all his life, including from figures of authority, and as recently as just a few months ago.

Yet, despite the lack of respect he’s been shown, at times, by society’s authority figures, Mike carries the strong conviction to teach his two teenage daughters that all people deserve to be treated with respect, even when it’s not reciprocated.

“I think that’s one of the real wrestles … It requires courage, conviction, character (to show respect in all situations) because sometimes you need to see above the issue, particularly when you’re leading others, about how to respect authority in social or corporate settings.”

To hold a position of authority, Mike concludes, shouldn’t necessarily be equated with the expectation of holding control of a person or situation, and Collett agrees.

In today’s family households, Collett says, healthy relationships depend on the development of an environment in which children continually learn to engage respectfully with their parents over matters that are important to them.

While holding respectful authority over your children, rules still exist, but they are in place for the sake of a child’s safety, not their punishment. And when those boundaries of authority inevitably need to shift, change is made easier because the child knows their feelings are valued and their voice will be heard.

“In the home, your children learn what it looks like to have healthy disagreements without somebody flying off the handle or demanding that their way is met … as they get older that is how they deal with other people – they learn to listen and they learn to respond respectfully and they learn to disagree respectfully.”

See the RESPECTING AUTHORITY FIGURES discussion and the full catalogue of Helping Hands panels at helpinghands.tv. Catch up on full episodes of Helping Hands on 9NOW.

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

Feature image: Canva

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.