A local walk to see our local community, the landmarks and landscape that are familiar through the different eyes – the eyes of the local Aboriginal people.

Starting at the Walter Taylor Bridge and ending down at the mouth of Benarrawa (Oxley Creek) we ask ourselves - “What was here before white settlement and what continues to be here without our seeing it.” The aim of this walk is to build a bridge between what we understand as the history of this Country and the understanding of the Traditional Custodians to build our shared history.

We have created a culture walk resource that can be shared with other organisations/schools/groups/individuals to enable interested people to be able to the walk in own time and adapt it in any way that is meaningful.

We usually facilitate at least one walk/year with anyone who is interested during the cooler months of the year. If it is done in its entirety it takes approximately 3 hours with stops along the way.

“A song for people on Country. The song is a collaborative creation by music teachers, students, Yagarabul (Yuggera) Elders and a music producer as part of a RQIS song project – they would love to see it shared. Please contact your local Elders/ Language Custodians to have the chorus translated into the language of your country if you are not on Yagara Country (Yuggera)."

Please contact us if you would like a copy of this booklet and we can email it to you.

“In 1996 the community development workers at Benarrawa worked in partnership with the Brisbane City Council’s Community Development Team West on the Community Development and Social Planning Study for the Local Area Plan for the southern part of Walter Taylor Ward. Members of the Solidarity Group were astonished to find that there was little known officially and so little recognition of the Aboriginal heritage in this area prior to European settlement.

The dream for this project was to reclaim our community’s consciousness of the Aboriginal history of our local area, Benarrawa. When we started our journey back through the surviving historical records and stories, we had no idea we would wander so many different windy pathways before completing this booklet.”

Please contact Benarrawa CDA for a FREE copy.

This is an article titled: Benarrawa Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Solidarity Group: working to reduce the deleterious effects of racism through structural community development’ by Athena Lathouras and Dyann Ross.

Twice yearly the CD workers publish a newsletter called ‘Benbits’. In this you can find updates on the auspice groups, public events, management committee news, date claimers, project work, community notices etc. Please let us know if you would like to contribute to this newsletter and/or obtain a recent copy.

A case study written by Lathouras, T & Ross, D. It is located in the journal called ‘International Community Development Practice’.

Edited by: McConnell, C, Muia, D & Clarke, A. Routledge, pp. 190-193

Please contact us for a copy of this article that focusses on the work of the Benarrawa Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Solidarity Group.

We have a youtube channel where we at times upload videos of our community events and project work. We would like to acknowledge everyone who has helped us do this to enable the practice wisdom at Benarrawa to be shared with others.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHLqPHs8e4h_MhBH9tGmiiA

Or please just search in youtube for ‘Benarrawa Community Development Association’ and subscribe to our channel.

We regularly create and update our events page via facebook. This is for all our public events that we help facilitate. We also share interesting news articles and share other community information and events happening that folks might be interested in. Please use the link in this website or you can search for Benarrawa Community Development Association using this - https://www.facebook.com/Benarrawa

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Uncle John Tatten was commissioned to paint a painting to accompany the naming of Benarrawa CDA in the mid 1990s. He gave permission for the image to be used to create scarves for the Benarrawa choir. They are now available for any community member to purchase for CASH only - $20.00. Please contact us to find out how to purchase.

The intentional community development practice of doorknocking began during the Covid-19 pandemic as a response to social isolation and loneliness experienced by Public Housing residents and is now embedded in Benarrawa Community Development Association’s Strategic Plan 2022-26 as a key tool. It has also been foundational to engaging, resourcing, and connecting Oxley and Corinda residents, affected by the 2022 flood event, and building community recovery, resilience, response, and preparedness as part of our flood outreach resilience project. Our aim in writing this article was to impart the actions we took in this little project and share the simple practice model we developed, in the hope that it can be replicated in other communities.

Please contact us for a copy of the full article. We recommend that people who are interested in community development practice please sign up to the ‘New Community Journal’ - https://nc.org.au/

The purpose of this article was to share key aspects of our participatory practice alongside and with the Benarrawa Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Solidarity group, which forms part of the base/roots of Benarrawa CDA. In this article, we explore various community development processes that have been developed over 30 years of intentional grassroots practice. These processes have assisted non-Indigenous workers and community members in connecting with and building relationships with First Nations peoples, Elders and cultural workers. We have framed these under the headings: use of art, ceremony/ritual, connection to place/Country, reciprocal relationships, song and intentional dialogue (Lathouras & Ross, 2017).

Please contact us for a copy of this article. We recommend those who are interested in learning more about community evelopment best practice that you sign up to the New Community Journal - https://nc.org.au/