Northern Territory
Mal and Shelley Galbraith and their children, Jack, Sam and Lily, travelled to the Top End in March 2007. Having previously worked with Fusion in the Blue Mountains, Shelley has begun teaching in an indigenous school and Mal and Shelley have both connected with Fusion friends in establishing work in the Territory.
The initial work of Fusion in the Northern Territory has been focussed around the Arufura Games in early May 2007. A team of around 80 provided Festival activities for the athletes and crowds over the period of 10 days and emerging from this, local people have committed themselves to joining the team in order to see the work established there.
Work has already begun in several secondary schools and in early June the team will run their first Youth Day Trip for young people whom they have met over past weeks.
For enquiries email Mal Galbraith at top_end@fusion.org.au
Arafura Games Festivals 2007
Fusion has been running open crowd festivals across Australia and around the world for many years. The distinctive of an ‘open crowd’ festival is the way in which it embraces and engages those around.
The activities are simple and they are free. It has the effect of building relationships between people in the community who don’t normally communicate, it offers hospitality to people who are marginalised and over the years has been effective in undergirding long-term positive community change.
At the recent Arafura Games, Fusion was asked to provide festivals during the opening night of the games, entertaining the waiting crowd of 3000 athletes from over 36 countries as they queued to enter the stadium for the Opening Night Ceremony. Following this, over a period of two weeks, a group of around 90 volunteers ran 8 festivals in and around Darwin.
Fusion has been asked to consider providing Festivals once more at the next Arafura Games.
