MEMORIES OF SCHOOL JUNE 2004

Name Anita Camfoo

(When I was enrolled at the school I was enrolled as Anita Painter)

Dates: I was here at the school in the 1970s from pre-school to Year 12. About 20 of us went to Kormilda but I only went for a few months. Neil Williams was the Principal then. He was my maths teacher.

Subjects English was my favourite subject. I loved spelling and reading. I hated Maths. I used to come up with a lot of excuses when it was time for maths. Our teacher, Mr Ridell used to make us work really hard, make us stand up and say our times tables each morning. I used to make excuses like ‘Can I go to the toilet?’, or ‘I’ve got a headache’, and guess what …. I used to get away with it sometimes. I hated maths.

Teachers I remember Margaret Geike. She was always pushing us, wanting us to really learn. If we didn’t have on our uniform we had to go home. Uniforms had to be worn by the whole school. We looked really good in our red shirts and red and shite wraparound skirts.

I think uniforms are a good idea.

Culture I loved doing cultural activities at school. Old people would teach us. We used to have a lot of elders then – more than 10 old people. They would take us out to collect the right pandanus, use the right dye. We started off with something really small and every Friday we would make it bigger and bigger. They would take us to the swimming pool (down the river) sometimes.

The boys would be taken out bush and make didjeridoo and do bark painting and make spears.

In those days culture was really strong. We’d be divided into language groups such as Dalabon, Jawoyn, Mayili, Mangarrai. My language group was dalabon, the biggest. We learned a lot of language like all the names of the animals. Our class went for traditional

Friends My friends were Rachel Willika and Bernadette. We used to have lots of fun. We would get together after school, go to the shop to get some nibbles, then off to the swimming pool to swim and play. We would walk around everywhere, up to the piggery farm and the chicken farm. We used to have lots of chickens and eggs. My eldest father was in charge. There was a mulberry tree and lots of custard apple trees, and gooseberry trees.

We talked about what we’d do when we’d grow up and leave school. We were sitting down in the school ground and I said ‘Well, when I’m old enough and when I leave school I want to work in the library.’ We asked each other if we were going to smoke and drink and we all said ‘No smoking, no drinking’. I remember Bernadette, she said ‘I won’t be smoking and I won’t be drinking.’ Well, we didn’t all stick to that but we used to be so sure when we said that. It was so funny.

Sports and games I liked sport. I was not really good at anything special. Softball was my favourite sport. Tania Tiati’s mother who died was good at sport – there were lots of good ones – some moved away now.

We had a red and white sports at the school, one red team and one white team. I was in the white team. There was the Katherine Regional Sports in those days. Lots of Aboriginal Community teams came and we had long jump, high jump, sprints, javelin. We used to win all the time.

Excursions and Entertainment We had a Russian mob come to Barunga and Pipis Storm Circus.

In the 1970s we went to Adelaide for 2 weeks. One week was at Mr Dunstall’s farm. We went rabbit hunting, shearing sheep. Some of the boys were shearing and the sheep was bleeding. We rolled up the wool and spread it out. The weather was freezing.

The next week we stayed at Pennington Hostel where the Vietnamese people were staying. We used to play marbles with the Vietnamese kids. Mr Varley took us into the city. We visited a Planetarium. One part Mr Varley ran. He said ‘All right, once we get to this road you will have to catch up’. Maybe we were too slow, walking, you know, looking in the window. Mr Varley ran and as soon as he ran we had to chase him. Everyone had to stop and wait for us.

Reflections Worries? I didn’t have a single worry in those days. My father was a strict man. All he wanted was for us to learn at school and in our traditional way. Now, I what I worry about for my kids is missing out on the opportunity that my father gave me when I was young. That’s the thing that worries me, and drugs, especially smoking.

My schooling was a very happy time. The only bad times I remember were some teasing things but they only lasted a few days.

Advice to Choose the right friends.
young people Definitely finish school. Don’t do your studies when you’re married

Or when you’ve got little children. It was hard for me to repeatr Year 12 to study with a little boy. It would have been easy as a single person.

The future I’ve been teaching here for four or five years. Sometimes I think maybe I might move somewhere, maybe I should try Katherine out, or go to Bulman to my father’s country.

I do feel fond of this school. I was born and bred here. What would I like for this place? I’d like to see more kids and I would especially like looking at our own people running things. Will I be the next Principal here? ‘I don’t think so ……. I’ve still got a lot of learning to do yet.’