Friday 6/7/12

It's pretty much our last day up north with the Desert Feet Tour.

We are setting up for a 4:00pm concert which will be my last. The Desert Feet Tour will continue for 3 more weeks until the end of July and they will be heading out to several of the remote Indigenous communities to teach the kids music and give them music equipment for them to use.

The first community- Yandeyarra- was amazing with all the school equipment and the teachers' devotion. The teachers would prepare twice daily meals for the kids while they were at school. School ran from 8:30am until 2:00pm, packing in 1 and a half hours of literacy work as well as an hour and a half of maths while the rest of the time was dedicated towards lunchtime and recess on an average day. The school was run by the Government unlike the school in Warralong, which was run by a few adults and community members.

The kids at Yandeyarra tended to speak with English rather than with their natural language and some of the kids were very fluent. Down in Warralong, it was a different story. Most of the adults defaulted to their own language which the kids followed naturally but most of the kids could speak English but they were just shy is all.

It has been a magnificent trip up here, cruising along with the Desert Feet Tour and helping out all the communities. It was especially great to see that last year, the Desert Feet Tour had given the communities some instruments and one year later they have created 10 songs of their own which are now going to go commercial. This year the Desert Feet Tour has given each of the communities plenty of instruments to last them.

If anyone wants to find out more information about the Desert Feet Tour or how to support it, visit www.desertfeettour.com or to see the Head of the tour's blog go to http://www.damienthornber.com.