Restoring Coorong culture
by Katrina Kalleske
For the past 11 years, UniSA staff and students along with 200 volunteers from across Australia, have been restoring land as well as cultural understanding at the Coorong in the south east of South Australia.
The Coorong Biodiversity Restoration Project is based at the Coorong Wilderness Lodge and takes in about 200 hectares of old farming land on a peninsula in the Coorong National Park. The project is jointly managed by UniSA and the Indigenous owners of the Lodge, the Ngarrindjeri people.
Jelina
Haines, a student volunteer involved in the project for the past seven
years, has her keen business mind focused on turning it into a viable
business.
Haines completed a Graduate Certificate in Business Information Management at UniSA last year and is now undertaking a Master of Management (Arts and Cultural Management). In addition, she is taking on external studies with WA’s Curtin University for her Bachelor of Arts specialising in textile/fibre art.
Joan Gibbs, Lecturer with UniSA’s School of Natural and Built Environments and the founder of the Coorong project, said that Haines has added a whole new dimension to the project.
"She has turned the project into one with business potential," Gibbs said. "She has a strong business brain and is putting it to great use with the Coorong project.
"We run two workshops every year about the project to teach the public about cultural awareness and land restoration.
"Jelina is now the project coordinator for those workshops and she has also introduced an environmental art component into the workshop."
The workshops explore the work being undertaken by the many people who are involved with restoring the Coorong land using a mix of traditional Aboriginal techniques along with ecological methods. In addition to these workshops, Haines also runs her own textile art workshops at the nearby Camp Coorong using wherever possible, naturally occurring materials and processes.
Haines’ husband has worked at her side as a consultant for several of her workshops as well as with the Coorong Biodiversity Restoration Project.
"It’s good to get commitment and support from other members of my family," she says.
Haines is a mature age student who grew up in tumultuous conditions in the Philippines, and while she admits that frequent visits to the Coorong (about a three-hour drive from Adelaide), along with her study and family commitments make her life chaotic, she says she thoroughly enjoys and values all these aspects of her life.
"In my culture, having a good education is the most important asset that you can have and no one can take that away from you," she says.
"I want to help prove that education is not just for clever people or for those who can afford it, but that the opportunity is there, right in front of us, under any circumstances."
Haines was recently surprised with a nomination for the Women’s Achievement Award under the arts category of the Gawler District Zonta Club. She was awarded a Commendation Award from SA Great, and then a Zonta Scholarship, which helped her buy some textbooks.
"I was very surprised by the nomination," she said. "I feel fulfilled by being able to use my knowledge and skills in art and project management to create and implement a community-based project that could have huge benefits for the community."