July 17, 2014
by Marcus Priaulx
Barambah PaCE
Tom Kirk lived on bush tucker, failed school but made a life for himself by facing challenges, taking a step at a time and learning as he went.
Today he runs cultural awareness workshops in Cherbourg and across Australia. He is man who helps people walk in two cultural worlds.
Tom’s mum always told him ‘go on to school now, get educated so you can help your people’.
His dad hunted in the surrounding Brisbane bushland for kangaroo, fish, porcupine and a host of other tucker for the family to survive on.
“Dad was a furniture machinist by trade from Cherbourg but there wasn’t much money in those days and we relied on bush tucker a lot,” Tom, 52, said.
“We weren’t the only ones. There were quite a few Aboriginal people who lived the same.”
Tom’s mum Lynette was from Woorabinda and worked as a secretary with the skills she gained from going to school at Rockhampton Girls Grammar.
When the city life became too much for her, the family moved to Duaringa west of Rockhampton.
Tom went to school every day and loved it.
“It suited my personality,” he said.
At the age of 12 his parents separated but remained friends. Tom went to board at Rockhampton Boys Grammar.
He loved the social life and got involved in everything, but a language barrier meant he achieved little academically.
“I had English but it was broken with a mix of Aboriginal words,” he said.
But he is thankful for school.
“It had a lot to do with the building of my character,” Tom said.
“It allowed me to have a lot of cross cultural experiences.
“I had a lot of friends but I withdrew in class. I’d just sit in the background during lessons.”
Tom graduated from Year 12 in 1979 but “failed” school. He headed to Canberra where his father Tom (senior) now lived.
Tom Snr was keen for his son to work so got him a government public service traineeship shortly after his arrival.
“He didn’t want his son to be unemployed,” Tom said.
He recalled it was an exciting time when Aboriginal rights were being fought for and won.
“There was a lot going on,” he said.
He admitted he told a few fibs about the success of his high school education to get better work around the country, which involved negotiating Native Land Title claims and other government policies.
Tom also did a TAFE business course. He got honours and scores of more than 90 per cent for every subject he did.
“This told me I was bright but just had a language barrier at school,” Tom said.
It gave him confidence and in 1992 he did a course that taught him how to host cultural awareness workshops.
After hosting his first one, Tom thought the work wasn’t for him.
“I found some people’s attitudes quite confronting,” Tom said. “As a facilitator you can’t say ‘you’re an idiot’.”
So he returned to the Queensland public service but found that work left him feeling flat.
He attended a cultural workshop as part of his duties and thought it was rubbish … he knew he could do better.
So Tom rang Chip Morgan, the man who was his original mentor for cultural awareness programs, to say he wanted to begin running such workshops as a business of his own.
That was 15 years ago and Tom hasn’t looked back.
* * *
I took part in a recent Cross Cultural Communications workshop Tom did at Cherbourg, and it was brilliant.
This feeling was mutual amongst both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants.
Tom’s style is engaging and non-threatening. He puts historical events in context, diminishes cultural myths and helps people understand why they, or others, behave in the way they do.
You could hear pennies drop in people’s heads throughout the day and there was plenty of humour.
In a nutshell, it was enlightening.
Tom said people’s attitudes had changed over the years.
He has learned to deal with opinions he doesn’t agree with and stresses everybody is free to express their own values.
“I was doing a workshop in NSW and we were discussing what people thought it meant to be Aboriginal,” Tom said.
“One non-Indigenous participant said ‘it meant you got more money from the dole if you had dogs’.
“Even though you know this statement is incorrect, as a facilitator you pass no judgment. People have to be free to express themselves otherwise we can’t have the opportunity to explore where this myth came from and why the person believed it to be true.
“At the end of the workshop I asked everybody to tell me one thing they would do differently when they left.
“There were a couple of Indigenous people in the course and they said ‘Brother, we’re going to load our ute with dogs and head down to Centrelink’.
“It was funny. Everybody laughed; Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike.”
Tom will present a workshop for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people at the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council training rooms on August 26.
People who would like to attend can book by phoning Council’s community services co-ordinator Edwina Stewart on (07) 4168-1866.
